Why is Trump attacking Sessions?
Well, it did always seem like one of those marriages that would never last.
Jeff Sessions was one of the earliest Trump supporters, mainly because of immigration. But their histories and personal styles are so at variance that it’s not surprising they’re at odds right now.
And given that personal style of Trump’s, it should not be surprising that this is playing out so publicly. In fact, given the nature of Trump’s usual attacks on people, he’s being rather restrained here although, as Scott Johnson of Powerline writes:
Trump’s public humiliation of his appointed Attorney General is unprecedented. It is unseemly. It is also unnecessary. Trump could privately ask for Sessions’s resignation at any time; Sessions serves at the pleasure of the president. Trump somehow thinks that his public humiliation of Sessions to induce his resignation is preferable to seeking Sessions’s resignation directly.
But anyone who has studied Donald Trump—and I don’t just mean “Donald Trump, President,” but “Donald Trump, human being”—knows that once he decides that someone is his enemy or opponent, or is against him or defying him in some way, he releases the Kraken. Remember what he did in the primaries to Ben Carson and to Ted Cruz’s wife, just to name two? Or to this guy back in his golf course development days? Or this lady who stood in his way in Atlantic City? Makes his treatment of Sessions look like a love tap.
But of course it’s not. It’s a public dressing down when a private one would seem to do, if they have bones of contention (in this case, Sessions’ recusal and less-than-eager pursuit of Hillary’s wrongdoings). Did Trump try the private route, hoping Sessions would change his ways or resign, and only now is going public with it? And what is Trump’s ultimate goal? To get him to resign? To get him to stay on and do Trump’s bidding (or his bidding du jour; Trump’s been somewhat mecurial on the subject of Hillary Clinton and whether she should be investigated and/or prosecuted)? Or does Trump just like to vent his spleen?
I don’t see that any good can come of this, not just on a personal level but on a political one as well. Senators aren’t going to like it; they prefer that their dignity be respected. The public doesn’t seem to like it much, except for the ones who really wouldn’t blink if Trump were to shoot someone on Fifth Avenue. It’s not the sort of behavior that would make the job seem more appealing to any possible replacement for Sessions in the AG job—who would willingly let him or herself in for such treatment, if Trump can do that to such an early loyalist?
I think Trump is frustrated by the slow pace of government and by the way these investigations are hampering him, and he’s striking out in the way that’s familiar to him. I actually think that he feels as though these attacks on Sessions are relatively mild compared to what he’s used to unleashing. I think he believes that, if only Sessions hadn’t recused himself, it would somehow have prevented the appointment of special counsel Mueller. I think he’s accustomed to firing people and/or publicly humiliating them, so this is comfortable territory for him.
I think these are problems for a president and will be problems for this president, particularly if the GOP members of the Senate start turning on him.
[NOTE: If you want to see some of today’s coverage of the Trump/Sessions battle, here’s plenty of it.]
Glenn Reynolds has an article in the USA Today that asserts that Sessions should be fired for bringing back the civil forfeiture laws. He starts with the sentence “Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to steal from you.”, and goes on from there.
Alan W:
Irrelevant.
I already wrote a post about Sessions and the forfeiture laws. I’m not in favor. Almost no one is in favor. If Trump fired Sessions for that, that would be a different story. That’s not what’s been happening. That’s not what I’m describing here.
In fact, there’s evidence that Trump supports Sessions on the forfeiture laws.
is now too late to bring rudy giuliani in to replace Sessions? Giuliani would definitely go after Obama and Hillary hard.
I think the incessant and vicious attacks have taken a toll on Trump. Maybe Schumer and his media accomplices know their man, and realize that he will react, and over react. For awhile, it looked as though he had them on the run; but, now it seems to be turning.
I feel sorry for President Trump. Despite his personal faults, I believe that he is trying to do the right things; and could be good for the country. The Congressional Divas (Senate in particular), the out of control bureaucracy, the sleazy media, and, of course, the Democrat obstructionists, have combined to frustrate him. I speak of his personal faults; but, I am not at all certain that any human could tolerate, with anything approaching equanimity, what he has faced over the past six months.
A friend recently emailed a copy of former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm’s 2004 speech “plan to destroy America”. It sounds eerily prophetic; but, the Governor did not even address the ramifications of the government and the media trying to bring down an elected President within his first six months.
Trump his hurting himself and his ability to get Congress to push his agenda. However, he has very little, if any, self control. He must realize many in the GOP would be happy with a President Pence, so ruffling feathers via twitter rants makes no sense.
By going public in this way, is a flashing light on trump’s own insecurity and lack of confidence.
Why doesn’t he man up and, face to face with Sessions, tell him his concerns, and then fire him if he must?
It is complete passive aggressive B.S. to complain on twitter, for someone who would have us believe he is some great leader, that “Only I can” fix our problems.
Hunh? He can not even fix his own problems.
@Dave – I’ve read somewhere that Giulliani supports Session’s decision to recuse himself.
Don’t think trump would like to hear that.
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Also, wasn’t it trump, a day or two after election day, who said “No” to the crowd who yelled “Lock Her Up!!”?
He cannot be coming at Sessions about not chasing down the clintons after saying that, unless he specifically asked Sessions to proceed on such an effort.
Question is: Did he?
Petulance is not a good management style for an executive. Good management techniques include never use negatives in public, praise in public and correct in private, never make a decision when emotions are high, especially negative, wait at least 24 hours. A good leader works hard to build a team that is successful and if things are not working out make changes in private with dignity, the rest of the crew knows what has been going on and they don’t react well to public flogging.
This current mess with Sessions, who had to be replaced with a special election is making things real weird. A good friend of mine who is a brilliant lawyer, now retired and more of a Democrat than Republican was going off about Trump last week and he said that Sessions should never have recused himself, he said that Sessions was thinking like a lawyer and not a political appointee. He also said that when they start digging into Trump’s business dealings even if they are totally honest the average person will be upset at hundreds of millions of dollars loss carry forward and then hundreds of millions in profit with all sort of offsets and stuff I don’t understand.
Personally I would like to see a bit more finesse in communications coming out of the White House and more positive leadership in congress where things seem to be reactive, each and every day.
And as for all you wonderful folks who read Neo every day, I enjoy reading opinions that differ from mine and I learn a lot but we need not try to call others out with disparaging remarks. Just be like Texans and say “Bless your pea-picking heart”, smile, and keep on moving.
I’ve been surprised Trump has managed as much self-control as he has since the inauguration. It’s hard for me to get worked up about this Sessions business.
Will it make a difference?
Trump has been getting away with abuse all his life, yet he keeps falling upward until he is now the most powerful man on earth.
During the 2016 campaign every two weeks there was some massive story ending with the question, “Is Trump’s campaign finally sunk?”
Stuff works until it doesn’t. I suppose Trump’s presidency could come undone at any moment. On the other hand Obama kept his brand of flim-flam going for eight years.
I don t agree with what Trump is doing re: Sessions, he should have a meeting with him instead of all these negative remarks. It has to be demoralizing for Sessions & embarrassing too.
When the citizens of the United States elected Donald Trump, they elected a billionaire businessman. He is/was not a politician, used it as a positive, and played that for all its worth. It served him well. Now in office, he is acting like the politician he isn’t. He seems to act impulsively and shoot from the hip. If he feels like his positions/policies are not given proper airing, he does not hesitate to use “twitter” to go directly to the citizens, bypassing the media. Naturally the media doesn’t like this and tends to act like a toddler who someone stole his rattle. As a billionaire, running companies with his logo prominently displayed, he is not used to relying on advisers and Cabinet Members for input as is needed in Government. At times, his loyalty seems a mile wide and an inch deep.
At almost 6 months into his Presidency, his administration is still incomplete. Much of this is due to failure of Democrat Senate not confirming nominees. There is no excuse for the failure to get rid of the corrupt IRS Commissioner, who is still in charge of the politicized tax collection organization.
Trump’s being president as opposed to Hillary: 10 out of ten stars.
Trump’s appointing follow-the Constitution-and-the-laws-as-written judges like Gorsuch: 10 out of ten stars.
Trump’s going after Jeff Sessions publicly: WTF??????
The first parochial school I went to was run by Irish nuns and the head nun was a nightmare.
Among other things she would swoop into the classroom and humiliate the teacher in front of the students. My 8th grade teacher broke down in tears during one such session.
Even as a kid I knew that it was wrong to treat subordinates so abusively and even worse to do so in front of others, especially children.
I agree, this is not appropriate behavior. While I am sympathetic in regard to the unreasonable amount and volume of hindrance from outside the White House, and how it would come to affect anyone who is not an android, I also am a big believer that one needs to present a unified front to the outside when faced with an internal situation. There’s at least two very good reasons for this: any fissures are entry points for outside attacks; and without it, eventually there is no internal unity. Nobody, not Trump or any other living human being, can do this job by him or herself.
Re Trump’s “bidding du jour” and Hillary — from the Washington Times, November 16, 2016: “Trump backs off campaign pledge to further investigate Clinton”:
I read an article this morning quoting various GOP senate colleagues of Sessions about how upset they were with Trump for calling out such a “good and decent man”. OK, but the next part of the sentence is what stuck me: “he’s been here for 20 years!” And that, my friends, is exactly why maybe Trump has the right of it. Sessions is part of the good ol’ boys club called the Senate. Nothing gets done because all they want to do is maintain their DC homes and status. Sessions passivity is just a reflection of the “gentlemen’s” Senate.
Term limits is the only thing that will act as a culvert to drain the swamp. They’ll never vote themselves out of office, so it’s a pipe dream.
Trump wants Sessions out. But he’s trying to get Sessions to resign, because if Sessions resigns on his own, Trump can legitimately say it Was Sessions decision. The problem with Trump having fingerprints on the firing is with both parties, not just the Dems.
Interesting piece at the Daily Beast: Jeff Sessions Is Growing ‘Pissed’ at Trump, His Allies Say. And He Doesn’t Plan to Quit:
It’s one more of many mistakes and I suspect a reflection of a fractured inner circle.
There’s a report that Trump had a contentious meeting with SecState Tillerson the other day over certification of the Iran deal. Tillerson is not draining the swamp at State and is resistant to finding Iran to be non-compliant with the deal.
Sessions’ focus on America’s drug problem is a case of misplaced priorities. But at this point, going after Hillary or any highly placed Obama appointee will look like partisan retaliation and be politically disastrous.
It’s disingenuous of Trump to reprimand others for not doing more to drain the swamp, while he keeps on politically corrupt Obama appointees, like the IRS commissioner.
But politically and at this point, Trump can’t afford to get rid of his appointees.
He’s frustrated and getting a lot of bad advice. Add in his personal flaws and we have an administration in chaos.
Even without that, I see enough negatives that, I’m beginning to entertain the possibility that Trump may well not make it through his first term. In which case, the Left will have pulled victory out of defeat.
RINOs joining democrats in forcing Trump out of office will fatally split the Republican party.
A Pres. Pence will play the RINO game and be portrayed by the MSM as seeking to impose his theology upon America by violating the barrier between Church and State. Enough LIVs will buy into it and with a fractured Republican party, we’ll have another democrat Pres. in 2020. Right now it’s looking pretty grim to me.
“Sessions is part of the good ol’ boys club called the Senate.” physicsguy
Not so. At least he’s not a RINO. He’s not part of the GOPe. Just his early support for Trump demonstrates that to be so.
The way I understand it, Sessions was required by law to recuse himself because he was involved in the campaign. I’m also sure Sessions and WH Counsel told POTUS that fact. Therefore being angry at Sessions for his recusal is pointless and plain wrong.
And, of course, Trump can’t fire Mueller and he can’t pardon everyone as there would be a political firestorm.
I think nothing is there. Maybe a minor process crime by Manafort or maybe Flynn re filling out forms. Just let it play out. I am sure of one thing: Mueller and his crew of lawyers want scalps and if they end up with the functional equivalent of a Scooter Libby, it will be a huge win for Trump.
This attack on Sessions is the dark side of Trump that I never liked. Sessions was a huge benefit in the beginning. Sessions, Tillerson, Mnuchin and Mattis are the stars of the Cabinet and untouchable as far as I’m concerned.
To reporters during an interview in the Oval Office today, here’s Trump on Sessions’ endorsement of him early last year:
What to say, other than that Trump is a horrible person.
Thanks for the great comments Ann at 4:56 and Geoffrey at 5:02, — and thanks to Huxley at 4:25 for sharing (but I am eternally grateful to nearly every one of the nuns involved in my upbringing).
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Sessions is sympathetic only because no one wants to be put in his position. Only an unrepentant rogue would do this to his own appointee. But it gathers a LOT of press, and that misdirection is usually what Trump has going on in these situations. My guess is that Sessions and DOJ will enduring withering twitter fire for quite some time. Perhaps Trump plans a massive DOJ house-cleaning — but only after we are all so thoroughly fatigued that even members of the Left will welcome the change. Perhaps he even has a democrat in mind as the new AG. No doubt Mueller will get a pink slip too, so his AG replacement will have to be YUGE. Perhaps Dave @ 3:08 will be right.
@physicsguy – agree on the term limits part.
20 years is too long for anyone. So is the size and scope of government – making the power of the President so critical to control, that each candidate (other than trump) spends $1B trying to get elected.
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There is plenty to disagree with about Sessions – the fact that he was an early endorser of trump is one of them, as it shows his true colors. Asset forfeiture is another.
Wouldn’t miss Sessions per se but for what it portends re: trump.
trumps obsessive reaction to all things russian is strange for a man who is innocent of any wrong doing, and believes in “America First!”.
Most of Trump’s supporters (including me) will back him and have backed him on most everything he’s done so far, no matter how problematic. This is the first exception.
Also, if Sessions were just a good ole boy, and so obviously part of the GOPe, why in the heck would trump hire him?
Geoffrey,
Enough LIVs will buy into it and with a fractured Republican party, we’ll have another democrat Pres. in 2020. Right now it’s looking pretty grim to me.
It doesn’t look great but it’s not that grim either. His Democrat opponents are even less popular than he is.
Trump is going to an even further extreme. In an interview yesterday with the Wall Street Journal (see
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-wont-say-if-he-will-fire-attorney-general-sessions-1501010025), Trump incredibly stated,
I have read elsewhere a comparison of Trump to Captain Queeg of The Caine Mutiny.
This swerve to the edge of the abyss by djt is what I feared during the primaries. What a lost opportunity. Trump has been a fool. The alphabet soup agencies are filled with leftists that need to be fired. That is where Trump’s attention should have been directed starting 11/9/16. Drain the swamp my *ss
I suspect he has a week at the most to turn this around. I highly doubt he is capable of changing course. His ego makes bho look like a humble public servant. I voted for him because Hillary as did millions of others. He started out ok but is now floundering in twitter world. Fool.
Ira,
Its the strawberries.
“It doesn’t look great but it’s not that grim either. His Democrat opponents are even less popular than he is.” Sean
It’s not that grim now and no potential democrat candidate is popular right now. Things can change. Kamala Harris and Warren await offstage.
I prefaced the part you quoted by qualifying it with a set of conditions that might lead to that scenario manifesting; Trump having been forced from office by RINOs on politically ambiguous ‘charges’, resulting in an irreparable fracture in the republican party.
Then a now Pres. Pence working closely with Ryan and McConnell to advance the GOPe agenda with Pence getting painted as a rabid if closet Christian fundamentalist.
Under that scenario (which hopefully will not come to pass but IMO is a distinct possibility) I can envision a democrat being elected to the Presidency in 2020.
The Divide between 1/3rd Tea Party betrayed conservatives, 1/3rd non political independent new gens, and 1/3rd former Demoncrats that are still Fing Leftists and Socialists at heart, is that we all hate each other.
We really do ,even here, and those divisions are shown even more clearly in Trum’s Gold Man Sachs admin.
Trump has been a fool. The alphabet soup agencies are filled with leftists that need to be fired.
Can’t drain the swamp when the swamp has more money than you, more bribes than you, more Art of the Deal than you, and lots of INside deals with Ivanka, Israel, etc.
Trum needed his clan to do anything in DC, but refused to listen to me and just chose a bunch of Leftist mofos and Gold Man Sach boys.
Then a now Pres. Pence working closely with Ryan and McConnell to advance the GOPe agenda with Pence getting painted as a rabid if closet Christian fundamentalist.
Pence will be dead in 5 mo, if they felt like it.
Romney, you apparently did something right for once. And everybody else that refused to Kiss the Trum Ring of Power.
Another “own goal” by Donald our President. I didn’t vote for him but am disappointed by his falling back into life-long habits it seems. I had hopes that he would be learning and getting better at this. Sad.
thanks to Huxley at 4:25 for sharing (but I am eternally grateful to nearly every one of the nuns involved in my upbringing).
Mark30339: Bottom line, I too am grateful for my Catholic schooling and many of the nuns therein, though not so much at the time.
After the Irish nuns I got American nuns who weren’t nearly so crazy, though still somewhat abusive.
In retrospect I realize I emerged from parochial school with a better education than most kids today get from their first two years of college. Or four years.
Is Trump showing signs of old age dementia? This erratic behavior goes beyond the “normal Trump.”
Impeachment is tried in the Senate. Kneecapping the Attorney General won’t be remembered well when it will really matter.
Agree that Trump’s open criticism of Sessions is disturbing. Sessions had no choice but to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. IMHO, Rosenstein jumped the gun in appointing a special counsel. Had Mueller appointed a bipartisan staff, it would look much better. As it is, it looks like Mueller and company are gunning for Trump and his family. Trump undoubtedly feels he is being railroaded and it all goes back to Sessions recusing himself. IMO, his ire should be aimed at Rosenstein, but whoever he is upset with, it should be handled out of public view.
If Sessions is fired or forced to resign, it will not go down well with a lot of Trump’s supporters such as law enforcement, immigration hawks, and states’ rights advocates. This is not good. Maybe a major mistake.
Is there anyone who would not have recused themselves if they’d been in Sessions’ position? It sounds like SOP.
Sessions needs to go. This wouldn’t be the first time Trump did the right thing for the wrong reasons. Only actions matter.
Sean Says:
Is there anyone who would not have recused themselves if they’d been in Sessions’ position? It sounds like SOP.
I would not have.
You know who else wouldn’t, indeed WON’T recuse himself for a conflict? Mueller.
The other side has no interest in playing fair, and only a fool would unilaterally disarm in the face of naked aggression. If you stick to your principles in a knife fight, you’ll be the most principled dead man around.
Matt_SE,
I have long held Sessions in high regard but I think you’ve put your finger on his weakness. He’s still playing by ‘the rules’. Recusing himself was the principled thing to do and, by doing so he’s played right into the unprincipled democrat’s hands.
Is Trump showing signs of old age dementia? This erratic behavior goes beyond the “normal Trump.”
The Other Chuck: From what I’ve read of Trump’s life and saw in his 2016 campaign — this is “normal Trump.”
I try to be a glass half-full kinda guy, so I’m grateful he’s been as good as he has been since he changed his address to the White House.
I think Trump believes that, if only Sessions hadn’t recused himself, it would somehow have prevented the appointment of special counsel Mueller.
neo: I think that’s the nut of it.
Or that an unrecused Attorney General could fire Mueller and take the heat for Trump.
It’s not 1973 anymore with Nixon and Watergate but if Trump starts firing people or pushing them out so he can get rid of Mueller, it will go badly for Trump.
sessions threw trump under the bus to save his own behind and in someway distanting himself from the president to get out of the harms way to avoid getting attacked by the left himself. He didnt recuse himself to protect the integrity of the law or to protect the president or other higher principles. He did so purely for no other reason but self preservation. he lost the trust from the president by bowing out from the battle at the moment when the president needed his help the most. Besides if he was truly concerned of the president’s best interest he would have gone after Obama and Hillary to relief msm’s pressure on the president. Even a child knows the best defense is offence, go after the leftist idol obama the msm would be forced to back off from attacking trump full force when they have to spend resources to defend Obama at other front giving trump more room to Plan next moves. Remember it was sessions’ mistake of not fully disclosing his meetings with the Russia ambassador, despite the likeliness that it was a mistake of absent mindlessness, that has created the public pressure demanding him to recuse from the investigation, he is no innocent party in any way and president being angry with is completely understandable no matter which angle you choose you look at it. Sessions should have stayed when trump wanted to talk to cunning comedy privately, at the very least he should have warned the president it was not in his best interest to do so, sessions has failed as an advisor. Gingrich would have never left trump to talk with comedy alone.
I am very bad at dividing my thoughts into different paragraphs
To quote the godfather sessions and most of the current people surrounding trump are not wartime consiglieres, time for trump to bring in fighters
This is the real Donald Trump that people knew about but were afraid to talk about. What you are seeing is the only successful management or negotiating tactic he has. When he gets himself in a scrap, he antagonizes his business partners, workers etc to the point they will agree to anything to get out. Usually he has screwed things up so much there is little room to fix them and thus be mutually amicable.
I ask you, would you stay if your boss did this? I know its all over the NY Post every time some jerk of a boss fires staff via text or e mail. A small man who’s a bully, coward and fraud.
Trump is that a-hole boss we’ve all had: he’s unclear about what he wants done, and changes his mind frequently, then when you don’t do what he hasn’t told you he wants he attacks and belittles you publicly.
I suspect it would be seen by many as cowardly, but Sessions would do well to resign in protest.
Another thought.
If trump is so quick to (so publicly) demonize someone who was an early supporter and took much of a risk to do so, can anyone, INCLUDING HIS BASE, be sure he will be loyal to them for their support?
HRC would be in jail if I was president – guess who said that
They didn’t mention “if Sessions was not a stick of dumb, HRC would be in jail”.
Gold Man Sachs Admin from Trum’s federal reserve butt buddies, will be enough to Ensure Loyalty, no matter the cost. They got the money and the power to do it.
The question is whether Trum will play ball.
Recusing himself was the principled thing to do and, by doing so he’s played right into the unprincipled democrat’s hands.
In order to win in DC, you have to be unprincipled. Thus GB and Matt SE.
DirtyJobsGuy,
I ask you, would you stay if your boss did this?
I worked for a boss like that and hated his guts. None of his employees liked him, in fact. But he got the job done and did well for his business.
Trump strikes me as the sort of guy you’d want on your side, you just wouldn’t want to work for him.
Matt and Geoff,
Okay, I see where you’re (and Trump’s) coming from. That makes sense, but I see all these other pundits like Gingrich saying they’d have done the same thing Sessions did. Is that a case of GOPe’s twisting the knife in Trump?
And what’s the play here? Is Trump trying to push Sessions into a position where his only options are to fight dirty like Mueller or quit? What can Sessions do to make it up?
If Sessions doesn’t go after Hillary have any republicans pondered the possibility that Hillary may run again and win in 2020? get off the high horse the DOJ is a political assassination machine who has been used by every president to go after potential political opponents. if you don’t finish off Hillary while she is down you will come to regret your decision.
“I have long held Sessions in high regard but I think you’ve put your finger on his weakness. He’s still playing by ‘the rules’. Recusing himself was the principled thing to do and, by doing so he’s played right into the unprincipled democrat’s hands.” -GB
_________________
“sessions threw trump under the bus to save his own behind and in someway distanting himself from the president to get out of the harms way to avoid getting attacked by the left himself. He didnt recuse himself to protect the integrity of the law or to protect the president or other higher principles. He did so purely for no other reason but self preservation. he lost the trust from the president by bowing out from the battle at the moment when the president needed his help the most.”– Dave
______________
Here are two plausible explanations why AG Sessions was so quick to recuse himself when it was pointed out he’d met with the Russian ambassador and hadn’t documented it.
Based on how quickly he recused himself, I lean toward the second explanation. It seems to fit the facts.
But based on Sessions record as an honorable person, I would think he would be motivated by the first explanation, not the second.
Either way, Sessions did unnecessarily expose his boss to the attacks that followed, so I understand President Trump’s frustration.
Since Trump’s personal stack of folders of who he could trust was thin coming into Washington, he had to rely on others assessments of who he could trust.
I wonder who recommended Rosenstein to Trump? Rosenstein was approved 94-6 as Deputy Assistant AG, and that should have sent up red flags to the Trump administration. Any appointee that would fairly do his or her job without bias to a Republican would only be approved by the narrowest of margins. The Democrats were and are never going to give any quarter to a Trump administration.
When Rosenstein released his memo on Comey’s performance, which was subsequently used by Trump as the rationale to fire him, democrats were quick to attack Rosenstein. Senator Chuck Schumer wrote to Rosenstein warning that the Deputy Attorney General had “imperiled” his reputation as an “apolitical actor.”
That’s democrat code for you’re not playing from the right playbook.
Was Sally Yates “apolitical”. Is there any appointee of the Obama administration that should have been considered apolitical?
We all understand there is a different standard applied to Rupublican administrations vs. Democrats, and it’s understandable that Trump would have had difficulty ferreting out those that are truly apolitical, and those that are apolitical Democrats. There is a huge difference.
So it’s been a steep learning curve for President Trump. If he were going to react to Session’s recusal, he should have done it immediately, not now. Unless Sessions is working with the democrat bureaucracy in the DOJ to undermine Trump, his criticisms at this point are harmful.
The optics of Trump firing Mueller (since neither Sessions or Rosenstein are going to do it) would be fatal. At this point he has really been boxed into a corner and he needs to let it play out.
BrianE: Nice rundown!
I would add that in February 2016 Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump and it was a big deal for Trump’s credibility as a presidential candidate.
Now Trump is attacking Sessions’s endorsement then as a cynical ploy based on the size of Trump’s crowds instead of loyalty to Trump.
Here Trump is predictably digging his hole deeper and demonstrating an unseemly confusion between an endorsement and personal loyalty. As Attorney General, Sessions took an oath to defend the Constitution not Donald Trump.
An early and ardent Trump supporter during last year’s tumultuous campaign, Sessions pledged to put the law above politics as attorney general.
“You simply have to help the president do things that he might desire in a lawful way, and have to be able to say ‘no’ [to the president],” the nominee said at his confirmation hearing last month.
https://www.voanews.com/a/senate-confirms-sessions-as-us-attorney-general-/3715609.html
At this point I can’t resist the Boromir riff from “Lord of the Rings”:
One does not simply say ‘no’ to Donald Trump.
Trump must, repeat must, muzzle his twittering, use it only for stating issues of substance.
As to Sessions and Tillerson and the rest of the Cabinet, I think Trump should put his CEO Presidential orders in writing and require prompt written responses, both to be made public only by Trump after a firing or resignation due to anti-Trump opposition.
Airing dirty linen in public=Ugh!
And never let us forget that all the major players have massive egos and do not good team players make. The instinct of each is “MY way or the highway”.
BrianE,
Personally, I don’t believe for even a second that Sessions “threw Trump under the bus”.
Trump’s complaint that had he known Sessions would recuse himself, he never would have nominated him is pure BS.
As during Sessions’ confirmation hearings he indicated that he wouldn’t hesitate to recuse himself in any case where he deemed it prudent;
“WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Sessions said during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that if confirmed as US attorney general, he would recuse himself from any investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails or the Clinton Foundation.”
Trump is just frustrated and lashing out.
Trump needs that guy who used to stand behind the Roman Emperor and whisper, “You, too, are mortal.”
One of his most assholian traits. Just shut the hell up, Donald! Don’t say another damn word about Russia, Mueller, Sessions, or anything connected with them. If some reporter asks you why you stopped tweeting about it, just say, “This is pure BS and I don’t have time for it!”
And if you changed your mind about prosecuting Hillary, tell your attorney general to do so to his face!
Richard,
Point taken but if I remember correctly, it wasn’t for the Roman Emperors. Rather, returning army commanders received a triumphant parade for extraordinary services rendered, when Rome was a Republic.
Rome’s Senate did not want the honors rendered to go to the recipient’s head, which might lead him to entertain the notion of permanent ‘honors’.
Sean Says:
Matt and Geoff,
Okay, I see where you’re (and Trump’s) coming from. That makes sense, but I see all these other pundits like Gingrich saying they’d have done the same thing Sessions did. Is that a case of GOPe’s twisting the knife in Trump?
I would say that either they’re Monday morning quarterbacking or don’t understand who they’re up against. The main mistake the anti-Trump camp makes (and I made too, initially) is underestimating the perfidy of Democrats.
And what’s the play here? Is Trump trying to push Sessions into a position where his only options are to fight dirty like Mueller or quit? What can Sessions do to make it up?
I can’t tell for sure, but I agree with GB that Trump is lashing out. He’s egotistical and self-centered, which has never made him see everyone else’s viewpoint. So he doesn’t see the need to publicly prove things to which he already knows the truth (i.e. his own behavior).
I think Trump has a pathological need to be the center of attention, and that means in this case that the public agrees that he was wronged. I would call it “playing the victim” except that in this case he actually IS the victim.
Still, it’s unseemly for a powerful man to whine.
“in this case he actually IS the victim” – Matt SE
A victim, in some ways, and, simultaneously, provided somewhat by his own hand.
Plus, it is beyond “unseemly” as it highlights his weakness, and drives away those he needs on his side to govern.
But, this has been his M.O.
Like holding on to the wrong end of a fire hose, the spray end is liable to spew at anyone indiscriminately.
A CEO like Trum used to be, tends to have his mess cleaned up by two sorts of people.
The corporate loyalists that have been there for 10-40 years. And his family, who keeps all the vomit inside, never lets anyone outside know about it, and fixes it using a clan council.
Trum’s problem in DC is that he no longer has those release valves, so the stress and the whispers at night are getting to him.