Donald Trump didn’t fire Attorney General Jefferson Sessions on Friday, when he might have expected a pair of funerals and the long weekend to at least partially diminish the uproar. But that doesn’t mean that he’s forgiven his AG for refusing to give him a free pass on the Russia investigation, or that he’s going to list to the long list of Republicans who begged him to keep Sessions in place until November.
To bolster his argument that Sessions needs to go now, Trump took to Twitter on Monday afternoon to accuse Sessions of being a tool for, what else, the Obama administration.
The idea that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III would do anything because it was the wish of President Barack Obama is just as funny as the thought that Trump would do the same. And what Sessions actually did was bring these investigations to an end outside the absolutely-not-a-low 60-day window around the elections.
The two Congressmen Trump is speaking about would be New York Republican Chris Collins, who was recently indicted on 13 counts of securities fraud, and California Republican Duncan Hunter who, along with his wife, is looking at a 47-page indictment for using campaign funds on everything from his vacations to his teeth. There seems little doubt that both men are guilty, but Trump’s tweets show what he considers important: They’re Republicans, and they’re “popular,” so should be above the law.
It’s the same standard that Trump supporters have been attempting to apply to Trump, with multiple Congressmen making it clear that if special counsel Robert Mueller finds Trump has engaged in just plain old money-laundering, bank fraud, tax evasion, and lying to authorities … it won’t be worth talking about.
Trump followed up his initial tweet with one claiming that Democrats “must love” Sessions now. And that in the wake of his firing, James Comey became a “saint like figure” which Trump declares a “really sick” point of view. It’s also a point of view that doesn’t exist outside of Fox News.
No Democrats are singing the praises of racist, sexist, vote-suppressing, immigrant caging, prison-for-all Sessions. In any normal year, he’s be the monster at the center of the news. It’s only because Trump is present that Sessions is just another cacodemons at his side.
It seems rather late in the day for Trump to fire Sessions, and the Republicans are still begging Trump to keep up at least some pretense until Election Day. But this is Labor Day. That probably means Sessions isn’t in his office today. That makes it just the kind of day where Trump can sneak a “you’re fired” onto his desk and watch from the safety of his bedroom.