U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, saying, “I don’t have an attorney-general.”
Mr. Trump, in a Hill.TV interview released on Wednesday, said that he’s “so sad over Jeff Sessions,” whom he has repeatedly denounced for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.
“He was the first senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be attorney-general, and I didn’t see it,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office interview. “And then he went through the nominating process and he did very poorly. I mean, he was mixed up and confused and people that worked with him for, you know, a long time in the Senate were not nice to him, but he was giving very confusing answers. Answers that should have been easily answered.”
The President softened his stand slightly when talking to reporters on the White House lawn hours after the interview’s publication, saying, “I’m disappointed in the Attorney-General for numerous reasons, but we have an Attorney-General.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly asserted that Mr. Sessions, a former U.S. senator from Alabama, did not need to step away from the Russia probe, a move the President believes in part led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, suggested Mr. Sessions’s rocky Senate confirmation hearings may have affected his performance as Attorney-General.
“He gets in and probably because of the experience that he had going through the nominating when somebody asked him the first question about Hillary Clinton or something he said, ‘I recuse myself, I recuse myself,'" Mr. Trump said.
U.S. Department of Justice guidelines recommended the Attorney-General step away because of his own contacts with foreign government officials during his time with the 2016 Trump campaign. Mr. Sessions told the U.S. Congress his decision was not due to any wrongdoing.
Mr. Trump also broadened his attacks beyond the recusal, saying he’s unhappy with Mr. Sessions’s performance on several issues.
“I’m not happy at the border. I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this,” Mr. Trump said in the interview.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained publicly and privately about Mr. Sessions, pushing him to curtail the Mueller probe, urging him to investigate Ms. Clinton and suggesting he should drop investigations into Republican lawmakers until after the November midterm elections. He also said he does not feel as though Mr. Sessions supports him as former attorneys-general Eric Holder and Bobby Kennedy backed presidents Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, respectively.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly considered firing Mr. Sessions, the United States' top law enforcement officer, only to be opposed by aides who think a dismissal would upend the Russia investigation, conservatives who applaud Mr. Sessions’s hard-line stances at the Justice Department and Republican senators who have said they would not confirm a replacement.
However, there have been cracks in that blockade of late. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who once fought for Mr. Sessions, recently said the President was “entitled to having an attorney-general he has faith in” while other Trump allies have suggested a move could be made after the midterms.
Mr. Sessions recently punched back against Mr. Trump, saying he and his department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” And Mr. Sessions has made clear to associates he has no intention of leaving his job voluntarily despite Mr. Trump’s constant criticism.
Mr. Trump said in the interview “we’ll see what happens” with Mr. Sessions’s future.
“We’ll see how it goes with Jeff,” Mr. Trump continued. “I’m very disappointed in Jeff. Very disappointed.”