The Trump White House won't say it has confidence in Jeff Sessions

Reports indicate that Jeff Sessions hasn't had a good relationship with Trump, but the White House won't deny it

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published June 8, 2017 2:21PM (EDT)

 (Getty/Win McNamee)
(Getty/Win McNamee)

President Donald Trump, knowingly or otherwise, is adding fuel to the fire of rumors that he's had a falling out with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

On Wednesday Principal Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to say whether Trump had confidence in Sessions for the second day in a row, according to a report by Axios. When the question was most recently presented to her, Sanders replied, "I haven't had a chance to have an extensive conversation with him today, but I certainly plan to ask him that."

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Press secretary Sean Spicer gave a similar response on Tuesday by also saying he couldn't answer questions about Trump's relationship with Sessions because he hadn't discussed the matter with the president, according to a report by Axios.

Questions about Trump's confidence in Session emerged after a report by ABC News on Tuesday that the attorney general had said he might resign from his office in a heated conversation with the president. At the root of their reportedly uneasy relationship is the fact that, in March, Sessions chose to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after he was criticized for not disclosing previous encounters with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Trump still disagrees with the nearly three-month old decision and cites it as a reason for the expansion of the investigation into the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with the Russian government.

Sources say that Trump has lashed out at Sessions in private meetings, and that Sessions has also reciprocated the ill will back toward Trump.

CNBC reported that aides to Trump have urged him not to fire Sessions despite the current tensions between the two of them.


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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