Bad: Trump's behavior toward Sessions
Trump seems to think that the AG is to act as Trump's personal defender.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-sessions-idUSKBN1AA21V WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' allies say President Donald Trump is carrying out a deliberate public campaign to pressure him to quit, rather than fire him outright, but the country's top lawyer has no intention of resigning. Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday that Sessions had "taken a VERY weak position" on investigating his former opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private email server. On Monday, Trump had called his attorney general "beleaguered". Trump is angry that Sessions recused himself from the federal investigation into possible collusion between Trump's election campaign team and Russia. The Kremlin says it did not interfere in the election, and Trump has denied any collusion. .... The public attacks by a president on a member of his own Cabinet and onetime close political ally have stunned many in Washington. Trump has torn out yet another page from the rulebook - typically a president would convey his displeasure with a cabinet secretary out of the public eye. "In an administration where a lot of unexpected things have happened, this may be the most unexpected. This has risen to a level that we have never seen before,” said Douglas Heye, a former top aide to former Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Republican lawmakers sprang to Sessions' defense on Tuesday, and the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, accused Trump of trying to "bully his own attorney general out of office." He said if Trump fired Sessions, Democrats would fight any attempt to replace him during the August congressional recess. Trump's public criticism of Sessions began in earnest in an interview with the New York Times last week in which he said that he would not have hired him had he known he would recuse himself from the Russia investigation. He followed that with the critical tweets, and close aides, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and newly installed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci have gone on television to reinforce Trump's frustration with Sessions. |
Trump seems to think that the AG is to act as Trump's personal defender.