Trump Lashes Out at Jeff Sessions

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was the target of an extensive interview by the New York Times with President Donald Trump. (JOHN LOCHER/AP PHOTO)

President Donald Trump has lashed out against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and vented angrily about several other legal concerns that are clearly causing him considerable agita.

His latest unscripted moments unsettled Trump's senior advisers and fellow Republicans in Congress who were hoping the president would focus more attention on reviving legislation overhauling the health care system, a measure which is on life support. Instead, he expressed his anger and frustration about various unrelated issues.

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Trump's Tantrums

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Trump told the New York Times Wednesday that he regretted naming Sessions as attorney general because the former senator later recused himself from supervising a Justice Department investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. This resulted in the naming of special counsel Robert Mueller to handle the Justice Department probe. "Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else," Trump complained.

Trump, clearly miffed at the situation, added: "Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president. 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 also said Sessions "gave some bad answers" during his Senate confirmation hearings when he denied he had "communications with the Russians." It was later revealed that Sessions met at least twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Trump told the Times, "Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers. He gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers. But they weren't."

Trump's unusual criticism could be a sign that he wants Sessions to resign. The AG provided no comment to reporters Wednesday night.

Sessions is a former Republican senator from Alabama and was an early Trump supporter in the 2016 race.

Trump also had harsh words for Mueller, a former FBI director. Mueller apparently is also examining whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to damage Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump said Mueller has conflicts of interest, partly because he is a longtime friend of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May, and because Mueller has brought in aides who have connections to Hillary Clinton. Trump also warned federal investigators not to probe into areas far from the Russian meddling situation, such as his family's overall financial dealings. The president said such investigations would be improper and unfair.