Trump’s first tweet out of the gate this morning came just a few minutes ago, where he questioned why the Obama administration wasn’t under investigation for the Russian meddling that happened on his watch. Then he puts the blame for that on his own Attorney General:
Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren’t they the subject of the investigation? Why didn’t Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren’t Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 21, 2018
It was reported a few days ago that Sessions almost resigned last year and had to be convinced by Reince Priebus to stay, and this was before Trump threw him under the bus publically in July.
CNN – During an Oval Office meeting in May, eight days after firing FBI Director James Comey, Trump called Sessions an “idiot” and blamed the appointment of a special counsel on Sessions’ choice to recuse himself from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, The New York Times reported.
In the excerpt, Whipple writes that Priebus said he had been filled in on that meeting by White House counsel Don McGahn, who told him that Sessions had decided to resign after his encounter with Trump.
“‘I said, ‘What!? What the hell are you talking about?’ ” Priebus recalled to Whipple during an interview last October, “I said, ‘That can’t happen.’ ”
Priebus tells Whipple that he dashed from his office and out to the West Wing parking lot to stop Sessions before he left the White House premises. He found Sessions in the back seat of a black sedan, with the engine running.“I knocked on the door of the car, and Jeff was sitting there and I just jumped in and shut the door,” Priebus said, according to the excerpt. “And I said, ‘Jeff, what’s going on?’ And then he told me that he was going to resign. I said, ‘You cannot resign. It’s not possible. We are going to talk about this right now.’ So I dragged him back up to my office from the car.”
Along with Vice President Mike Pence and then-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Priebus said, he tried convincing Sessions not to resign. However, the attorney general offered his resignation letter later that night. Priebus then claimed that he convinced Trump to return the letter and reject Sessions’ resignation.
Then Trump almost fired Sessions in June, and had to be stopped once again from doing so…
But in June, Trump pushed for Priebus to obtain Sessions’ resignation “flat out,” according to a White House insider cited in the excerpt.
According to the insider, Priebus again intervened, warning Trump, ” ‘If I get this resignation, you are in for a spiral of calamity that makes Comey look like a picnic,’ ” referring to the former FBI director’s firing.
Although he was successful in talking Trump out of firing his top Justice Department official, Priebus revealed that his efforts to rein in Trump’s social media posts were futile.
“Everybody tried at different times to cool down the Twitter habit — but no one could do it. … After (last year’s) joint session (of Congress) we all talked to him, and (first lady) Melania said, ‘No tweeting.’ And he said, ‘O.K. — for the next few days.’ We had many discussions involving this issue. We had meetings in the residence.”
“I couldn’t stop it,” Priebus said in the excerpt.
So that’s what happened behind the scenes last year and there’s no telling what’s happening right now. But one thing is abundantly clear: Trump is very unhappy with AG Sessions, as he’s once again throwing him under the bus for all the world to see.
And it’s so ridiculous, just as it was last year. Sessions is his DOJ and doesn’t deserve this public shaming. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sessions does tender his resignation in the days or weeks to come because of this. Although I suspect he’s got pretty thick skin after being there this long.
UPDATE: Trump deleted the tweet and just replaced it. So if it wasn’t showing up for a few minutes on this article, that’s why.