Donald Trump began this Friday the same way he’s begun many recent Fridays, Thursdays, and days containing the word day—by trying to get his attorney general to resign. Meanwhile, Republican senators have handed Trump a plan to dispose of his AG … if he’ll only wait until after that pesky midterm election.
Trump’s Twitter attacks on the Department of Justice and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III have become so common that they’ve—sadly, dangerously—fallen to the level of background noise. But in a Wednesday interview, Trump went out of his way to wipe his feet on what remains of Sessions’ “sacred honor” by accusing him of never taking control of the DOJ in the first place. This resulted in Sessions getting up his dander, locating his gumption in the bottom of the closet, and firing off a rare public volley in reply. Sessions says he has so taken control of the DOJ. So there.
Trump and Sessions met face-to-face on Thursday, but any thought that they might work out their differences in person is utterly alien to Trump, who is after all the man who waited until James Comey was on the West coast before sneaking a “Suprise! You resigned” note onto his desk. After leaving Sessions with a smile on Thursday, Trump greeted him with a knife twist on Friday morning.
In a series of tweets, Trump mocked Sessions’ statement that the DOJ would “not be improperly influenced by political considerations” and insisted that Sessions spend his time on what was important: persecuting Trump’s enemies. Included in Trump’s list of demands was that Sessions look into Hillary Clinton’s “deleted emails” and “the Clinton Foundation.” That last suggestion is probably no coincidence, as New York State just opened a fresh round of investigations into the defunct Trump Foundation, which Trump used as a tax-free pass-through to his own pocket.
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Republican senators have handed Trump a plan by which they’ll dispose of their former colleague with minimum pearl-clutching. That includes an et tu, Lindsey declaration from Sessions’ erstwhile friend, Lindsey Graham, who said that Trump is “entitled to an attorney general he has faith in” and that the DOJ needed “a new face and a fresh voice.” But the Republican senior circuit is worried that attempts to dislodge Sessions prior to the election might bring “havoc.” And, just in case Sessions has managed to clear Trump’s “never took control” stains off his ego, Graham said Trump is entitled to someone “that’s qualified for the job.”
Both Sessions and the senators could take lessons from the House Judiciary Committee. That august body will convene a hearing Friday morning in which it will grill one of the investigators involved in looking into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Because that’s the way you do it, Jeff.
Bloomberg reports that Graham was not alone in his decision to stand on the Trump side of history. Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley, who had previously made statements in defense of Sessions, also got out his shun stick on Thursday to insist that his committee would “be able to make time for hearings for a new attorney general.”
But as much as the senators are sending Trump a massive day-glo orange sign signaling that if he’ll only wait out the election, they’ll give him exactly what he wants, Trump is clearly unwilling to wait. Seeing that his interview statement was sharp enough to draw return fire, Trump seems determined to keep lobbing in the grenades.
On the Sessions side of the Uncivil War, things are so far quiet. It’s possible that Sessions doesn’t get up at 5 AM to practice anger tweets. The attorney general could still be in bed, dreaming of sugarplums, children in cages, and a world in which no black person can vote. But when he wakes up, there’s incoming.
Sessions recused himself from directing the investigation into conspiracy between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign, which is the heart of his conflict with Trump. Should Sessions be replaced, that new attorney general could take over the investigation from deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and, potentially, fire special counsel Robert Mueller or put limits on the investigation that would make it all but useless. A new attorney general would also be the recipient of Mueller’s final report, giving that person an opportunity to suppress the report from reaching the Congress.