Posted on 07/25/2017 7:33:44 PM PDT by Bratch
When President Trump made his initial remarks reflecting disappointment in Attorney General Jeff Sessions it was initially unnerving. The subsequent fallout from the public criticism has united the NeverTrump crowd, Cruzbots and professionally GOPe, to defend the honor of the much beloved former Senator. The opportunity to bash Trump is simply an ancillary benefit.
Conversely, the MAGA community has largely portrayed the rift as if the Presidential critique was part of a larger strategy between the President and Attorney General. If we wait long enough some mysterious master plan will eventually to be discovered.
However, the subsequent POTUS tweets and comments do not indicate any joint strategy at all. What they do actually show is a genuine disappointment and frustration with the focus of Jeff Sessions; and the cabinet member’s apparent unwillingness to confront the corruption within the DOJ and by extension the larger DC swamp.
It is not accidental the frustration and disappointment surface as the various opposition groups to the Trump presidency begin to target the entire Trump family. Despite some opinion to the contrary, Donald Trump does have a nuclear trigger point; target his family and you’ll find it quick. Just ask anyone who has known him for any substantive amount of time.
President Trump affirms his ‘confidence’ in Jeff Sessions’ ability to do the swamp draining and simultaneously expresses ‘disappointment’ that AG Sessions chooses not to. Confidence and disappointment are not mutually exclusive sentiments.
Under the former administration the Department of Justice was weaponized politically and legally by the executive branch against ordinary American citizens. A political example is the joint efforts between the DOJ and IRS to target political opposition, the Tea Party and organizations like True the Vote.
The legal examples of DOJ weaponization extend from “Fast and Furious” gun running ops to the targeting of the manufacturer of Gibson Guitar, and to legal cases involving local police departments like Ferguson Missouri, Baltimore Maryland and individuals like George Zimmerman. These are only a few examples; there are many more.
Attorneys’ General Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder did not participate in these examples alone. Under their guidance there exists a myriad of corrupt officials, black hats within the DOJ, who participated in all aspects of the weaponization.
This underlying corrupt architecture is what Jeff Sessions is choosing to ignore. This is the source of Trump’s frustration and disappointment. These deep state black hats within the DOJ are transparently not being confronted; meanwhile AG Sessions is running around the country with Rod Rosenstein holding pressers and proclaiming victories.
Yes, it’s great to finally have a law enforcement agenda with border policy, drug enforcement, and the capture of criminal enterprises with pedophile rings and human trafficking. Yes, all of that is great. However, there’s a larger issue at DOJ central where the refusal to confront the corrupt aspects within the organization only serves to fuel and enable the continuance of a corrupt swamp in Washington DC.
The corrupt institutional system that AG Sessions is apparently refusing to confront, are now targeting the personal family of the presidency. What usefulness is there in winning the small stuff if Sessions is refusing to confront the larger and more dangerous systemic corruption.
President Trump is an existential threat to the entire apparatus of the DC swamp. And so far AG Sessions appears content to ignore, or at best is prioritizing confrontation with the swamp at a much lower level of importance.
The commentary by President Trump should be considered against the totality of this backdrop. Winter is here; the time for confrontation is now. Mild mannerisms are not a valuable skill-set when engaged in epic confrontation. President Trump was not elected to nibble around the edges nor does his possess such a tempered disposition toward half-measures leaving the effort to someone else.
As a consequence, President Trump won’t let up on the pressure being applied to Jeff Sessions until the Attorney General agrees to clean his own house (and neighborhood) before journeying off to distant needs and righteous law enforcement endeavors. The most important battle is in Washington DC. So long as Sessions ignores this issue the pressure will remain.
Eventually, if the historic track repeats, Jeff Sessions will tender his resignation and an important heart-to-heart meeting of purpose will follow.
Whether that resignation is accepted or not will be entirely dependent on the disposition and willingness of Attorney General Jeff Sessions to confront the corrupt enterprise that has encircled Washington DC and metastasized its bile.
The Attorney General might not actually possess the skills, the instincts, to lead that disinfecting endeavor; or he might not desire to participate in an epic battle of such a politically adversarial nature.
Winter is here.
The choice will ultimately be his.
Love that cruz/beck pick
I am wrong. Oops.
You are wrong... Trump’s voters have been on a tin ear wondering why Sessions has not gone after hillary and those who are openly criminals... going after Trump who they can’t prove a thing, and leaving hillary off the hook... we have been livid!
“He might not desire to participate in an epic battle of such a politically adversarial nature.” True.
Mattis can help in this department. So can the writers at Strategy Page. American politics are solved by going back to Constitution and common sense.
Sesssion has my support and needs prayers to defeat Culture of Death in DC.
Sundance has my support and he gets some credit for defeating Hillary.
You go girl!!!!
Sessions has to find his nut sack or gtfo
Btw, there are more aggressive people out there that can fill the AG spot. We’ll see.
I guess in the next couple of days we’ll see who is more correct—LS or Sundance.
They both have impressed me with their insight and analysis of politics.
Trump is running into the same issues every president has faced. Even if he is the President he doesn’t have the effective reach of a business exec. The bureaucracy is too convoluted. If he just manages to weed out and roll back the exec. branch excesses and off the rail ops, he will have been a success. He’s dealing with a mess that took 70 years to build.
Sessions, as far as I can tell, did not think that Trump was serious about draining the swamp. He expected a few small things for the media but nothing major. Now he is finding out that business as usual is not acceptable to his boss. He had to choose between his old buddies in the senate and this upstart outsider who just does not understand how things are done. He is choosing poorly.
I look for Trump to fire Sessions sometime after the senate goes into recess and do a recess appointment of someone who has no friends in Washington DC. He will be ordered to pull the plug on the swamp.
Big problem for Sessions is that he has (alleged) "allies" telling the media (according to the media, so could be fake news) that he basically knows Trump wants him to resign, has found Trump's tweets "offensive," but is going to "stay strong" and not resign anyway.
If all that is true, then Trump is correct to attack Sessions since he is in open rebellion against the President. A humble servant of the President would have resigned the moment it became clear he lost the confidence of POTUS. If the split between those two is real, it's clear it's because Sessions is refusing to bring the offensive against the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton, when that is what is most needed.
Was not Trump explicit when hiring Sessions that the whole DOJ swamp needed to be cleaned? Obama hired Holder and Lynch who did Obama's bidding and happily pushed his marxist agenda, in total agreement with him. They would never think of recusing themselves from anything. WHY is it SO hard for Republicans to act with the same purpose and commitment?
If Sessions knows Trump wants him to resign, and if the reports are true that Sessions is going to "stand strong" anyway, then it means Trump's criticisms are valid, since Sessions is disobeying the President. Having people approach the media to complain about being treated bad by the President, and to say he knows Trump wants him to resign, is not the behavior of a humble servant of the President.
This is the elephant in the room and why elitist "Oh, Trump is such a jackass" knee jerk reactions are short sighted.
Luckily, this was always a minority position despite being predominant on social media forums. History has shown Trump supporters aren't going around pearl clutching when fights break out or sacred cows are poked.
That list may be appearing very soon, courtesy of that "same old tiresome reality", and were it not condensed into a "short list", there would doubtless be a line of "balled and eager" applicants going out the door and down the street...
Levin, the original Never Trumper?? Dude nearly capsized his boat on that one but I’m glad he saw the light.
Nobody is one hundred percent accurate. Rush, Levin, and even Sundance but Levin has to own his ill-fated love for the titanic called Cruz.
Watch Sessions, a nice man who I greatly respect, stick it out as AG, taking the hits from Trump’s tweet storms, until Chris Christie is through being governor of New Jersey. Everybody is pandering for Giuliani to step in. Big mistake. Giuliani is a self-important person who enjoyed the spotlight, but doesn’t know how to share it. He fired an excellent police commissioner for getting too much press. Whoever is going to go after the swamp has to be ready to go to the mattresses and know how to convict and make that conviction stick. If you look into the convictions of Giuliani and Preet, they look good on paper but don’t stand up on appeal. We don’t need big headlines, we need a ruthless bastard to go after the swamp and make sure they never get out. I think it would be foolish not to trust Trump. He knows where he’s got to get to, and he’s surrounded by a whole lot of swamp in the White House right now. Rome wasn’t built in a day. It has to be overwhelming to deal with all of these government employees when you’re used to dealing with people of your choosing who want to please you. I expect to see lots of shake ups and leavings at all levels as Trump gets his own people in place. I think we’re going to enjoy watching another Lyndon Johnson twisting both sides to his will, given a little time. I don’t think Sessions has the stomach for what is to come.
Hmm I think you might have forgotten to mention that Levin had some major issues with Sundance because Sundance did a couple articles that pointed out the conflict of interest with Levin and his future son-in-law working on Cruz campaign and something about Levin’s books sales...I am not sure Sundance was correct, but Levin was definitely upset about that.
Not sure what was going on with Levin during the election season, but it was weird! He even came on FR during one of his shows and was pretty shrill with some of us...
I am glad Levin (tho late to the party) decided to repeal his “I will never vote for Trump, Period” comment in September stating he would vote for Trump, and he seems to have returned to being a more objective commentator on the news...
I have recently begun listening to his program again because he does offer in-depth analysis on the Constitutionality of some of the current actions of Congress, the Supremes, etc.
BTW, I have not read where anyone here has said Sundance’s reports were poorly researched.
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