First, the cold water: Jeff Sessions isn’t going anywhere. He is no Alberto Gonzales.
Second, more cold water: Sessions had no major stumbles before the U.S. Senate, where he testified in front of the Intelligence Committee on Tuesday. Third: Sessions still sustained some damage. Working for Donald Trump requires that you defend what no one should have to defend, and that you negotiate dilemmas that no one should have to negotiate. Russia isn’t Sessions’s problem. Trump is. And the case of James Comey is merely one of what are likely to be numerous headaches for an attorney general who must balance the ethics of his job with the threat of getting fired for telling his boss no.
But let’s first examine the Russia-related segment. On this, Sessions’s questioners got nowhere. Defending himself against having allegedly perjured himself regarding meetings with “the Russians,” Sessions said that his answer had to be viewed in context. I happen to agree, and (sorry) I’ve written as much. If you look at the transcript of what was said between Sessions and Al Franken there’s no reasonable basis, at least in the eyes of this reader, for accusing him of perjury.
WATCH: The Trump Administration’s Ties to Russia
Questions about alleged meetings between Russians and Sessions at the Mayflower Hotel also yielded nothing juicy. Even Democrats seemed uninterested in pursuing the matter in depth. Why would Sessions go to a major public event and meet Russians in attendance to plot with them? And does anything in Sessions’s history suggest that he’s disloyal to the United States, let alone traitorous? Trump had a large cast of unsavory characters in his inner circle already. If he wanted to scheme with shadowy foreign operators, he didn’t need a sitting senator. He just needed a sleazeball like Paul Manafort. Or so many others in his life.
Sessions did sustain some damage, however, regarding Comey’s firing. His recusal on Russia-related matters wasn’t the major problem. That’s an arguable case, because it was just one of thousands of things on Comey’s plate. At some point, you have to draw the line on keeping yourself out of the loop. It’s at least debatable. But the rest looked bad.
We know that Trump met with Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on May 8 to discuss getting rid of Comey, and the president asked them to prepare a memorandum making the case for doing so. What probably took both Sessions and Rosenstein by surprise, however, was that Trump chose to fire Comey just one day later, initially citing Rosenstein’s memo as his reason. If I had to guess what Sessions and Rosenstein thought to themselves, it was probably, “What the hell? How do you think this makes us look?” But all Sessions could actually muster when asked about whether he would have felt “uncomfortable” about his role in Comey’s firing had he known that Trump would imminently pull the trigger was merely, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to deal with those kind of hypotheticals.”
Everyone knows that the key to nailing Trump (or anyone else) for malfeasance over the Comey firing is to get a couple of pieces of testimony on the record, and then hone in on the discrepancies. Sessions likewise knows this, too, and he therefore prudently chose to stonewall, citing Trump’s right to invoke executive privilege concerning private conversations. Democrats drilled him on what legal basis Sessions, as a subordinate to the executive, was refusing to answer, but Sessions held the cards. Executive privilege is a tricky and loosely defined thing, and, in any case, Sessions is not legally required to answer such questions unless he is subpoenaed. But it still looks slippery.
Where Sessions looked shabbiest, though, was in his explanations of his reaction to complaints by Comey about Trump’s improprieties. Comey, said Sessions, had “expressed concern about proper communications protocol,” and in response Sessions apparently told Comey yes, make sure to mind that. There was a set of rules, and, said Sessions, “I knew and assumed correctly that he would apply that.” I.e. Jim, looks like you’ve got this in hand. Because the rules are on your side. So no need for me. Good luck.
Like everyone else who works for Trump, Sessions is in an impossible bind. If he were to draw back the curtain on all the inappropriate things that Trump has said and done in private, Sessions would probably sink his boss, or at least do a lot of damage. If he says he can’t answer questions, he looks cagey and furtive. So he has to do his best to tame the White House beast while keeping a lid on everything. It’s a horrible job. Now we’ll see how long Sessions can stand it.
The Exact Moment Each of Trump’s Enemies Sold Their Souls
Mitt Romney
The O.G. Never Trumper, Romney effectively renounced his past denunciations of the president-elect, whom he had previously called a “con man,” when Trump began publicly courting him for secretary of state. (He did not get the job.)
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
Chris Christie
During his presidential campaign, the New Jersey governor called Trump a “thin-skinned,” “13-year-old,” whose ideas “made no sense,” so it was quite the surprise to see Christie standing shell-shocked at Trump’s side, weeks after he dropped out, upon giving him his hearty endorsement.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
Ted Cruz
After Trump insulted his wife’s looks, the Texas senator responded by all-but calling his primary opponent a ratf***er and refused to endorse him during a speech at the Republican National Convention. But months later, not only did he urge his voters to pull the lever for Trump, he was spotted morosely phone-banking in front of his former enemy’s campaign signage.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park.
Reince Priebus
A long time ago, in the year 2016, the R.N.C. chairman threw everything he could to prevent Trump from becoming the party’s nominee. Days after Trump won, Reince stood by his side as his chief of staff, possibly getting the least humiliating outcome for an erstwhile Trump foe.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
Paul Ryan
The House Speaker spent months trying to maintain a safe distance from Trump, condemning his statements (even as he declined to renounce him) and at one point canceling a rally appearance with Trump after his past p****-grabbing comments came to light. Flash-forward two months, and Ryan was praising Trump in front of a cheering crowd in Wisconsin, thanking him for clinching the first Republican presidential win in the state in decades.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
Jason Chaffetz
“I’m out. I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president,” the Utah congressman declared days after the Access Hollywood tapes leaked, calling Trump’s comments “some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine.” It took Chaffetz only 19 days to flip back to Trump.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
Ben Carson
When Trump compared him to a child molester, the soft-spoken neurosurgeon responded that he would “pray for him,” the Carson equivalent of a sick burn. But after Carson wandered onstage at Mar-a-Lago to give his endorsement, he immediately transformed into one of Trump’s most consistently confusing surrogates.
Photo: Digital Colorization by Ben Park; From Getty Images.
