Oklahoma delegation tells Trump: Don’t fire Sessions
As President Donald Trump continued his public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week, Oklahomans in Congress gave some unsolicited advice to the president: Don’t fire him.
Trump has used his Twitter account to call Sessions “very weak” on stopping leakers of confidential information and to urge him to prosecute Trump’s former political opponent, Hillary Clinton. He is also angry Sessions recused himself from an investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Sessions, a longtime senator before his attorney general nomination, has been defended on Capitol Hill by his former Republican colleagues.
“He’s doing what an attorney general needs to do,” said U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, during an appearance on Fox News on Wednesday night. “He needs to be allowed to do that.”
Lankford defended investigations into the Trump campaign, one of which is being conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which he is a member. Lankford said Sessions was right to recuse himself from any investigations into the campaign and Russia.
“Jeff Sessions is firmly within the law. The law does not allow him to be involved in a Russia investigation because of his role during the campaign,” Lankford said. “He needs to recuse himself, should recuse himself, but that doesn’t mean the investigation’s going to be unfair.”
Lankford said Sessions is not Trump’s “personal goalie” and should be allowed to continue in his role as attorney general without interference from the White House.
During a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, called Sessions “my hero” and said he “ought to remain in that office.”
“I’ve never known a person I respect more and that’s what bothers me,” he said. “We have a president who’s doing a good job and the only area where I disagree with him is he’s got this fight going with Jeff Sessions.”
Inhofe, who has known Sessions since the mid-1980s, called the division between Sessions and Trump “probably the most awkward situation I’ve been in before.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, told the Washington Post that Trump’s criticisms of Sessions amount to a “public flogging” of the attorney general.
“Don’t throw a hand grenade down here on Capitol Hill and think you’re not going to get some splinters yourself,” Cole told the newspaper.
The congressman recommended Trump meet with Sessions, voice his concerns and make changes as needed. The president should not attempt to sidestep investigations into his former campaign, Cole said.
“These investigations are going to happen,” he added. “They’re in motion in the Senate, they’re in motion in the House, and they’re in motion by the special counsel. And if you think you’re going to avoid them, you’re making a mistake, in my view. You would be creating a new issue, and you would be confirming the worst suspicions of your enemies and raise doubt among your friends.”
Lankford also recommended Trump work out his disagreements with Sessions privately.
“The people who work for me and around me, if I have a problem, we sit down in my office and we get a chance to be able to talk through it and to settle it,” Lankford said. “I don’t go to the media to be able to solve those issues.”