President Donald Trump said Wednesday he regretted choosing Jeff Sessions as attorney general, a continuation of the President's frustrations over Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.
Quoting Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, who noted on CBS earlier Wednesday that Trump "could have picked somebody else" for the position, Trump tweeted, "I wish I did!"
Gowdy was responding to a question about whether Trump may have obstructed justice in reportedly asking Sessions in March 2017 to reverse his decision to recuse himself in the probe, as The New York Times reported Tuesday.
The South Carolina Republican said he believed Trump was "expressing frustration" that Sessions should have shared his reasons for recusal before accepting the role of attorney general.
Trump has frequently criticized Sessions over his recusal, which paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Trump, according to The New York Times, has said he needs an attorney general to protect him.
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
In an interview with The New York Times last July, the President said he would not have chosen Sessions to be his attorney general had he known Sessions would step away from matters related to the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump and his attorney general's relationship has suffered greatly since Sessions' decision to recuse himself. Sessions, a top Trump campaign surrogate, announced the decision in March 2017 after it was revealed that he had contacts with Russia's ambassador to the US during the 2016 election.
In the past year, Trump has publicly referred to his attorney general as "beleaguered" and even referred to Sessions in February as "Mr. Magoo" behind closed doors, according to The Washington Post.
Trump also has privately complained that Sessions has not adequately defended him, multiple sources have told CNN over the past year.
Sessions has stood by his decision and continued to offer no public signal that he intends to step down in face of the criticism, despite an apparent offer to resign after Trump berated him and called him an "idiot" last year, according to The New York Times.
The-CNN-Wire
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