Attorney General Jeff Sessions is standing on thin ice.
Rumors have swirled around Washington that Donald Trump will replace him at any moment.
But then Trump made the one phone call about Sessions that no one saw coming.
Donald Trump Looks For Sessions Replacement
If Trump replaces Sessions, he needs to have someone ready to take his place.
Trump appears to favor Matt Whitaker – who currently serves as Sessions’ Chief of Staff.
The Washington Post exclusively reported that Trump spoke with Whitaker about taking over Sessions’ role.
The Post reported:
President Trump talked recently with Jeff Sessions’s own chief of staff about replacing Sessions as attorney general, according to people briefed on the conversation, signaling that the president remains keenly interested in ousting his top law enforcement official.
The conversation between Trump and Matthew G. Whitaker was somewhat nebulous, the people said. It was not clear, for example, whether Whitaker would take over on an interim basis or be nominated in a more permanent capacity, or how definitive the president’s intentions were.
Trump lost all patience with Sessions when he recused himself from the Russia probe.
The Attorney General folded in the face of fake news stories that he had lied under oath about his contacts with the Russia Ambassador in 2016.
Sessions met with the Russian Ambassador in his capacity as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The FBI advised him that he did not have to disclose this as part of the background check investigation he submitted prior to joining the administration.
Then Senator Al Franken asked Sessions if he ever met with the Russian Ambassador as part of the campaign.
Sessions truthfully answered yes, and then the Washington Post published a story about him meeting the Russian Ambassador in his Senate office.
That led to Sessions stepping away from the Russia probe.
Rod Rosenstein Makes It Worse
Sessions’ decision to recuse himself left Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein overseeing the Russia investigation.
Rosenstein panicked during a media firestorm after Trump cited Rosenstein’s memo as the basis for firing then FBI Director James Comey.
Rosenstein had written that Comey had broken protocol during the Clinton email probe.
But he could not face down the media pressure.
Rosenstein then named Robert Mueller special counsel.
Mueller set out on a witch hunt to impeach Donald Trump at once.
Trump Reminds Sessions He Is In Trouble
Some pundits thought Trump’s anger toward Sessions might have lessened.
But Trump sent a signal during an interview on Fox and Friends.
The hosts asked Trump about Session’s support for a bill to reform the nation’s prisons.
Sessions previously won a fight to push the bill off until after the midterms.
But Trump sent a signal that Sessions has no influence in the White House.
Host Brian Kilmeade asked Trump about Sessions’ lack of support.
“If he doesn’t, then he gets overruled by me,” the President declared. “Because I make the decisions; he doesn’t.”
All signs point toward Trump replacing his Attorney General after the midterm elections.
We will keep you up to date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
