Amid news that President Donald Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to rethink his decision to step back from the Russia investigation, MSNBC political analyst Jason Johnson argued that the former Alabama senator would never turn on the president.
During a Tuesday appearance on “The Last Word with Lawrence McDonnell,” Johnson noted the countless times Trump has publicly attacked Sessions — not mentioning the president’s most recent tweet saying he wished “he could have picked somebody else” to serve as U.S. attorney general.
Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too…and that’s how I read that – Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
The president’s Wednesday morning tweet storm came amid fallout over a New York Times article claiming he pressured Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse himself from oversight in the ongoing Russia probe.
“He’s insulted him. He’s made fun of him. He has attacked him on Twitter,” Johnson said of Trump’s behavior toward the AG. “But this is what I said, Lawrence, a couple of weeks ago when I talked about grumble bragging from members of this administration … “Oh, it’s so terrible to work for Donald Trump,’ — but they don’t leave, do they? And they don’t leave because at their core, they actually agree with a lot of the things Donald Trump is doing, even if they don’t like him as a person.”
Johnson said Sessions would never leave the president’s side because he the enjoys the power and he position he’s in.
“Jeff Sessions is in favor of the travel ban. Jeff Sessions is being just as much as a hawk on immigration,” he continued. “Jeff Session believes that Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization. He is not going to leave this administration … I don’t think he would ever flip on Donald Trump. This is the opportunity for him to live out the white nationalist fantasies he has been talking about under the guise of conservative policy the last 35 years of his career.”
Hear more of his commentary above.
