Sessions vows to stay ‘as long as appropriate’
AG reeling after being slammed by Trump over Russia recusal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s staff is used to his complaints about Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but the Republican senators who attended a White House dinner Monday were stunned to hear him criticize the man who was once Trump’s most loyal supporter in the Senate.
It turned out to be a preview of even more cutting remarks Trump would make two days later in an interview with the New York Times: an extraordinary public expression of dissatisfaction with one of his top aides based on Sessions’ decision in March to recuse himself from the expanding federal investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
Despite Trump’s avowal in the interview that he would not have picked Sessions if he had known he would recuse himself, Sessions said Thursday that he intended to serve “as long as that is appropriate.” And a spokeswoman for Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, tried to moderate her boss’ remarks, telling reporters later, “Clearly, he has confidence in him, or he would not be the attorney general.”
But even if Sessions remains in his job, the relationship between him and Trump is unlikely to ever be the same, according to a half-dozen people close to Trump. And this is not the typical Trump administration feud.
Sessions was the president’s first Cabinet appointment. As attorney general, he has taken on as broad a policy purview as any member of the Cabinet, with an ambitious law-and-order agenda — much admired by conservatives — that is focused on ending illegal immigration, attacking urban crime and restarting the Republican Party’s 30-year-old devotion to a “war on drugs.”
But for Trump, preoccupied by investigations he believes are unfairly aimed at him, Sessions’ decision seems impossible to forgive.
“Everything that is happening was triggered by Sessions’ recusal,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Trump political adviser whose own activities are being scrutinized by investigators.
“The president initially bonded with Sessions because he saw him as a tough guy,” said Stone, who has urged Sessions to investigate Obama-era officials instead of Trump campaign operatives. “Now he’s saying: ‘Where’s my tough guy? Why doesn’t he have my back?’”
“There’s a lack of aggressiveness with Sessions, unless it involves chasing people for smoking pot,” he added, referring to the attorney general’s recent focus on marijuana offenses.
Former colleagues expressed sympathy for Sessions on Thursday for having to deal with the mercurial Trump.
“Watching Sen. Sessions for the six years we served together, he never seemed particularly taken aback by anybody criticizing a position he took or a position that was uniquely his,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “He was often the only voice on an issue and had no problem being the only voice.”