In what comes as no surprise, except odds on how long after the midterms it might take, AG Jeff Sessions resigned from the Trump administration.
It’s only been ONE day, so what took so long?!
Here’s how NBC describes it.
Embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned at the “request” of President Donald Trump on Wednesday after more than a year of public criticism from the president.
Sessions’s chief of staff Matthew Whitaker will serve as acting attorney general, Trump announced.
Whitaker also will assume oversight of the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion by Trump’s campaign in that meddling. Whitaker by law can serve as acting AG for a maximum of 210 days.
[He] will have the power to fire Mueller “for cause” as outlined under rules governing the special counsel’s office, if such cause is found.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein up till now has had oversight over the Mueller probe, as a result of Sessions’ move to recuse himself from the investigation in 2017.
Sessions had been repeatedly blasted by Trump for his recusal.
Trmp [sic] says that moment opened the door to special counsel Mueller’s probe, which the president has repeatedly called a “witch hunt.”
Sessions’ resignation was expected to happen sometime after Tuesday’s midterm elections, particuarly [sic] given the drumbeat of the president’s repeated criticism of the attorney general.
I was literally preparing a post on the aftermath of the midterms, but hadn’t published it yet.
Here’s what I had prepared to write of Sessions in another article:
Jeff Sessions will finally exit stage Left.
While Sessions appears to be an admirable man, he’s not cut from the Trump cloth. Say what you want about Eric Holder, he backed Obama. Much of what he did was illegal, but one must appreciate the dude having Obama’s back.
While I don’t want Sessions to do anything illegal, like Holder did, I do expect him to back the play of the people. We elected Trump, and we want answers; we don’t need some sissy who recuses himself at the first hint of a fight.
According to Breitbart:
On Monday’s “Hugh Hewitt Show,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) predicted that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will likely resign in early 2019 and said he isn’t interested in taking the attorney general job.
Graham responded to a question on whether he would take a spot in the Cabinet by saying, “I’m staying right where I’m at. People ask me about being attorney general and other jobs. I will be in the NBA before I leave the Senate. And I don’t like my chances.”
He added, “Jeff probably will step down. We’ll have a new attorney general, most likely early next year.”
With Session gone, Rosenstein will follow.
Trump kept Rosenstein around just to watch him: “friends close, enemies closer”. Once Trump feels he has a competent AG, he will jettison Rosenstein.
I left the piece in there about Rosenstein, so you know what comes next.
Now the speculation on who will replace Sessions can begin, though Whitaker is acting AG for now.
You know President Trump will look for his “wing man” (or woman). He won’t tolerate a weak-kneed, by-the-book sissy for AG again.
