Tag: Jeff Sessions
Everyone Knew It Was Coming, But Sessions’ Ouster From the Justice Department so Soon After the Mid-Terms Landed With a Boom
Barely 12 hours after the smoke had cleared from the 2018 mid-term elections, another political bomb exploded Wednesday afternoon when news came that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions had resigned at the request of President Donald Trump.
That Sessions was on his way out was not a shock. The former U.S. senator from Mobile had been one of the first well-known supporters of Trump in the presidential campaign. But shortly after he took the cabinet position, he became a thorn in Trump’s side by recusing himself from supervising the investigation into collusion by Russia during the 2016 election.
Trump chafed at the move by Sessions both publicly and privately, accusing Sessions of being disloyal and not acting in Trump’s defense. The rift grew during the two years Sessions served in the post.
Sessions’ departure had been expected for months, though political advisers told Trump to wait until after the mid-terms. He did so, barely — Sessions was told by Chief of Staff Mike Kelly to hand in his resignation on Wednesday afternoon, and he did.
Reaction to Sessions’ stepping down was quick, most of it praising Sessions or speculating on his next moves and what they could mean for politics in the state. Read more.
BirminghamWatch Recommends: A Roundup of Stories on Sessions’ Firing
Alabama Residents Protest Sessions’ Departure (WBHM)
Jeff Sessions Executed the Agenda of a President Who Could Not Look Past a Betrayal (New York Times)
Jeff Sessions Pushed out After a Year of Attacks From Trump (Associated Press)
Former AL Senator Jeff Sessions Resigns as Attorney General (WBHM)
How Sessions’s Firing Could Affect the Russia Investigation (New York Times)
‘You’re Fired:’ A Timeline of Team Trump Departures (Washington Post)
The Latest Drama in Trump’s Slow-Motion Saturday Night Massacre (The Atlantic)
Jeff Sessions Will Run for Senate in 2020, Analyst Says (AL.com)
As the World of Washington Thrashes About Him, Attorney General Jeff Sessions Keeps Doing His Thing
In a crowded hotel ballroom in Hoover, Jeff Sessions got something he rarely gets in Washington, D.C., these days — approval and adulation.
Hundreds of law enforcement professionals gave the embattled attorney general a standing ovation during his introduction to a symposium, and the Alabama native took note.
“That is a warm welcome. I appreciate it, and it’ll make my day. Who knows? I may need this, going back to Washington. You never know in the Capital City, that’s for sure,” Sessions joked.
The crowd chuckled nervously, as if they understood precisely why Sessions said that. He’s been the target of plenty of criticism and outright derision from President Trump, who picked him to head the U.S. Department of Justice partly as thanks for early support of his campaign — and who has since repeatedly castigated Sessions for recusing himself from the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
While Sessions was addressing attendees of the National Public Safety Partnership’s symposium at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham-The Wynfrey Hotel on Monday, the Washington whirlwind was spinning at full force. Read more.
