President Trump Hits Back at Democrats With Photo of Chuck Schumer and Vladimir Putin

Amid growing calls from Democrats for an investigation into the Trump administration‘s ties to Russia, the President tweeted an old photo of Chuck Schumer with Vladimir Putin and called the top Senate Democrat a “hypocrite.”

“We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite!” Trump tweeted Friday afternoon, with an accompanying photo of Schumer and the Russian president eating doughnuts together.

The photo is from Putin’s 2003 trip to New York for the opening of a Russian gas company’s station, The Hill reports.

Schumer fired back on Twitter, writing, “Happily talk re: my contact w Mr. Putin & his associates, took place in ’03 in full view of press & public under oath. Would you &your team?”

The online spat comes after revelations that Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. twice in 2016, which he did not disclose during his confirmation hearing. Sessions said Thursday he would recuse himself from any investigations into the Trump campaign, but he denies any wrongdoing in meeting with Russia. Still, the disclosure fanned the fire under Schumer and other Democrats calling for an independent probe into Trump’s relationship with Russia.

“We have an obligation to get to the truth,” Schumer said in a press conference Thursday calling for an independent prosecutor to conduct an investigation. “We must evaluate the scope of Russia’s interference in our elections and assess if agents of their government have penetrated to the highest level of our government. Nothing less than the sanctity of our dear democratic process, the primacy of rule of law, and the integrity of our executive branch is at stake.”