Posted on 07/28/2017 9:44:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
Given the bravery he showed in stepping out front as the first senator to endorse Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions deserves better from his boss than the Twitter-trashing he has lately received.
The attorney general has not only been loyal to Trump and his agenda, he has the respect and affection of ex-colleagues in Congress and, more broadly, of populists and conservatives nationally.
Trump's tweets about Sessions are only demoralizing his base.
Yet the president is not wrong to be exasperated and enraged.
A yearlong FBI investigation into Russian hacking has failed to produce a single indictment. Yet the president watches impotently as a special counsel pulls together a lethal force, inside his own administration, whose undeclared ambition is to bring him down.
Trump's behavior suggests that he sees the Mueller threat as potentially mortal.
How did we get to this peril point when there is no evidence that Trump or any senior aide colluded in the hacking?
As for the June 2016 meeting with the Russians, called by Donald Trump Jr. when told by a friend that Moscow had dirt on Hillary Clinton, even that was no crime.
Foolish, yes; criminal, no. So, again, how did we get to where talk of impeachment and presidential pardons fills the air?
First, Attorney General Sessions, as a campaign adviser and surrogate for Trump who had met with the Russian ambassador, had to recuse himself from the investigation. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein then assumed oversight authority.
Trump then fired FBI Director James Comey and boasted to Russia's foreign minister about having gotten the "crazy nut job" off his case. His Oval Office comments leaked. Comey then leaked notes of his meeting with Trump. Rosenstein then washed his hands of the mess by naming a special counsel.
And he chose a bulldog, ex-FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Hence, where are we? Despite zero evidence of Trump or his aides colluding in the hacking, a counterintelligence investigation is evolving into a criminal investigation. Mueller is now hiring veteran investigators and prosecutors specializing in white-collar crime.
This is not a witch hunt. It is an Easter egg hunt on the White House lawn, where the most colorful eggs are likely to be the tax returns and the financial records of Trump, who built a real estate empire in a town where winners brag about how they gutted the losers.
Every enemy of Trump is going to be dropping the dime on him to Mueller. Moreover, there is no history of special counsels being appointed and applauded by the press, who went home without taking scalps. Trump understands this. Reports of his frustration and rage suggest that he knows he has been maneuvered, partly by his own mistakes, into a kill box from which there may be no bloodless exit.
What Trump needs is a leader at Justice who will confine the Mueller investigation to the Russian hacking, and keep Mueller's men from roaming until they hit prosecutorial pay dirt.
Consider now Trump's narrowing options.
He can fire Jeff Sessions. But that will enrage Trump's base to whom the senator is a loyal soldier. And anyone Trump nominates as AG would not be confirmed unless he or she pledged not to interfere with Mueller.
He could direct Rosenstein to fire Mueller. But Rosenstein would assume the Elliot Richardson role in the Saturday Night Massacre, when that AG refused to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, resigned, and was canonized as a martyr by the Never-Nixon media.
Even if Trump finds a Justice Department loyalist to play the role of Solicitor General Robert Bork, who carried out Nixon's orders and fired Cox, this would only mean Mueller's departure. Mueller's staff of prosecutors and investigators would still be there, beavering away.
When Archibald Cox was fired, Nixon ordered his entire office shut down. Yet, within days of the firestorm, it was up and running again with a new special prosecutor. And impeachment resolutions were blossoming in the House.
Another Trump option would be to leave Mueller alone and hope for a benign outcome. But from reports of his rage at the recusal of Sessions and unwillingness of Rosenstein to restrict Mueller to the Russian hacking scandal, Trump seems to sense that an unrestricted investigation represents a mortal threat to his presidency.
And all the talk of impeachment and pardons suggests that this city can also see what lies over the next hill. After all, we have been here before.
From his history, Mueller is not a man to be intimidated by charges of bias. These will only steel his resolve to pursue with his subpoena power every document he wants, including tax returns, until he has satisfied himself.
The president is unlikely to view this process with indulgence, and patience does not appear to rank high among his virtues.
We are headed for a collision between President Trump and Director Mueller.
Investigate Mueller and his merry band of Clinton loyalists, just to make sure they’re not guilty of something. That’ll keep them busy, maybe busy enough to slow them down some.
Pat has been right more than he has been wrong.
And honestly, Trump has given them more than enough rope to hang. He needs to stop being his TV personality, and be the CEO.
Laughable. No President Trump is not. And his base is not leaving him.
>>><<<
I see the base as strong as ever and likely to get stronger and expand.
President Trump is quickly nominating US Attorneys and Judges, at a pace far exceeding what Obama did by this point in his administration.
Now, who do y'all think selected these judges and US attorneys for President Trump?
Sessions should have checked with President Trump before recusing himself from all things Russia, but the blame for Mueller belongs solely to the squishy Rosenstein. That wimp was way out line!
True, but there was no crime...a requirement of the statute :(
Exactly.
This is the way out.
If you can’t handle the truth then go hide under a table somewhere. Draining the swamp is ugly business.
This is all on Sessions.
He fell into the liberal trap of trying to virtue-signal by recusing himself.
But he did it unnecessarily and prematurely and didn’t have the foresight or respect to discuss it with the president beforehand.
Part of his job is to protect the government and the presidency from unwarranted, unfounded political attacks.
Democrats can’t believe how easy he rolled over.
He failed and he put the president in the kill box.
He should do one of two things.
Unrecuse himself.
Or resign.
Forgot to mention that Priebus got the recommendation for Rosenstein from Elijah Cummings! :(
Ditto. They sound like a middle schooler’s tweets. The office deserves more respect than tweets, MHO.
No, I don’t think Trump is being stung, although they’re trying. Trump has a built-in immunity to Leftist “stings” and is able instead to turn their stingers on themselves.
Despite the nay-sayers, Trump won the primary against all odds and all “stingers”. Despite the nay-sayers, he then won the general against all odds and all “stingers”. And now, despite the nay-sayers, Trump will win against these Lying Leftists and the Deep State oppostion to his MAGA efforts.
It’s Deep State Washington D.C. vs. Trump and the Deep State is outnumbered.
Just watch. By October, Trump’s opposition will have greatly subsided and America will once again be on the winning side as Trump continues to vanquish the Left.
Why? Why does the impossible continue to happen? Same reason the impossible happened in 1776 - the God of Divine Providence is on America’s side.
Trump’s doing just fine being Trump.
Your complaint is the same one we heard throughout the campaign. Thank God Trump is his own man and doesn’t listen to that political b/s.
As far as Pat goes, he has some fatal flaws. He’s got a certain political and economic myopia. Let’s just put like that.
You have got to be kidding.
Amateurish? Really? I suggest you review the long list of accomplishments that President Trump has effected to date, despite the used ass-wipes in the “majority party” that is pretending to be Congress - there’s your “amateurs.”
Perhaps you need to go hang with the other snowflakes and pear clutchers at DU?
I continue to think that Trump and Sessions are fine.
***
He’s done similar things before, re: sacking Comey.
I wouldn’t be surprised if what you say is true.
But no matter how it plays out, the President has earned my trust and I’ll back him in his decisions.
Real question: was or is Pat Buchanan a never-Trumper?
And yet he still has ardent supporters here.
My, my, my...
Jesus Christ: You can't impeach Him and He ain't gonna resign.
So you think Trump shouldn't have fired Comey?
If Sessions is not willing to take on the Deep State corruption, then Trump should fire him. It would "further" the goals of the Deep State if he didn't.
The pressure to fire Sessions is due to 1) the Special Counsel, and 2) no apparent action regarding leaks, unmasking, Clinton Foundation, Clinton e-mail, Uranium One, etc.
First dispose of the Special Counsel. The way out is spelled out in the article linked in post 24:
Explicitly and unambiguously, Director Comey described a counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal investigation.The special counsel will disappear. And importantly, it's disappearance does not feed the Democrat's false narratives.Direct Sessions to consider whether his recusal complies with the regulation that limits disqualification to criminal investigations as to which there is a conflict.
Direct Rosenstein to consider whether his appointment of a special counsel complies with the regulations that limit such appointments to criminal investigations and to specify exactly what potential crimes the special counsel is authorized to investigate.
If this were done, if the regulations were followed, all of us, including the president, would know what crimes the president is suspected of committing . . . if there are any.
Next we'll see if there is any action on these other issues. If months go by with nothing visible - no subpoenas, no charges, etc - then fire him.
I think Sessions needs to get his priorities straight and pick up the pace, but firing him at this point in time would be a mistake.
Pretty sure that I what Stone said :(
Really raises eyebrows doesn’t it!!
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