Trump turns up the heat on Attorney General Jeff Sessions
WASHINGTON — The White House offered up the drama of a TV show’s season finale Tuesday as President Donald Trump allowed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to twist in the wind of widespread speculation that he would not last on the job.
The next question: If Sessions quits under fire or is canned, will Trump pick a replacement who will fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller?
Trump put Sessions on his gallows-watch list last week when the president told the New York Times that he regretted appointing the former Alabama senator to be the country’s top lawman. Trump said he never would have picked Sessions if he had said that he would recuse himself from a Department of Justice probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
On Monday, Trump turned up the heat when he called Sessions “beleaguered.” Tuesday Trump tweeted that Sessions had “taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes” – which led Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to criticize the president for suggesting Sessions “pursue prosecution of a former political rival.”
Trump also told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Tuesday that he is “looking” at the possibility of firing Sessions.
After Sessions recused himself, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI chief Mueller to be special counsel in charge of the investigation.
While it is the consensus of the intelligence community that Russian officials tried to tilt the election in Trump’s favor, the president has dismissed the probe as a “witch hunt” conceived by Democrats’ inability to face the reality of his November victory.
Sessions’ fate continued to bubble to the top as Trump finally had pushed Senate Republicans to take the first step on a seven-year campaign promise to repeal Obamacare with a close 51-50 vote.
Senators stand by Sessions
At the same time, Sessions’ former colleagues in the Senate stood by him Tuesday. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., issued a statement that praised Sessions’ integrity.
“While some may argue that he should not have recused himself from the Russia investigation, Attorney General Sessions demonstrated good judgment by doing so and removed all appearances of a potential conflict,” Tillis wrote.
In February 2016, Sessions became the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump – an event pivotal in the newcomer’s success in the GOP primary. The two found common ground in their support for tougher enforcement of federal immigration law and their opposition to sanctuary cities. Both men also disagreed with President Barack Obama’s push to relax enforcement of federal drug laws and reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.
Trump, however, downplayed Sessions’ campaign contribution in the interview with The Wall Street Journal. Trump argued that Sessions was a senator who saw Trump had the support of 40,000 Alabamans, “and he probably says, ‘What do I have to lose?’ And he endorsed me. So it’s not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, would not speculate about whether Trump’s ultimate goal is to fire Mueller. He said it seems clear that Trump is angry at Sessions for removing himself from “an investigation that is getting closer and closer to the president and his family.”
Tuesday morning, Trump son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner testified in a closed hearing before the House committee. Swalwell maintained that Kushner’s testimony, and an 11-page statement he released Monday, raise a number of questions.
Trump’s treatment of an appointee whom many conservatives see as the president’s most successful Cabinet pick could cost him support among the GOP base. Former U.S. Attorney Bill Otis frowned at Trump’s call for Sessions to investigate Clinton.
“Republicans like me did a lot of criticizing of Barack Obama and (his Attorney General) Eric Holder for politicizing the Department of Justice,” Otis noted.
‘A pretty good hockey goalie’
But earlier Tuesday morning, Trump’s new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, praised Holder. “He was a pretty good hockey goalie for the president,” Scaramucci told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt. “He was also willing to help the president inside the bounds of the law.” Sessions and Trump “don’t have that sort of relationship,” Scaramucci said.
Scaramucci then asked Hewitt, a law school graduate, if he was “available to be the attorney general.”
Meanwhile, the White House press office saw its first personnel change since Scaramucci replaced Sean Spicer as communications director. After a morning of reports that he had been fired, Senior Assistant Press Secretary Michael Short submitted his resignation.
Reporters also asked spokeswoman Heather Nauert about Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s absence over the last couple of days and reports of Tillerson’s dissatisfaction with the job.
Nauert said that Tillerson was “just taking a little time off” and that stories about him resigning are false. She noted that he has meetings scheduled for the rest of the week.
“Everyone loves to report on palace intrigue stories,” Nauert added. “The secretary is committed to staying, and I’ll leave it at that.”
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or at 202-662-7391. Follow @ DebraJSaunders on Twitter.
Justice nominee backs Sessions
President Donald Trump's pick for a top Justice Department position is defending Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
Brian Benczkowski, tapped to lead the department's criminal division, said during his Tuesday confirmation hearing that he did not know on what information Sessions based his recusal. But he says he has "every confidence he reviewed the facts, he applied the law, and he made the right decision for the department on that basis."
Trump last week delivered a rebuke of Sessions' recusal, saying he never would have hired him for attorney general if he had known he would step aside from the probe.
The Associated Press
