It is early days to speculate whether the Russian connection will turn out to be Donald Trump’s Watergate. The surfacing or the drip-drop of damning evidence has prompted comparisons this week with the Watergate affair that eclipsed President Richard Nixon.

The US President’s address to the joint session of Congress, however mildly reassuring, has been overshadowed by revelations that his attorney-general, Jeff Sessions, had twice spoken with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, during the presidential election campaign.

Not to put too fine a point on it, the interaction with Moscow’s man in Washington marked the Republican candidate’s acquiescence in the Kremlin’s meddling. The President has advanced a strained defence of an embarrassing truth — “This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win. They lost the election and now they have lost their grip on reality.”

Even his attempt to draw a parallel with the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, who was photographed in 2003 enjoying a drink with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has been readily binned as out of context. Such diversionary tactics must rank as a convoluted exercise in self-deception.

The contrived defence would have seemed hilarious were it not for the profound implications. Most particularly, Sessions’ meetings with the ambassador have contradicted his own sworn statements to Congress during his confirmation hearing.

The attorney-general claimed on Thursday that he had met the ambassador in his capacity as a Senator, not as a campaign surrogate. That fine distinction doesn’t alter the fact that electoral overtures had been advanced to Russia. The attorney-general now wants to recuse himself from an investigation into Russian-backed hackers’ interference.

This is self-explanatory and President Trump’s putting up a brave face on his weekend visit to Florida chimes oddly with Sessions playing on the back foot. As Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, has remarked, “Everybody knew that there was something completely out of order that was going on.”

There are two facets to Sessions’ plea for recusal. First, it is an admission that something extraordinary had happened. The recusal appeal has been made by a surrogate of the candidate and for the communication with the Russian government.

Both Trump and Sessions were acutely aware that they were hacking the system. The other aspect is the possibility of perjury, which is punishable by law. Trump has consistently denied business or political ties with Russia but has also been loath to criticise Putin and has raised the prospect of reviewing sanctions against the country.

The plot has thickened and America knows less than a fraction about the election-eve coordination. Well and truly has the 45th President of America succeeded to a depleted inheritance.