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Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the White House on Thursday morning pushed back on calls he resign or recuse himself from a federal investigation into Russia's influencing the election.

It was revealed Wednesday night that while Sessions testified at his Senate confirmation hearing that he did not have contact with Russians during the campign he, in fact did — twice. The Washington Post, which broke the news, revealed that he had personally communicated with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Since then, Democratic and Republican members of Congress have called for Sessions to no longer participate in the FBI investigation — or step down altogether for not revealing the contacts.

“I have not had met with any Russians at any time to discuss any political campaign. And those remarks are unbelievable to me and are false,” Sessions told NBC News on Thursday morning.

“I’ve said that whenever it’s appropriate, I will recuse myself,” he added. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Watch Sessions' statement here.

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White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, in a statement released Thursday morning, called the issue “the latest attack against the Trump Administration by partisan Democrats” — even though Republicans are calling for him to be held accountable as well.

Sanders added that it was “no surprise Senator Al Franken is pushing this story immediately following President Trump’s successful address to the nation.”

Sessions’ statement Thursday is yet another iteration of his description of his contact with Russian officials.

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On Jan. 10, Sen. Al Franken from Minnesota asked Sessions what he would do if he learned that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign had been in contact with Russian officials during the campaign.

During that hearing, Sessions claimed that he was “not aware of any of those activities.”

He went on to say, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”

Sessions also responded Wednesday night, saying, “I never met with any Russian officials to discuss issues of the campaign,” Sessions said. “I have no idea what this allegation is about. It is false.”

More members of Congress chimed in on Thursday morning, including, including the House Oversight Committee Chairman and the House Majority Leader.

Jason Chaffetz, a Republican who heads the House Oversight Committee, tweeted Thursday morning that Sessions should “clarify his testimony and recuse himself.”

And GOP Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told MSNBC that he didn’t see anything “serious” about Sessions’ recollection of his meeting with Russian Ambassador, but maintained that he should clarify what the meetings were, and why he had them.

“I just think for any investigation going forward, you want to make sure everybody trusts the investigation,” he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Sessions to resign on Thursday, and said the Justice Department needs to appoint a special prosecutor to continue the investigation.

When asked directly if that objective would require Sessions’ recusal, McCarthy said, “I think it’d be easier at that standpoint, yes.”

US Sen. from Missouri Claire McCaskill, in an apparent attempt to discredit Sessions’ claims that he only met with Russian ambassadors in his capacity as a member of the Armed Services Committee, tweeted Thursday morning that she had not met with any Russian officials in her 10 years on the committee.

People on Twitter point out, however, that McCaskill had not only met with the Russian ambassador on at least two occasions, but tweeted about them.

When asked on CNN on Thursday if he thought Sessions had lied to him during his confirmation hearing, Sen. Franken said, “I would say at the very least this was extremely misleading.”

The senator added that he initially posed the question expecting Sessions to state that he would recuse himself from the investigation if he felt it necessary.

“Whether he in his head thought that he was answering whether he had talked to any Russians about the campaign, then he should have said so,” Franken said.

“He should have said, ‘I met with the Russian ambassador a couple times, but we didn't discuss the campaign.’ But then his office shouldn't come out with an explanation saying he talked with the Russian ambassador but doesn't remember what they talked about.”

LINK: Attorney General Sessions Told Congress He Had “No Contact” With Russians. But He Met Their Ambassador Twice.

LINK: Here Are The Members Of Congress Calling For Sessions To Recuse Himself Or Resign

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