Warren performs an about-face on Sessions
Senator had called for ex-AG to resign but now warns of dire consequences
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is sounding the alarm on President Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, contradicting her own call for Sessions to resign last year. Warren accused Sessions of violating the terms of his recusal from the Russia investigation in a tweet storm from June 13, 2017. Among at least a half-dozen tweets, Warren wrote: “As our top law enforcement officer, the AG must be truthful and uphold the law. Sessions cannot continue to serve. He should resign.” The U.S. Senator flipped a switch during a freewheeling post-election press conference yesterday, telling reporters that Trump is trying to “foam the runway” by firing the attorney general. “It seems pretty obvious to me, Jeff Session has been with Donald Trump on every single issue except the fact that Sessions has protected the special prosecutor in a time when Donald Trump is under investigation and obviously doesn’t like that,” Warren said yesterday. This means that the spotlight should “turn immediately to Congress and that the Senate and the House should immediately pass legislation by overwhelming majorities to protect the special prosecutor,” according to Warren. Warren pointed fingers at Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, for having “assured the country multiple times” that the special prosecutor is fully protected, and stated that this should be a bipartisan issue due to the ongoing investigation. “The president of the United States should not be in a position to influence it or to be able to shut it down,” Warren said of the investigation. “This is a rule-oflaw question. No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. That’s why we need to protect the special prosecutor.” At her campaign headquarters in Dorchester, Warren also doubled down on her promise to “take a hard look” at running for the White House in 2020 now that the midterms are over. “I said I would take a hard look and I will,” Warren said, adding that she does not have a timeline on the decision. Warren said she is “very excited” about taking back the House of Representatives after the midterm election, a reversal that lands Massachusetts lawmakers in key positions of power. “We’re going to have a lot more allies for the issues that we care deeply about in Massachusetts,” Warren said. “There are more women than ever who will be in Congress and more people who have run on issues we care about.”