President Trump blasted Jeff Sessions once again this weekend. He tweeted:
3 years ago, after Jeff Sessions recused himself, the Fraudulent Mueller Scam began. Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions. He let our Country down. That’s why I endorsed Coach Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville), the true supporter of our #MAGA agenda!
There’s nothing new here or in Trump’s follow-up venting. What’s new is that this time Sessions, whose chances of defeating coach Tuberville reportedly are slim, fired back:
Look, I know your anger, but recusal was required by law. I did my duty & you’re damn fortunate I did. It protected the rule of law & resulted in your exoneration. Your personal feelings don’t dictate who Alabama picks as their senator, the people of Alabama do.
I side with Jeff Sessions in this unfortunate dispute. However, to say that his recusal “resulted in [Trump’s] exoneration” glosses over the agony of the Mueller probe.
An outcome in which Trump was cleared of colluding with Russia during the 2016 campaign via a DOJ probe overseen by a top member of the campaign would have been problematic, both ethically and politically. However, the prolonged Mueller probe into matters extending well beyond the 2016 campaign was highly problematic even though it ended up finding insufficient evidence of collusion. That investigation disrupted the Trump presidency to a degree that’s hard to overstate.
The ideal and ethical outcome would have been a DOJ probe, overseen by Rod Rosenstein, of only the collusion claim. In this scenario, ethical rules would have been followed, Trump would surely have been exonerated, and the country would have been spared the Mueller circus.
Whose fault is it that we didn’t get that outcome? It’s the fault of Rod Rosenstein, the man who decided to bring in a special counsel and who selected Mueller for the job.
Rosenstein turned out to be a snake. He recommended that James Comey be fired (albeit for a different reason than the one Trump mentioned in an interview with Lester Holt) and then made the firing of Comey the grounds for bringing in a special counsel.
Moreover, he selected Mueller for the job even though President Trump had just rejected Mueller for the position of new FBI director. Mueller was thus a disappointed office seeker.
Rosenstein gave Mueller a ridiculously broad writ to investigate. And he declined to recuse himself even though he was a player in the firing of Comey — an important element of what he asked Mueller to investigate.
If Sessions had picked Rosenstein to be his deputy, Trump would have good reason to be angry with the former Attorney General. However, it’s my understanding that the decision to hire Rosenstein came from the White House. I’m told that Sessions didn’t even know Rosenstein.
Meanwhile, back on Twitter, Ann Coulter blasted Trump for his latest attack on Sessions. She tweeted, among other things:
3 years ago, a complete moron of a president told NBC’s Lester Holt, “I was going to fire Comey. … [W]hen I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.'” BAM! SPECIAL PROSECUTOR!
The most disloyal actual retard that has ever set foot in the Oval Office is trying to lose AND take the Senate with him. Another Roy Moore fiasco so he can blame someone else for his own mess.
Trump didn’t build the wall and never had any intention of doing so. The ONE PERSON in the Trump administration who did anything about immigration was Jeff Session. And this lout attacks him.
The second paragraph is off base. Trump isn’t trying to lose the presidency or the Senate, and there’s little reason to believe that Tommy Tuberville can’t defeat Doug Jones in November. Turberville is nothing like Roy Moore, whom Jones defeated.
However, Tuberville has no track record. He’s a blank slate, and there are no grounds for confidence that he’ll be nearly as effective or as reliably conservative as Jeff Sessions.
Coulter seems to blame Trump for Doug Jones’s election to the Senate. She tweeted:
GREAT WORK IN THE LAST ALABAMA SENATE RACE, MR. PRESIDENT! Keep it up and we’ll have zero Republican senators. The next Republican president will be elected in the year 4820.
But Trump is not to blame for the loss of the Alabama seat. He did his best to help Luther Strange, who would have defeated Jones.
At times like these, I can’t help wishing Twitter didn’t exist.
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