Donald Trump is raging about Attorney General Jeff Sessions at Republican senators, hoping to get their backing to fire Sessions for his disloyalty in recusing himself from the Russia investigation. And while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is still backing Sessions, other pushback against Trump’s fury is fading away.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested only that Trump wait until after the midterm elections, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley found that space has suddenly opened up on his committee’s calendar for confirmation hearings, saying “I do have time for hearings on nominees that the president might send up here that I didn’t have last year.”
Senate Republicans weren’t the only people protecting Sessions until now, though. Trump’s lawyers had also urged Trump not to fire his attorney general, worrying that it would contribute to an obstruction case from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Thanks to Trump’s stream of anger and threats directed at Sessions, his lawyers now feel that Mueller has everything he needs for an obstruction case and firing Sessions can’t make it too much worse:
“There’s the belief that if the president taking action with respect to Sessions is going to be an important part of the Mueller obstruction case, most of that case has already been made. Things that the president has already done privately that have been reported, but also things that the president has done publicly that could be characterized as bullying or intimidating, all of that case is already there ready to be made, such that firing him is almost like an afterthought,” said one person familiar with the conversations among members of the president’s legal team.
Great. Trump can fire Sessions without worrying about the effect on an obstruction case not because it won’t look like obstruction but because he’s already so flagrantly tried to obstruct the Russia investigation that firing Sessions would just be the cherry on top of the gigantic brownie sundae. So now Trump just has to chip away at Senate opposition to replacing Sessions—and when has Mitch McConnell seriously stood up to Trump when he really, really, really wanted something?