In a Wednesday morning tweetstorm, President Trump stated that he wished he had picked someone else to be his attorney general, after extensively quoting from an appearance by outgoing House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy on Fox News.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too…and that’s how I read that – Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you. There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!
Trump’s comment was sparked by a Tuesday NYT report the president had asked Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.
Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too…and that’s how I read that – Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
Curiously, in the same Fox segment, Gowdy said he is now “more convinced” that the FBI acted appropriately in its handling of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible connections to Donald Trump’s campaign.
Gowdy’s comments come as President Trump continued to attack the department and the bureau over the handling of the Russia investigation. “I am even more convinced that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump,” the South Carolina Republican said in an interview on Fox News.
Gowdy also said in the interview that Trump is not a target of the ongoing Russia probe and told Fox, “President Trump himself in the Comey memos said if anyone connected with my campaign was working with Russia, I want you to investigate it, and it sounds to me like that is exactly what the FBI did. I think when the President finds out what happened, he is going to be not just fine, he is going to be glad that we have an FBI that took seriously what they heard.”
It is unclear if Trump’s latest confirmation that he “wishes” Sessions was not his AG will be spun as further attempts to influence the Mueller investigation of “Russian collusion”, now well into its second year.
The full Fox News interview is below:
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