Trump admits 'we have an Attorney General,' but says he's disappointed in him

Pulse 18:49 - 19 September 2018

In his latest attack, Trump said, “I don’t have an attorney general,” an extraordinary statement even for a president who has called his attorney general weak and disloyal.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has escalated his drawn-out war with Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the president’s view that Sessions failed to protect him from the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether any Trump associates conspired with it.

In his latest attack, Trump said, “I don’t have an attorney general,” an extraordinary statement even for a president who has called his attorney general weak and disloyal. “It’s very sad,” he continued in an interview Tuesday with The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

On Wednesday morning, Trump reversed himself. “We have an attorney general,” he said, in response to reporters’ questions as he departed the White House to visit storm-struck North Carolina. “I’m disappointed in the attorney general for many reasons.”

Asked whether he planned to fire Sessions, the president added, “We are looking at lots of different things.”

Trump has long publicly shamed the attorney general for recusing himself in March 2017 from overseeing the Russia investigation — a sprawling inquiry that has cast a shadow over Trump’s 20 months in office. Firing Sessions would be a way to change who has oversight of the investigation.

In his interview with The Hill, Trump said his disappointment in . Sessions extended beyond the Russia investigation to immigration, an issue on which both men share a hard-line view.

“I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this,” Trump said.

Trump’s most recent attack on Sessions came days after he ordered the declassification of records related to the Russia investigation, an inquiry he has called corrupt, rigged and a witch hunt.

Since Sessions stepped aside, that inquiry has been overseen by the deputy attorney general, Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed a special counsel, Robert Mueller, to lead it. Trump has said repeatedly that he expected Sessions to protect him from the investigation, which has resulted in convictions and guilty pleas from the president’s former aides.

The president recently told Bloomberg News that he would not fire Sessions before the midterm elections in November. And should Trump decide to dismiss him, it is unlikely that the Senate would be able to confirm a replacement before then.