It is really quite remarkable. A sitting President of the United States attacking his own Attorney General.
President Trump has long expressed regret over naming Jeff Sessions to be attorney general because he suggested Sessions failed to protect him by recusing himself from the government’s continuing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections and any possible coordination with members of Trump’s campaign.
“I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” aired this morning. “Jeff Sessions never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”
The president later asked: “What kind of man is this.”
Sessions pushed back against Trump’s attack, and said that he would not be influenced by politics in the job.
“While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” Sessions said in a rare public statement. “I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action.”
If the battle lines were not previously drawn, they are now.
Sessions stated his unwavering commitment to nation’s laws and his support for the federal investigators and prosecutors who enforce them. By contrast, Trump expressed what he found most valuable — loyalty — and how he thought one of the key tools for law enforcement, “flipping” and cooperating with federal prosecutors, “almost ought to be outlawed.”
Republicans in Congress are seemingly lining up to have Trump’s back.
Two key GOP senators signaled to Trump today that he could fire Sessions after the midterm elections in November, a move that would open the way for firing Robert Mueller or constraining his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.