Susan Wright on the Right
Please, somebody go check on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. I imagine that every day is a migraine waiting to happen, and he’s forced to reevaluate his life choices from moment to moment.
To be honest, working up any sympathy for the man who was the first to jump that Trump Train during the primary season of the 2016 election, especially when there were so many qualified, dignified, worthy candidates on the GOP bench to choose from, has taken some work.
With that said, here I am. Call it my compassionate nature. The man had to know what Donald Trump was before he decided to write his immigration policy paper for him, support him, and give legitimacy to an inexperienced, unqualified, liberal bully from Manhattan. He had to know, he still supported him, he’s getting just the kind of hateful, unwarranted abuse Trump is known for, and yet, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.
The abuse has been relentless, ever since Sessions did what he thought was the right thing to do (it was), and recused himself from all things related to the ongoing Russia probe.
He had to. His own name had been brought up in the probe, when it was discovered that he’d had contact with Moscow’s Russian envoy during the course of the election.
He gave it over to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to handle – capable hands – and Rosenstein felt it best to appoint a special counsel to investigate all those pesky details that Team Trump really wanted to be ignored.
Because he did the right thing early, he has to wake up to fresh Trump Twitter tantrums like this:
“The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself…I would have quickly picked someone else,” Trump said.
“So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined…and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!” he added.
You are ridiculous.
The Russian Witch Hunt Hoax continues, all because Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself…I would have quickly picked someone else. So much time and money wasted, so many lives ruined…and Sessions knew better than most that there was No Collusion!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018
So let’s do a brief rewind.
Trump named Sessions as his Attorney General pick on November 18, 2016.
Jeff Sessions was sworn in as Attorney General on February 9, 2017.
On February 13, 2017 Michael Flynn, then Trump’s national security adviser, was asked to resign, after it was discovered that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador (They discussed sanctions against Russia), and other contacts.
By February 15, 2017 authorities were talking about other members of Trump’s team who had been discovered to have had contact with Russian intelligence officials. Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort’s name was prominently featured, at this time.
On March 1. 2018 the news broke that newly appointed Attorney General Sessions had several contacts with the Russian ambassador during the election that seemingly contradicted statements he made during his January 10 confirmation hearing.
On March 2, 2017, after meeting with senior department officials, he had decided it was best to recuse himself from anything related to the Russia investigation.
By the timeline of events, it’s very clear that Sessions had no intention of recusing himself from anything, because he had not considered there would ever be the need. In fact, the known contacts he did have with the Russian ambassador were either brief or planned and on the public schedule, and could have very well been within the scope of his responsibilities as a U.S. senator. His recusal was out of an abundance of caution, and likely recommended, in order to avoid any semblance of impropriety.
In short, he did the right thing.
If Jeff Sessions is to be faulted for anything, it begins with supporting Donald Trump, in the first place. That is followed by his ignorantly believing that he could be an ethical, upright attorney general in a Trump administration.
In June 2016, Sessions offered to resign as attorney general, but Trump apparently turned that down.
Why not let him resign? Immediately after news of Sessions’ offer broke, Trump began fresh attacks, saying the same things he’s saying now: Sessions should have told him he planned to recuse himself. He was being unfair to the president.
“If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, ‘Thanks, Jeff, but I’m not going to take you,’” Trump said July 2017. “It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”
The president has also blasted Sessions as “weak” for not following through on Trump’s call to investigate into former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Several things to address here.
As the timeline reveals, he had no reason to believe he’d need to recuse himself from anything. Also, as a U.S. attorney general, his loyalty is to the American people and the rule of law. He’s not there to act as the president’s defender.
Second of all, immediately after the election, Trump answered the calls of his supporters to “lock her up,” in reference to Hillary Clinton by talking about what a good person Clinton was, and said she’d been through enough.
That he now is complaining that she hasn’t been investigated further is contradictory, and looks as if he’s just going after a political enemy. That’s not really the kind of mark an ethical attorney general wants on his record. We saw those things go on with Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Sessions is to be commended for his reluctance to travel that same road.
Pity poor Jeff Sessions. He threw himself into this seether pit of idiocy. Even if he resigned today, he may never truly be free from the stench of a Trump presidency.
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