Posted on 07/19/2017 6:14:34 PM PDT by SkyPilot
President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”
In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.
In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the president also accused James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Mr. Trump criticized both the acting F.B.I. director who has been filling in since Mr. Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Mr. Trump never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. But he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I think Christopher Wray is a democrat. The minute democrats started praising him I wondered who on earth did the vetting on him, He’ll be a disaster. Still can’t figure out why in the world Guiliani or Christy didn’t get the AG job or FBI director.
Wrong, Rosenstein claims no Political Party, but worked under Obama eight years. Yeah, a Republican appointed Mueller. Yeah-right.
Who did not see this coming? Sessions was a respectable Senator, who had solid conservative creds. However, I do not remember him as being a fighter, feisty, or controversial. He was not known to stand up to the the establishment, but seemed to get along with GOPe leadership.
It should have been predictable that he would follow such a gentle approach as AG. I guess the appointment was a political reward for a very crucial southern endorsement for Trump during the elections, and not to put a strong fighter that Trump need in that role.
Granny could have done better.
“Russia was caught trying to interfere in the election.”
I am so glad you are here. Now, maybe you can tell us exactly how Russia interfered in the election. Evidently no one else knows. Russian interference is a concept frequently referred to, but NEVER quite described in detail as to how they did it.
Not once during his Testimony did Sessions back the President. The man is a mouse.
When I don't hear "leaks" from the U.S. Justice Department in THIS administration (and I put "leaks" in quotes because many of them are deliberate leaks of false information), I actually feel confident that they are doing their jobs well.
Some Freepers remember at leas a thousand Super Secret, Super Genius plans of GW and the result.
Do you know of a time that at outgoing crooked administration has ever been prosecuted or even indicted?
If this quote is accurate, it is stupid of Trump. If he wants Sessions to resign, just walk up to him and ask for his resignation. What good does it do to embarrass him in public? It will just make every other staff person see that if Trump throws Sessions under the bus so easily, he’ll have no loyalty to me either.
All true.
And it must change, because the Deep State is engaged in an open attempt at a coup d'etat against a duly elected President who won office with the votes of 63 million Americans.
“When he took the job, he had no idea he was going to have to recuse himself.”
He did not have to recuse himself. It was a personal choice. And, he never even bothered to inform Trump beforehand.
You and I and a few others are a minority of that view. I still hold it.
In my mind, meaning the way this affects my attitude and perspective of Trump, not that anybody else should feel the same way, but in my head, this is like GWB nominating Harriet Miers. A window into the mind of GWB.
It is what it is, but it hasn't played out yet.
Sessions allegiance is to the rule of law. Not the president.
Waiting for Junior’s perp walk now...
It was white, blue collar workers in MI, WI, OH, and PA that put him into office. Trump's focus on immigration and trade won him many votes from former Obama Dem voters.
Sessions hasn’t even fired McCabe despite multiple investigations into his questionable activity.
Sessions has been in office for about four months. His deputy was only confirmed at the end of April. Comey was fired on May 9, 2017. McCabe has been acting until Wray can be confirmed. McCabe reports to Rosenstein not Sessions.
If Sessions resigns as I now expect him to do, what happens to Rosenstein? This is starting to look like the Saturday massacre.
-PJ
If Sessions had any class he would offer up his resignation in short order - not holding my breath for that to happen though. And to think I actually thought this was a great choice when Trump first picked him. We need somebody like Rudy in there, not this has been who seems lost and just not up to the job.
Not so subtle message to Sessions: “Time to go, we have work to do and you aren’t up to the tasks ahead.” Subtext: “Please go on your own, I don’t need the kind of BS firing you would bring to me!”
Where is the same criticism of Rosenstein -- from either President Trump or from Sessions' detractors here on FreeRepublic?
He revealed that HUD had misplaced half a Billion dollars, since then nothing.
I, like many, had hoped that Sessions realized what a precarious position our nation is in. We are on the verge of civil war, and for good to prevail, evil must be held accountable and punished.
Instead, Sessions wanted to act like an attorney general would act in 1981, instead of 2018.
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