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, reports Reuters.
Sessions’ recusal means he has no oversight of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose wide-ranging investigation has focused on Trump aides and his son-in-law Jared Kushner and cast a deep shadow over Trump’s presidency.
Two people close to Sessions said the attorney general, who was the first Republican senator to back Trump’s presidential campaign, has been deeply offended by the public berating from his boss, but his resolve to stay is strong.
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.
