On Tuesday, during a press conference with the Lebanese prime minister, President Donald Trump refused to say anything regarding the future of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. However, he did take the opportunity to, once again, criticize the country’s top cop.
While speaking to the reporters, Trump claimed to be very “disappointed” with his attorney general and an early supporter, saying on “time will tell” what future has in store for him.
“I told you before, I’m very disappointed in my attorney general,” the president said. “But we will see what happens. Time will tell, time will tell.”
“If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before taking office,” Trump added. “I think that’s a bad thing not for the president, but for the presidency.”
In addition to his comments regarding the attorney general’s future in office, President Trump urged Sessions to take immediate action against leaks that, according to Trump, have been coming from the top intelligence officials.
“I want the attorney general to be much tougher on leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely they ever have before,” he said. “These are intelligence agencies, we cannot have that happen.”
According to Trump, Sessions, who was one of his earliest supporters in the 2016 presidential campaign, but has not acted on one of the cornerstones of Trump’s campaign – making the Clintons answer for their corruption. Trump concludes that Sessions, “has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes.”
On Monday, Trump said Sessions was “beleaguered.” And, in a bombshell interview with The New York Times last week, he publicly criticized Sessions for recusing himself from the Department of Justice’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections and the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Moscow.
During the interview, Trump said that he wouldn’t have appointed Sessions as his attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the investigation.
“How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? 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.
While many in the Trump camp have begun doubting Sessions’ ability to lead the department, especially after the president’s remarks, Sessions himself sounded quite confident in his press conference last Thursday.
“I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself,” Sessions said. “We love this job, we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.”
Sessions recused himself from the investigation after it was discovered that he did not properly disclose a meeting with the Russian ambassador.
