Under-fire Trump turns attention back to Clinton

Jeff Sessions
Jeff Sessions. Chip Somodevilla Getty Images
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30 July, 2017

He also planned to reverse the Obama-era policy on mandatory minimum sentences and rejected scientific findings that fight the forensic evidence process which led to countless innocent people being imprisoned.

His visit to France earlier this month, while marred by an offensive comment to the wife of French president Emmanuel Macron, temporarily downplayed political differences for the sake of a good military parade. He met members of a transnational anti-gang task force and pledged his support for El Salvador's Attorney General Douglas Melendez, congratulating him on charges laid over the last two days against more than 700 gang members, many of them from MS-13. Not only is the president losing his insurance policy against impeachment, he is losing his capacity to sell himself to the sympathetic.

Trump often talks about making staff changes without following through, so those who have spoken with the president cautioned that a change may not be imminent or happen at all. Were it not for a last-minute announcement from Comey that he was taking another look at Hillary Clinton's email messages, then Trump probably would not have won that election.

US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has described himself as hurt by President Donald Trump's public rebukes of his job performance, but said that he meant to carry on in his role and cited his shared commitment with the President to prosecuting violent crime and leaks of sensitive information. Ever since, the president has been controlled by fear.

His intensifying criticism has fueled speculation that the attorney general may step down even if the president stops short of firing him. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is leaking like a sieve.

Among those whose names are affixed to the letter are: Edwin Meese, who served as attorney general under former President Ronald Reagan; former Sen.

That fear was justified. Unless Americans gain a better understanding of how this kind of influence works, there's little reason to believe it will end, no matter how the Trump-Russia case concludes. "If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay", he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., came the closest to slapping down the president when he put out a statement reminding the White House, "Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation".

Trump's bashing of Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe follows the sudden resignation last Friday of his press secretary Sean Spicer in protest against the appointment of Trump crony and fellow Wall Street speculator Anthony Scaramucci as director of White House communications. "It appears he has a plan in mind and we don't want to make it any easier". Trump's pick to be the new Federal Bureau of Investigation director, Christopher Wray, had his nomination approved by the Senate's Judiciary Committee last week. When nine Republicans voted with Democrats to kill a draconian bill, he singled out Alaska's Lisa Murkowski for denunciation.

On the provocateur front: Trump loves to do the unexpected, loves to zig when other people zag, loves to make people say out loud, "I can't believe he just did that!?!" But as a chief executive, it further undermined his own team. Substantively, Trump is governing as more or less a conventional Republican.

Meanwhile, no one in the White House took up for Priebus - including Priebus himself. When Tillerson's doubts were reported in the press, he took an unannounced vacation.

Cumulatively - let's not forget the erratic, impulsive declaration that he was throwing transgender military personnel out of the armed services - it is not clear whether Trump has reached a tipping point when Republicans decide he actually has to leave office.


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