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Trump Just Dropped A Giant Hint About Jeff Sessions' Future In The Administration

by Caroline Burke
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Donald Trump said he won't fire Jeff Sessions — at least not just yet. Despite what he claims to be the Attorney General's inability to put an end to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's "illegal investigation," Trump confirmed that he'll keep Sessions at least through to the November midterms. After that, Sessions' future is unclear.

During the Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News, Trump said, “I just would love to have him do a great job ... I’d love to have him look at the other side." Trump continued, "I do question what is Jeff doing." The president then supposedly noted that he made "no promises" about what he would do after Nov. 6, 2018.

During the interview, Trump explained that he viewed Mueller's investigation "differently," because "great scholars" have confirmed to him that "there should never have been a special counsel." Trump did not clarify which scholars he was referencing. Trump's relationship with Sessions has been publicly tense for over a year now, ever since Sessions decided to recuse himself from Russia-related matters in 2017. Arguably, Mueller might never have been tapped to investigate Russian involvement in the election if Sessions hadn't recused himself.

Either way, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has since described Trump and Session's relationship as "beyond repair" during a segment on NBC's Today. Graham then went on to suggest that Session be recused altogether from his role as Attorney General, simply to find someone who can have a working relationship with the president.

Graham said, "The President has lost confidence in Jeff Sessions. I'm telling you what everybody in the country knows, this is a dysfunctional relationship, we need a better one...I'm not asking him to be fired, but the relationship is not working."

Even if Trump is postponing what he seems to be implying is inevitable, that doesn't really mean he's maintaining any level of support for Sessions in the meantime. A report by Politico reveals that Trump has supposedly been personally lobbying Republican senators to "flip" on Sessions, and has been complaining about Sessions to "any senator who will listen" for the last 10 days, according to one source. Bustle reached out to the White House for comment. According to Politico, Trump raised the idea of firing Sessions after the midterms to Sen. Graham in a phone call last week, which means the call would have occurred several days before Graham went on air with NBC.

Trump has not minced words about his opinion of Sessions over the last year. Since March 2017 when Trump tweeted that Sessions was an "honest man," he has attacked the Attorney General repeatedly for being "BLANK" and for failing to stop a "rigged witch hunt", AKA the Russian investigation by Mueller.

As for Sessions, he hasn't tweeted since 2014. However, he did make a public statement in defense of his work as Attorney General on Aug. 23, saying in a written statement via USA Today, "While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations."