So we have Fox News, Sara Carter, Hannity, Grassley, Graham, etc. calling for Sessions to go.
We have CNN, WaPo, LaTimes, Democrats, etc. saying he is impartial and doing a fine job.
Gotta love it. Well played POTUS and Q!
Trump's favorite punching bag, Jeff Sessions, may have just made himself fireproof
It’s not news that President Trump is disappointed in Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. He long has been grumbling over the attorney general’s decision to recuse himself from matters related to the 2016 presidential campaign, a decision that eventually led to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Russia’s election interference and possible coordination with the Trump campaign. (Or, as Trump calls it, the “rigged witch hunt.” )
But Trump’s complaints about Sessions have always extended beyond the Russia recusal. He also has seethed over the fact that the Justice Department isn’t pursuing the president’s political opponents. In November he tweeted: "Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary and the Dems.”
This week Trump sharpened that critique in an interview aired by Fox News in which he complained that “I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department” — a department, he insisted, with a pro-Democratic tilt.
But this time the usually long-suffering Sessions responded with a statement that might have strengthened his hold on his office.
“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in,” Sessions wrote, “which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the president’s agenda — one that protects the safety and security and rights of the American people, reduces violent crime, enforces our immigration laws, promotes economic growth, and advances religious liberty.
“While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
The genius of Sessions’ statement was that it distinguished between the loyalty Trump is entitled to from his attorney general — fealty to the president’s policy views on legal issues — and the sort of corrupt loyalty insisted on by those who would use the legal process to punish their enemies. Not naming any names, of course. Trump tried to return fire on Friday, tweeting:
“Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.” Jeff, this is GREAT, what everyone wants, so look into all of the corruption on the “other side” including deleted Emails, Comey lies & leaks, Mueller conflicts, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 24, 2018
But the president came off looking just as unhinged as ever, and didn’t seriously address Sessions’ point: that the attorney general’s job is to implement the president’s policy preferences, not to carry out his political vendettas.
Much was made this week of a statement by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Trump’s sometime critic and occasional golfing partner, that “there will come a time sooner rather than later where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice.” This represented a shift for Graham, who once said that the president would have “holy hell to pay” if he dismissed attorney general.
But other Republican senators came to Sessions’ defense, and it’s easy to see why.
It isn’t just that firing Sessions might be viewed as Trump’s version of President Nixon’s “Saturday Night massacre,” because it potentially would allow a successor to wrest control of the Mueller investigation away from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein and incite calls for impeachment. Trump’s comments in the Fox interview make it clear that he has peculiar ideas about the administration of justice.
For example, in a discussion of the charges against Trump’s erstwhile personal attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen, Trump complained about criminal suspects who plead guilty and offer their testimony against others in exchange for favorable treatment by the prosecution. “It’s called flipping,” he said, “and it almost ought to be illegal.” In that segment Trump sounded more like a mob boss than a president.
If Sessions is standing athwart that view of justice, maybe he should stay where he is.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-enter-the-fray-trump-s-favorite-punching-bag-jeff-1535151581-htmlstory.html