Is Trump set to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani?

Tuesday, July 25, 2017 by

It’s no secret that the president of the United States has been upset at his attorney general.

In an interview last week with The New York Times — of all publications, given the trash treatment given to him — Donald J. Trump said in no uncertain terms that Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Department of Justice’s ongoing “Russian collusion” investigations was a major mistake.

“Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” he told the Times. “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.’ It’s extremely unfair — and that’s a mild word — to the president.”

Trump went on to hit Sessions over answers he gave during his Senate confirmation hearing, in which he failed to disclose a pair of meetings he had with a Russian diplomat, ambassador to the U.S. Sergey I. Kislyak; even though he was still a sitting senator at the time, he was already closely aligned with the Trump campaign.

“Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers,” said the president. “He gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t.”

Then on Monday, Trump referred to the AG as “beleaguered” in a series of tweets asking why Sessions and Congress weren’t looking into collusion between the Clintons and the Russian government:

“So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?” Trump tweeted.

Now, it seems, the president may be ready to part ways with his attorney general and replace him with another loyalist, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

As reported by Axios, West Wing sources say Trump’s disappointment and anger with Sessions has led him to consider putting Giuliani back in the Justice Department.

That said, the political insider site noted that nominating Giuliani would not be without risk: Because the former Big Apple mayor was such an early and ardent Trump supporter, he may not even get the requisite 50 senators (all would have to be Republicans) to vote to confirm him; the excuse they would use is that he couldn’t be “independent” (as if either of the Left-wing activists President Obama nominated to be AG — Eric Holder Jr. and Loretta Lynch — that some of the same GOP senators voted to confirm were ‘independent’).

Additionally, some GOP senators likely would be queasy with Giuliani’s “stop-and-frisk” policy of allowing NYPD officers additional authority to stop anyone who aroused suspicion. Critics said most of those who were stopped were blacks and other minorities; supporters of the policy noted that it was successful in dramatically reducing New York City’s crime rate.

Axios also noted that there are rumblings that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, also an ardent Trump supporter, is about to take a more active “attack dog” role as Trump prepares to do battle with special counsel Robert Mueller, whom Trump believes was ultimately appointed by a skittish Asst. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because Sessions recused himself from all things Russia, therefore leaving Rosenstein with the authority to appoint Mueller. (Related: SHOWDOWN: Mueller expands his probe into Trump business dealings after president warned him to stick to Russia only.)

[Speaking of Mueller, Trump also told the Times that the former FBI director actually interviewed with the president for his old job, then — when it looked as though he wouldn’t get it — he was appointed special counsel. Can anyone say “swamp?”]

Of replacing Sessions and adding Gingrich in a larger supporting role, Axios noted further:

Presidents like the personnel equivalent of comfort food — people with whom they have a long, happy history. Presidents often find they can only really trust people they knew before they took office, since it’s hard to trust new people at the pinnacle of power.

We’ll see how this plays out. It would be a shame for Sessions — a former U.S. prosecutor — to have to step down. He has otherwise been a full-throated, loyal supporter of the president who also backs his policies without question.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

Axios.com

TheNationalSentinel.com

FreeBeacon.com



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