CNN REPORTER STRIPPED OF CREDENTIALS
CLASH WITH TRUMP: WHITE HOUSE TERMS HIS BEHAVIOUR DISGUSTING
US President Donald Trump fired attorney general Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, the day after being handed an unwelcome midterm poll verdict.
While the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives, Trump made a desperate bid to spin the bittersweet results into an outright victory.
Trump also warned Democrats, who won the House handsomely, against launching investigations against him and his presidency, as some of them have indicated they will, saying at a White House news conference that he will retaliate with his own probes that could lead to a “warlike” situation.
Democrats won 223 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, going up from 194 in the 2016 polls. The Republicans slipped to 193 from 241. Republicans, however, retained control of the Senate with a 51-44 win. Two members were elected as independents.
“It was a big day yesterday, incredible day,” Trump told reporters. “Last night, the Republican party defied history to expand our Senate majority while significantly beating expectations in the House.”
He added, “I thought it was very close to a complete victory.”
Sessions’ firing, which was somewhat expected at the midterm polls, may have set up the president’s first confrontation with the new House.
Many Democrats explicitly warned after the announcement that the dismissal should not become the first step towards shutting down Special Counsel Robert Muller’s Russia meddling probe that Trump has called a “witch-hunt”.
A key reason for their concern is the fact that the man the president picked to succeed Sessions in an interim capacity, Mathew Whitaker, the former attorney general’s chief of staff, and not the official number two, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who instituted the special counsel probe.
Whitaker is a known critic of the investigation and has publicly suggested choking it out of business.
“We are pleased to announce that Matthew Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become the new Acting Attorney General of the US,” Trump said in a tweet, adding, “We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.”
Sessions had been on Trump’s exit list for most of his term. On Twitter, Trump announced Sessions’ exit as well as the interim arrangement. Trump had his Chief of Staff John Kelly call up the former attorney general to ask for his resignation. Sessions sent in his resignation shortly, making it clear he was quitting because he had been asked to.
The pushback from the Democrats buoyed by their victory overnight was swift and sharp. “It is impossible to read Attorney General Sessions’ firing as anything other than another blatant attempt by @realDonaldTrump to undermine & end Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation,” tweeted Nancy Pelosi, who is the senior-most Democrat in the outgoing House who expects to head the new House as Speaker.