The day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions released a statement insisting his "Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations," President Trump again used Twitter to taunt his own appointee.
Interestingly, the president did not show the same bravado sitting face to face with Sessions Thursday afternoon.
Per a second source with knowledge of the Oval Office meeting, attended by Jared Kushner, Kellyanne Conway, Sessions, Trump and Mercedes Schlapp: “No acknowledgment, not even a passing mention” of the morning’s events. “To the point where I don’t even know if he [Trump] was aware of his [Sessions’] statement."
... This tracks with Trump's aversion to in-person confrontation.
While Republican Senators have been unwaveringly supportive of Sessions in the past, two now say they are willing to let Trump remove his attorney general as long as the president waits until after November.
The pivotal message on Thursday came from Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who oscillates between criticizing many of the president’s policies and defending a president who sometimes invites him to go golfing at a Trump-branded resort.
“The president’s entitled to an attorney general he has faith in, somebody that’s qualified for the job, and I think there will come a time, sooner rather than later, where it will be time to have a new face and a fresh voice at the Department of Justice,” Graham told reporters.
But he added that forcing out Sessions before November “would create havoc” with efforts to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as well as with the midterm elections on Nov. 6 that will determine whether Republicans keep control of Congress.
Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, also changed his position on Thursday, saying in an interview that he’d be able to make time for hearings for a new attorney general after saying in the past that the panel was too busy to tackle that explosive possibility.
It wasn’t clear, though, whether the senators’ comments were intended to endorse a move on Sessions later, or to coax Trump out of taking precipitous action now. And some senior Republican senators strongly rejected Graham’s seemingly impromptu fire-him-later idea.
(...)
Any talk of firing Sessions, 71, a was rejected by John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who said doing so “would be bad for the country, it would be bad for the president, it would be bad for the Department of Justice for him to be forced out under these circumstances.”
Senator Susan Collins, a Republican moderate from Maine, said firing Sessions “would not be a wise move” and “I don’t see the president being able to get someone else confirmed as attorney general were he to fire Jeff Sessions.”
Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, said he hopes Trump keeps Sessions, saying he has “full confidence” in the attorney general. Senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, a frequent Trump critic among Republicans, said on the Senate floor that he’d heard “goofy talk” about firing Sessions but “I find it really difficult to envision any circumstance where I would vote to confirm a successor to Jeff Sessions, if he is fired, because he’s executing his job, rather than choosing to act as a partisan hack.”
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If Trump replaces Sessions, who’s so far resisted the president’s very public hints that he should resign, a new attorney general could take over the investigation and potentially fire [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller or cripple the probe.
CNN:
Speaking of Mueller -- the recusal is the primary reason Trump has unleashed a fury on his attorney general.
For the time being, only [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein currently has the power to remove Mueller for "misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of (Justice) Departmental policies" under the special counsel regulations.
But if Sessions is fired, and his replacement doesn't have the same a conflict overseeing the investigation, then Rosenstein would no longer be in charge, and Trump's new attorney general could potentially fire Mueller.
What happens if Jeff Sessions is fired or quits? (CNN)
Key Republicans Give Trump a Path to Fire Sessions After the Election (Bloomberg Politics)
1 big thing: Inside Trump and Sessions' awkward meeting (Axios)