I’ve started to feel so removed from many of the political stories happening right now, mostly because there are no heroes within the Trump White House or in the Republican Party writ large. There’s no one to root for, no one who seems to be acting out of a sense of patriotism. They’re all garbage people and when they fight amongst themselves, who cares? That’s how I feel about Donald Trump’s beef with Jeff Sessions – I understand all of the breast-beating about “what happens if he fires Sessions” or “how this would affect the Mueller investigation” and all of that. But ultimately, I don’t care about either “side” – Jeff Sessions is a racist elf who wants to throw brown people in cages and black people in prisons. Donald Trump wants the same thing and he wants to do that without Mueller breathing down his neck.
I don’t even believe that Trump understands the Department of Justice’s chain of command, or how special prosecutors operate, or how Justice has insulated and protected the Mueller investigation. Trump is an idiot, and he believes that he could fire Sessions and then end the Mueller investigation all by himself. So why hasn’t he tried? Because other Republicans have been telling him not to. But those Republicans are losing the battle, and GOP congressmen are now pretty sure that Trump will fire Sessions after the midterms.
President Trump, who levied extraordinary public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions in recent weeks, has privately revived the idea of firing him in conversations with his aides and personal lawyers this month, according to three people familiar with the discussions. His attorneys concluded that they have persuaded him — for now — not to make such a move while the special-counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign is ongoing, the people said. But there is growing evidence that Senate Republicans, who have long cautioned Trump against firing Sessions, are now resigned to the prospect that he may do so after the November midterm elections — a sign that one of the last remaining walls of opposition to such a move is crumbling.
“We wish the best for him, but as any administration would show, Cabinet members seldom last the entire administration, and this is clearly not an exception,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said in an interview Tuesday.
“Nothing lasts forever,” Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) told The Washington Post, describing the Trump-Sessions dynamic as “a toxic relationship.” Added Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a longtime defender of the attorney general: “My sense is the fix is in.”
At least twice this month, Trump vented to White House advisers and his lawyers about the “endless investigation” of his campaign and said he needs to fire Sessions for saddling his presidency with the controversy, according to two of the people… In subsequent talks with his lawyers and advisers, Trump said what he really wanted to do was fire Sessions, the people said.
His attorneys, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, advised him that Mueller could interpret such an action as an effort to obstruct justice and thwart the investigation — already a major focus of the inquiry, the people said. Giuliani confirmed that he and Trump have discussed Sessions’s possible removal, but declined to offer details of their talks.
“If there is any action taken, the president agrees with us that it shouldn’t be taken until after the investigation is concluded,” Giuliani said. Sekulow referred questions to Giuliani.
Later in that WaPo article, Mitch McConnell states plainly that Sessions needs to stay where he is as Attorney General. Interestingly enough, Jerry Falwell Jr. – who fancies himself Trump’s evangelical advisor – has let it be known that the evangelical community is no longer “with” Sessions, and evangelicals would support Trump if he ousted Sessions. I still don’t care though? I’m not going to sit here and argue that Sessions should stay OR go.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Ever feel like you should have a comment and the best you can come up with is “blech.” That’s all I have for this administration.
Mine’s more profane than that, but yeah.
Jeffy Beau can eat sh*t, but it’s outrageous that Trump would only be firing him because he’s mad he recused himself from the Russia investigation.
President Petty AF should not be able to fire people just because they aren’t covering for him.
Petty AF will never make the mental leap from mob boss to public servant.
I know, right? Trump’s not even making pretense of legitimacy.
Jeff Session will not leave of his own volition no matter how much Trump disrespects and disparages him
Session is living his dream to wield the power to return America to the “Good Ole Days ” of Jim Crow thereabouts. He and Betsy Devos are the two of most dangerous elements of this admin and are dismantling a whole lot behind the scenes but we are too distracted by Trumps daily shenanigans to notice but
I mean, its kind of funny, in a bizarre, sad way – Sessions is the perfect AG for Trump – he and Trump seem to be of one mind with many of the heinous and racist things the administration does. Minus the whole “Mueller thing”, Sessions has been remarkably in step with Trump, maybe more than any one else in his cabinet.
I think the Senate Republicans know Trump is going to fire him and persuaded him to wait until after midterms, because they are afraid that firing him will mean they lose the House and the Senate. My guess is if the Rs hold on to the Senate, Trump will immediately fire Sessions.
I can still see Trump getting pissed off and firing Sessions without another thought before mid-term. It wouldn’t take much because we know what Trump says or does one day, will be reversed the next.
How long is the Sessions /Trump BS going to drag on?
Until one or both of them are gone?
Poor Sessions. All he wanted to do was make black people miserable and walk around in his white hood at night.
Seriously though, Sessions getting fired would be hilarious. Imagine being that racist elf, abut still not racist enough for the Republican party and the evangelicals.
Poor Jeff Sessions – too racist for Reagan, not racist enough for Trump.
Never mind. Like all good fairy tale characters, eventually he’ll find a barely-sentient bowl of porridge that’s just right…
One of the few joys of the past 21 months has been watching the Christians turn on one another and eat their own as they vie for trump’s favor. Hopefully this administration heralds the downfall of their racist, misogynist, homophobic belief system.
To think that this country has produced such a motley crew of racists, petty thieves and oleaginous mob thugs is unbelievable. Can’t wait to see them brought to justice!
As a resident of Alabama and saddled with JBS for the past 30 years or so, I can only laugh. The strutting little rooster thought he was hitching his wagon to a star. More like a Death Star. Goes to show when you collude with someone sh1ttier than you, you’re gonna end up covered in sh1t.
I remember how you warned us early on about the evil elf.
He was one of Orange’s first public supporters. Guess there really is no loyalty among thieves, as the saying goes. Supposedly Jeffy loves this job, though, so he’ll be crushed if he gets booted out.
Trump isn’t even a Death Star. He’s not effective enough. He’s more a black (orange?) hole, a destructive void. President Orange Hole The Petty, Emperor of The Baby Fists.
This is America now. This is the America we read about in books and watched in movies and documentaries, I never thought that I would be seeing this play out before my eyes. Putin invaded this country without physically sending in military troops. We have the dumbest president in the history of America, who is so insecure about his lack of intelligence that he goes around saying that people like Maxine, Jennifer R, Don L, and Lebron have a low IQ. Republicans are complicit because they have extensive ties to Russia and Putin may have compromising information on them(Lindsey G, Devin Nunes). We have civility democrats like Nancy Pelosi making matters worse by arguing that Democrats should stop talking about impeaching the Dotard and the Russian investigation because it will mobilize the Dotard’s base. What base? The majority of his base are bots. When will the press wake up and realize this? We have these bots/trolls which have infiltrated every aspect of this country. They hacked into our power grid and we have been warned many times that they are hacking into voting systems, and yet the press continues to act like people like Ted Cruz, Ron D, Kris Kobach, the Dotard’s pick in Ohio have won without any interference from the bots/trolls. We have the WH press reporters who suffer from some form of Stockholm Syndrome, Sarah Lieabee lies to them and berates them and they keep going back for more. There is the press which has become complicit as they drop stories to focus on the Dotard’s latest con. Now the Dotard wants to run this country like Russia, where no one, including Google, is allowed to say anything negative about him.
*sob* I’d like to just plug my ears and close my eyes until it’s over. But it will just get worse if we don’t stay involved.
A better man would not have recused himself. A better man would have obstructed justice at the pleasure of dear leader and put the quietus on any investigation regarding misfeasance whilst humming Yankee Doodle on kazoo. Right, Rudy? (He removes his teeth and will bug his eyes out at the president’s pleasure.)
Any man that calls his wife “Mother” is not a good thing. And this same man won’t have a meal with a single woman…..
That’s pence right? Not sessions
Oops, got my facts mixed up!
Good grief. Of course Sessions needs to stay right where he is. He is the only thing truly blocking Trump from trying to fire Mueller. We need things to stay the same in the DoJ until the investigation is concluded and Mueller has given his report to Congress. We need to allow every single indictment on his list to go through.
Remember that even if Democrats win big enough to get past the hackers, they won’t take office until January. Letting Trump fire Sessions in November is very dangerous.
If Trump gets to install a non-recused Attorney General, he will not only be able to fire Mueller – he will be able to bury Mueller’s report and Congress won’t even see it unless some brave soul leaks it to them. Because Sessions is recused from the investigation, his hands are tied and Rosenstein makes the decision about what to do with the report.
If you’re the praying sort, pray that Sessions holds on to that job for dear life. If you’re not the praying sort, beam vans full of appropriate thoughts (in postcards and phone calls preferably). The only reason Trump wants to get rid of Sessions is to get rid of Mueller. Otherwise, Sessions is doing all the awful things Trump wants him to do.
You would think that all this would have been settled years ago after Nixon. We can’t let a President stop an investigation into himself and his Administration , we must protect everybody in the chain to protect a special counsel and the investigation.
What is wrong with these people in Congress? What Putin-collected dirt does Trump have on them? They have a guy in the White House who cares nothing about them or their Party, who is increasingly bonkers.
Trump not only threatened us all with a stock market crash and poverty if he is impeached – now he’s claiming that if the Democrats take back the House in November, there will be “violence” as the Democrats busily dismantle all his precious awful programs. Not sure why Antifa (yes, he resurrected Antifa, which I haven’t heard about in ages) would be inciting violence because of the Democrats, unless my suspicion that they are government stooges is correct, but that’s what the guy is saying. This is a continuation of the same crap he tossed around at the end of the 2016 campaign, saying he might not accept the results of the election unless he won and implying violent resistance from his base, just as earlier he made not so veiled reference to violence against Hillary Clinton and any SCOTUS nominations she might make. (Remember his comments that “the Second Amendment people” will take care of it ? Even the Secret Service had to have a lot of talks with them over that.)
How can people in Congress not see how dangerous this is? They know this isn’t anywhere close to normal. Americans used to be proud of our nonviolent transfers of power. Now we have the World’s Biggest Sore Loser in the White House, and he has nukes.
Right? I’m surprised at the ambivalent attitude of most of the commenters here. It’s not about whether you like Sessions or not (none of us do), it’s about protecting Mueller.
It is going to be hard to get rid of Mueller. If that Keebler Elf DOES get fired, they still have to get to Rosenstein, and Rosenstein has said he is NOT going to fire Mueller. Plus, if Rosenstein goes they have to find someone in the DOJ who will take over–and why would anyone step up to put themselves into the line of fire like that? To put themselves in a position where they too might be charged with obstruction of justice? Someone might as well go to the DOJ and say, “Who volunteers to go to Jail for Benedict Orange?”
This is also why Mueller and team is “farming” out charges to different states and attorney generals–STATE charges cannot be quashed from this administration–not their jurisdiction.
I also don’t think that the DOJ, FBI, et al., is just going to roll over like that and slink away with their tail between their legs saying, “Awww shucks we tried!” This administration has abused them and accused them of all sorts of crazy stuff–“the deep state”– and told the world they believe Russia over them. That probably turned up their anger up to “11” if it wasn’t already there. Right now, NO ONE but Mueller’s team knows everything they have and who they have the dirty dirt on.
You don’t think the DOJ and FBI will play hard ball if they have to? There are traitors in the midst and that is their job, their whole raison d’etre is to ferret this stuff out and get rid of it/punish it/bring it to justice. If they DON’T, then everything they stand for means nothing–all the years they put it, however many times they risked their lives, the oaths they took–it means NOTHING. Their sacrifice, their service means NOTHING, if they let this criminal enterprise continue to destroy our institutions and standing in the world.
Bigly and Co. are two bit criminals who are too dumb to play on the world stage–if they were smarter we wouldn’t be here and there wouldn’t be trials and indictments coming 9 ways to Sunday. Last week was just a taste–immunity deals, guilty verdicts and guilty pleas. The fire under this disgusting administration is about to get really hot. Think about what Weisselberg and Pecker know–they have the receipts! We are just getting started with the good stuff, we just have to hold tight and be patient a little longer.
If Trump replaces Sessions with someone willing to fire Mueller, then they don’t need to replace Rosenstein. Rosenstein only has authority over the investigation because Sessions recused himself, and with him gone the authority would revert back to the Attorney General.
@Dara, Trump can’t just replace Sessions. He has to go through Congress and he needs 50 senators (plus Pence for the tie breaker) in order to have Sessions replaced. No democrats will flip sides for that, and several Republican senators say they will NOT vote someone in to replace Sessions. Bigly doesn’t have unilateral power like that–if he did, Sessions would have be replaced ages ago.
A few weeks ago, I would have agreed there is no way the Senate could muster the votes to replace Sessions, but in the last week or so some of the key Republican leaders have been making noises that the idea is not completely impossible, and now I’m not so sure. It’s a far closer vote than it should be. An even more remote possibility – but not impossible – Trump could fire Sessions and appoint an interim AG until the permanent replacement is confirmed. It’s ugly, and underhanded, but I’m afraid it’s possible.
Admittedly, ANYTHING is possible with this administration. Bigly could fire Sessions and get that interim AG–but to date he is all talk and no action. After Bigly lambasted Sessions the last time, Sessions just didn’t duck and cover like usual, he actually put out a very forceful statement saying the DOJ would not be used for political purposes–i.e. prosecute/investigate Bigly’s so-called “enemies.”
After all this time, why has that little Keebler elf finally pushed back? Just because he’s had enough of Bigly’s mouth and threats? Personally, I don’t think so. I think somehow word has gotten back to Sessions that his position is “safe.” He was a Senator for a long time (20+ years), I can imagine that little rat still has friends in the Senate, ones who will do him a solid and keep him in his position until the Bigly situation gets sorted out–one way or another. And I imagine, as a Senator, to have the AG “owe” you…that’s a nice Ace in the hole. . .just in case.
Given all the noise he and his stooges have been making about electoral fraud it would not surprise me if he tried to negate the mid term results if the blue wave does happen saying it was ‘electoral fraud’ and ‘hacking’. GOP controlled congress would totally get behind that – they will do whatever it takes to keep the power they have.
“he will be able to bury Mueller’s report and Congress won’t even see it unless some brave soul leaks it to them”
That’s not my understanding.
According to one of the men who revised the rules of special counsel investigations into the President back during Clinton, he said that if Mueller chooses to ask for an indictment, it gets presented to Rosenstein/Acting-AG. If the AG decides NOT to follow the recommendation to indict, it is mandated that a report about Muellers findings and details about why AG did not follow it has to be released to congress.
Perhaps they could find a maneuver to get around that, but it would be illegal.
This administration is disgusting.
If the Dems don’t take control of the house after the midterms then it’s going to get even worse. The US is going to rapidly devolve into a fascist state more than it has because it will show mango Mussolini that his actions have no real negative consequences. I don’t really care about Sessions because it’s really Rosenstein protecting the special counsel, but dump is going to get worse unless he is contained.
I’m TERRIFIED of what will happen if Dems don’t take back the house. Not exaggerating.