President Trump told reporters he still has “total” confidence in his Attorney General amid calls for AG Jeff Sessions to resign or recuse himself, according to a White House pool report sent to PoliticusUSA.
During Trump’s tour of the Gerald Ford ship, CNN’s Jim Acosta asked, “Sir, do you still have confidence in the attorney general?”
Trump responded, “Total.”
Trump responded to more questions later during Trump’s tour of the ship’s command center.
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Asked if Sessions should recuse himself, Trump said, “I don’t think so”
Trump denied any knowledge of Jeff Sessions’ communications with the Russian ambassador, saying he “wasn’t aware at all†that Sessions spoke to the Russian ambassador.
Asked if Sessions testified truthfully to the Senate, President Trump gave the not very inspiring response, “I think he probably did.”
This is Trump in CYA mode, because Trump needs Jeff Sessions in place to obstruct investigations into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia but he also carefully worded his response so that it leaves him an out since it’s obvious that Sessions wasn’t truthful in his replies to the Senate.
All Trump could manage for the people is that he thinks Sessions “probably” told the truth.
Republicans are acting as if the question here is should Sessions recuse himself or not from investigating himself, but the press doesn’t ask the President if he still has confidence in the AG for no reason.
Jeff Sessions is in a world of political hurt if not actual hurt (thanks to anti-American Republicans), and this means Donald Trump is in a world of hurt if he can’t keep Sessions as the speed bump to protect himself.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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