Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 30 of 36

Thread: Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions

  1. #1

    Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/u...ns-russia.html

    WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”

    [Read excerpts of The Times’s interview with President Trump.]

    In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “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,” Mr. Trump said.

    In a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times, the president also accused James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director he fired in May, of trying to leverage a dossier of compromising material to keep his job. Mr. Trump criticized both the acting F.B.I. director who has been filling in since Mr. Comey’s dismissal and the deputy attorney general who recommended it. And he took on Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now leading the investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s election.

    Mr. Trump said Mr. Mueller was running an office rife with conflicts of interest and warned investigators against delving into matters too far afield from Russia. Mr. Trump never said he would order the Justice Department to fire Mr. Mueller, nor would he outline circumstances under which he might do so. But he left open the possibility as he expressed deep grievance over an investigation that has taken a political toll in the six months since he took office.

    Asked if Mr. Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Mr. Trump said, “I would say yes.” He would not say what he would do about it. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.”

    While the interview touched on an array of issues, including health care, foreign affairs and politics, the investigation dominated the conversation. He said that as far as he knew, he was not under investigation himself, despite reports that Mr. Mueller is looking at whether the president obstructed justice by firing Mr. Comey.

    “I don’t think we’re under investigation,” he said. “I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

    Describing a newly disclosed informal conversation he had with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia during a dinner of world leaders in Germany this month, Mr. Trump said they talked for about 15 minutes, mostly about “pleasantries.” But Mr. Trump did say that they talked “about adoption.” Mr. Putin banned American adoptions of Russian children in 2012 after the United States enacted sanctions on Russians accused of human rights abuses, an issue that remains a sore point in relations with Moscow.
    "Adoptions" refers to Russia halting US families from adopting Russian children in retaliation for US sanctions on Russia. If they are talking about those adoptions, they are discussing US sanctions on Russia.

    Mr. Trump acknowledged that it was “interesting” that adoptions came up since his son, Donald Trump Jr., said that was the topic of a meeting he had with several Russians with ties to the Kremlin during last year’s campaign. Even though emails show that the session had been set up to pass along incriminating information about Hillary Clinton, the president said he did not need such material from Russia about Mrs. Clinton last year because he already had more than enough.

    The interview came as the White House was trying to regain momentum after the collapse of health care legislation even while the president’s son, son-in-law and former campaign chairman were being asked to talk with Senate investigators. Relaxed and engaged, the president sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, with only one aide, Hope Hicks, sitting in on the interview. The session was sandwiched between a White House lunch with Republican senators and an event promoting “Made in America” week.

    Over the course of 50 minutes, the often-fiery Mr. Trump demonstrated his more amiable side, joking about holding hands with the president of France and musing about having a military parade down a main avenue in Washington. He took satisfaction that unemployment has fallen and stock markets have risen to record highs on his watch.

    At one point, his daughter Ivanka arrived at the doorway with her daughter, Arabella, who ran to her grandfather and gave him a kiss. He greeted the 6-year-old girl as “baby,” then urged her to show the reporters her ability to speak Chinese. She obliged.

    But Mr. Trump left little doubt during the interview that the Russia investigation remained a sore point. His pique at Mr. Sessions, in particular, seemed fresh even months after the attorney general’s recusal. Mr. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Mr. Trump’s candidacy and was rewarded with a key cabinet slot, but has been more distant from the president lately.

    “Jeff Sessions takes the job, gets into the job, recuses himself, which frankly I think is very unfair to the president,” he added. “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.”

    Mr. Trump also faulted Mr. Sessions for his testimony during Senate confirmation hearings when Mr. Sessions said he had not had “communications with the Russians” even though he had met at least twice with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak. “Jeff Sessions gave some bad answers,” the president said. “He gave some answers that were simple questions and should have been simple answers, but they weren’t.”


    A spokesman for Mr. Sessions declined to comment on Wednesday.

    The president added a new allegation against Mr. Comey, whose dismissal has become a central issue for critics who said it amounted to an attempt to obstruct the investigation into Russian meddling in the election and any possible collusion with Mr. Trump’s team.

    Mr. Trump recalled that a little more than two weeks before his inauguration, Mr. Comey and other intelligence officials briefed him at Trump Tower on Russian meddling. Mr. Comey afterward pulled Mr. Trump aside and told him about a dossier that had been assembled by a former British spy filled with salacious allegations against the incoming president, including supposed sexual escapades in Moscow. The F.B.I. has not corroborated the most sensational assertions in the dossier.

    In the interview, Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. Comey told him about the dossier to implicitly make clear he had something to hold over the president. “In my opinion, he shared it so that I would think he had it out there,” Mr. Trump said. As leverage? “Yeah, I think so,” Mr. Trump said. “In retrospect.”

    The president dismissed the assertions in the dossier: “When he brought it to me, I said this is really made-up junk. I didn’t think about any of it. I just thought about, man, this is such a phony deal.”

    Mr. Comey declined to comment on Wednesday.

    But Mr. Comey and other intelligence officials decided it was best for him to raise the subject with Mr. Trump alone because he was going to remain as F.B.I. director. Mr. Comey testified before Congress that he disclosed the details of the dossier to Mr. Trump because he thought that the news media would soon be publishing details from it and that Mr. Trump had a right to know what information was out there about him. A two-page summary about the dossier was widely reported the week before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, including by The Times.

    Mr. Trump rebutted Mr. Comey’s claim that in a one-on-one meeting in the Oval Office on Feb. 14, the president asked him to end the investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. Mr. Comey testified before Congress that Mr. Trump kicked the vice president, attorney general and several other senior administration officials out of the room before having the discussion with Mr. Comey.

    “I don’t remember even talking to him about any of this stuff,” Mr. Trump said. “He said I asked people to go. Look, you look at his testimony. His testimony is loaded up with lies, O.K.?”

    He expressed no second thoughts about firing Mr. Comey, saying, “I did a great thing for the American people.”

    Mr. Trump was also critical of Mr. Mueller, a former F.B.I. director, reprising some of his past complaints that lawyers in his office contributed money to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. He noted that he actually interviewed Mr. Mueller to replace Mr. Comey just before his appointment as special counsel.
    More at link.



  2. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  3. #2
    He was a bad choice, Dump should fire him now.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  4. #3
    the best thing that comes out of alabama is the interstate .

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    He was a bad choice, Dump should fire him now.
    Of course, he was a bad choice for AG!!!

    But not for the reasons Trump thinks he was a bad choice. It's all about fealty to this guy. He doesn't care about stepping up the drug war or stealing people's property, but whoa... you better bail him out when he needs you!

    Pathetic.
    "And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat

    "It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by CaptUSA View Post
    Of course, he was a bad choice for AG!!!

    But not for the reasons Trump thinks he was a bad choice. It's all about fealty to this guy. He doesn't care about stepping up the drug war or stealing people's property, but whoa... you better bail him out when he needs you!

    Pathetic.
    I think he was a bad choice for all the reasons you do, I just hope Dump will fire him now.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  7. #6
    The guy's a grade A a$$ wipe.

    Don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows

  8. #7
    Banned


    Blog Entries
    1
    Posts
    7,273
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    What Trump says is irrelevant.

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    He was a bad choice, Dump should fire him now.
    Fine, how about never hiring him in the first place over his wanton disregard for due process, his support for "civil asset forfeiture" (i.e. theft).



  10. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Fine, how about never hiring him in the first place over his wanton disregard for due process, his support for "civil asset forfeiture" (i.e. theft).
    I never liked the choice of Sessions, but it is history, I am hoping he will fire him now.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    I never liked the choice of Sessions, but it is history, I am hoping he will fire him now.
    Every second before now is history.

    This post is history by the time you read it.

  13. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Every second before now is history.

    This post is history by the time you read it.
    I can't hope Dump didn't pick him, I can hope he will fire him now for whatever reason gets him to do it.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  14. #12
    Rand Paul was asked about Trump's comment about Sessions multiple times and he destroyed the narrative and inserted his own on how he doesn't like the fact that sessions is authorizing the government to take people's stuff. I think they might stop having him on if he doesn't stop killing the msm narrative.


  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    I can't hope Dump didn't pick him
    Well, no, because that already occurred.

    I can hope he will fire him now for whatever reason gets him to do it.
    I bought a lotto ticket the other day..

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Well, no, because that already occurred.
    Exactly.



    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    I bought a lotto ticket the other day..
    I am risking nothing, I simply posted my opinion/hope that he would fire him now, and 2 people attacked me for it as if I was happy with Sessions other than his recusal.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    I am risking nothing, I simply posted my opinion/hope that he would fire him now, and 2 people attacked me for it as if I was happy with Sessions other than his recusal.
    Well, perhaps people ought not to have attacked you; I didn't.

    But the fact of the matter is that God-Emperor nominated and accepted dirty swine such as Sessions.

    So...

  18. #16



  19. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Well, perhaps people ought not to have attacked you; I didn't.

    But the fact of the matter is that God-Emperor nominated and accepted dirty swine such as Sessions.

    So...
    He deserves what he gets.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    He deserves what he gets.
    A) What are the odds that he gets it?

    and B) what, if any, responsibility will God-Emperor have? Idiocy or criminality, take your pick.

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    A) What are the odds that he gets it?

    and B) what, if any, responsibility will God-Emperor have? Idiocy or criminality, take your pick.
    I was finishing your sentence, Dump deserves Sessions recusal because he picked the swamp monster.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  23. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    I was finishing your sentence, Dump deserves Sessions recusal because he picked the swamp monster.
    Well then, fine.

    So you knowledge that Reality TV President is a moron/whore?

  24. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Well then, fine.

    So you knowledge that Reality TV President is a moron/whore?
    He is corrupt and impure, I can't say how much is arrogance/stupidity and how much is corruption.
    However Gorsuch alone is enough to make him better than what we have been getting for a long time, not to mention what Hitlery would have been like, and there is much more beyond that.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  25. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    He is corrupt and impure, I can't say how much is arrogance/stupidity and how much is corruption.
    However Gorsuch alone is enough to make him better than what we have been getting for a long time, not to mention what Hitlery would have been like, and there is much more beyond that.
    Not a Hitler or Hillary fan, but I think there are at least a few people on here that would argue that the body counts are probably not that far off.

  26. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    He is corrupt and impure, I can't say how much is arrogance/stupidity and how much is corruption.
    However Gorsuch alone is enough to make him better than what we have been getting for a long time, not to mention what Hitlery would have been like, and there is much more beyond that.
    Trump Opposition Research Thread

    Been there, done that, many, many, many, many times.

  27. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Trump Opposition Research Thread

    Been there, done that, many, many, many, many times.
    The things on that thread are why I didn't/wouldn't support him in the Primaries and didn't vote for him in the General, but while we are stuck with him as POTUS I will take what I can get and hope for more, I would not be able to do either under Hitlery.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



  28. Remove this section of ads by registering.
  29. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    The things on that thread are why I didn't/wouldn't support him in the Primaries and didn't vote for him in the General, but while we are stuck with him as POTUS I will take what I can get and hope for more, I would not be able to do either under Hitlery.
    Hope can be irrational.

  30. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Hope can be irrational.
    Without hope we are nothing.
    Rebellions are built on hope.
    Some of my hopes built on Dump have already come true, I hope more will.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  31. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Swordsmyth View Post
    Without hope we are nothing.
    Rebellions are built on hope.
    Some of my hopes built on Dump have already come true, I hope more will.
    Elaborate

  32. #28
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  33. #29

  34. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Why, Gee whiz, he's going to cut government as much as George W. Bush.
    Bush Jr. never did this much.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast


Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 23
    Last Post: 02-02-2017, 06:01 PM
  2. Libertarian congressman pans Trump's choice of Sessions
    By jct74 in forum Justin Amash Forum
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 11-19-2016, 03:33 PM
  3. Replies: 527
    Last Post: 08-25-2016, 07:55 AM
  4. Trump Boycotts Fox News Citing Unfair Treatment
    By kahless in forum 2016 Presidential Election: GOP & Dem
    Replies: 77
    Last Post: 09-26-2015, 03:55 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •