At one time Sessions was this Californian’s favorite
senator. As AG I could almost give him a pass on
his recusal. What really sticks in my throat is that
as a Trump ally Sessions should have tendered his AG
resignation along with his recusal.
Bingo.
“What really sticks in my throat is that as a Trump ally Sessions should have tendered his AG resignation along with
his recusal.”
Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker of the NY Times reported back in June of 2017 that Sessions offered to resign; obviously not the same day as his recusal but sometime in the 3rd month following:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/us/politics/jeff-sessions-donald-trump.html
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign in recent weeks as he told President Trump he needed the freedom to do his job, according to two people who were briefed on the discussion.
The president turned down the offer, but on Tuesday, the White House declined to say whether Mr. Trump still had confidence in his attorney general.
“I have not had that discussion with him,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, told reporters, responding to questions about whether the president had soured on Mr. Sessions.
Mr. Spicer’s remarks came after The New York Times reported that Mr. Trump had vented intermittently about Mr. Sessions since the attorney general recused himself from any Russia-related investigations conducted by the Justice Department. Mr. Trump has fumed to allies and advisers ever since, suggesting that Mr. Sessions’s decision was needless.
He has also blamed Mr. Sessions for the fallout from an executive order that the president signed for a travel ban on seven primarily Muslim countries, which courts have blocked.
The situation between Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump has grown so tense that the attorney general told Mr. Trump in recent weeks that he needed the freedom to do his job and that he could resign if that was what was wanted, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House matters. Mr. Trump did not take him up on the offer.
One person familiar with the events, who asked not to be identified, said that the discussion in which Mr. Sessions offered to leave his job took place in the days leading up to Mr. Trump’s nine-day foreign trip last month.
A spokesman for Mr. Sessions declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The frustration at times goes both ways. Mr. Sessions was upset in March when the president tapped Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey to lead a task force on the opioids crisis without consulting the attorney general first, according to an administration official who asked not to be named discussing internal matters.
The offer by Mr. Sessions to discuss resigning, however lightly he made it, was surprising from one of the president’s earliest and most vocal supporters. Mr. Sessions’s former spokesman, Stephen Miller, is now Mr. Trump’s main speechwriter and a policy adviser.
But two people close to the president said Mr. Trump does not want to replace Mr. Sessions.
The president is said to be aware of the potential fallout of trying to get another attorney general through a confirmation hearing and that in the interim, he would be left with Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who recommended a special counsel for the Russia inquiry.
Edmund Demarche of Fox News reported the same story:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reports-sessions-offered-to-resign-amid-tensions-with-trump
The relationship between President Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has become so frayed, Sessions recently suggested that he could resign from his post, multiple media reports said on Tuesday.
Trump reportedly turned down the offer. The reported offer was not a formal one, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump has been angry with Sessions— one of his most vocal and earliest supporters— ever since Sessions recused himself in March from the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Moscow and Trump campaign aides.
Sean Spicer, the top White House spokesman, declined to say Tuesday whether Trump has confidence in Sessions.
“I have not had that discussion with him,” Spicer told reporters during a White House briefing, adding: “if I haven’t had a discussion with him about a subject, I tend not to speak about it.”
Charles Krauthammer, a contributor on Fox News, told “Special Report” that the last time Spicer said he did not speak to Trump about a member of his administration, then-FBI Director James Comey was fired days later.
“This is really bad,” Krauthammer said. He went on, “If you can’t absorb this one issue on which he disagrees and you have to get rid of him, no one is safe (in the White House).”
ABC News reported that the frustrations between Trump and Sessions is mutual. The Justice Department declined to comment for the ABC report. FoxNews.com could not immediately confirm reports.
The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that Sessions told Trump that he needed more freedom to do his job successfully and he could resign if that was what Trump wanted.
A source told the paper the conversation occurred right before Trump’s overseas trip.
On Monday, Trump took to Twitter to publicly criticize the department’s legal strategy in defending his proposed travel ban barring the entry of people from certain Muslim-majority countries.
“The Justice Dept. should have stayed with the original Travel Ban, not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted to S.C.,” Trump tweeted Monday, ignoring the fact that he oversees the department and signed the second version of the ban.
“The Justice Dept. should ask for an expedited hearing of the watered down Travel Ban before the Supreme Court - & seek much tougher version!” he added.
Trump has denied any collusion with Russia, deriding the story as a “witch hunt” and “fake news” invented to explain away the Democrats’ loss in November.
WaPo, WSJ, Vox, CNN, NPR, Politico, CNBC, NBC, UK Telegraph, all ran the same report in June 2017.