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 ...
Really?
Rod Rosenstein works for the media?
I agree.
Sen. Sessions has some ‘splanin’ to do.
I agree with your post and support Sessions. Why would you broadcast who you are going after to the MSM?
No he isn't. He is a disaster. Trump himself regrets appointing him.
I hope Sessions does not resign.
I do.
It would be a disaster.
It will be difficult politically, but Trump can make a recess appointment of a new Attorney General.
Trump owes his victory to Sessions who provided him the template for the win.
That is a bunch of BS. Trump wrote the template for his victory, and it was all Trump. He carried the water, he paid the price, he took the lead, he won the victory. Your statement is completely insane.
And his early support brought many conservatives to the Trump team.
Agree, but since then, Sessions has been nothing but a hinderance. He hung the President out to dry. Trump knows this. Did you even read the article?
Comey’s leaks had a great deal to do with the appointment of a Special Counsel. This was a setup even before Trump took office. Comey was writing up notes after every meeting. The Trump campaign was under investigation by the FBI in July 2016 based on the Steele Dossier. Obama, Brennan, and Clapper were all part of it.
About time.
There is absolutely ZERO evidence that a secret cabal of lawyers at the Justice Department who are taking on Obama, Hillary, Podesta, Lynch, Rice, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, et all.
Zero.
No testimony to Congress. No subpoenas. No Grand Juries. No leaks to the press. No warrants. No team of lawyers hired. Nothing.
To believe that there is an effective investigative team taking on the Deep State at this point is chocolate unicorns and rainbows.
Donald J. Trump has always spoken bluntly. It's a central facet of his character, one which has served him well throughout his life.
He's about as candid and direct a person as you will ever meet, and I don't fault him for being brutally honest in saying this about Jess Sessions. I have no doubt it's exactly how he feels.
I'm not sure what the President's strategy is in saying this, or if Jeff Sessions knew these comments were coming, but it's a testimony to Donald Trump's supreme self-confidence in what he's doing and what he believes in.
It's astounding candor, but I don't think he was speaking thoughtlessly. This is something many people still don't realize about him. Many shockingly blunt things that Donald Trump says are nonetheless well-considered, and intended for a specific purpose. That fact should not be flippantly disregarded.
Sorry. Don’t read NYT.
How do you know that? We now have a Justice Department that does not disclose active investigations.
This is where we can see the difference between Freepers who know how the U.S. Justice Department works and those who insist that criminal investigations should be carried out like WWE events.
I have been hoping for awhile that there was all kinds of “stuff” going on and that soon we’d be hearing about arrests. I had visions of Clinton/Obama and the rest of the criminals high tailing it out of the country as fast as possible. I don’t know how long this would take, but I lose hope as time goes by and MAJOR issues are no longer discussed.....unmasking names, Clinton Cash, uranium deals with Russia, spying, on and on. Nothing. Ever. Happens.
Another person I’d like to have an update on because I don’t feel anything is going on is Dr. Carson. I really like him - has he managed to implement anything earth shattering for the less fortunate in the black neighborhoods?
It looks like a classic "loss of confidence" statement designed to encourage Sessions to offer his resignation so that Trump isn't seen as firing him.
-PJ
Unless he’s making it easier because they plan on swooping down and freezing up the Clinton Foundation cash, I agree with you.
Oh please, Donald Trump does not owe his victory To Jeff Sessions. It was the evangelical Christians who turned out en masse that put him into office.
Was he an asset at the time? Yes, but I’ve not seen anything out of him that makes me feel that he understands the seriousness of the Deep State’s criminality in this nation.
No, it would not be a disaster for Sessions to be removed, in fact, I would welcome it.
Sessions hasn’t even fired McCabe despite multiple investigations into his questionable activity.
I long to see a Giuliani in that position of AG, because Jeff Sessions just doesn’t seem to have what it takes to drain the swamp.
He wants to go back to war on marijuana. That horse left barn long time ago.
People keep saying that, but Trump himself flip/flopped on prosecuting Hillary after he won the election, saying she'd been through enough. Does anyone know where Trump stands on that now? It is a political as much as a legal decision.
Replace him with, let’s see,.... Mueller! D.C. would go nuckin’ futs!
Sessions is without a doubt Trump’s biggest mistake. An absolute disaster.
Yeah. Hopefully, he will just take the hint and quit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.