Trump is absolutely right on the merits. It was absurd for Sessions to recuse himself from the Russia investigation just because he had some very rudimentary conversation with some Russians when he was a senator. It was the some of the biggest overkill I've ever seen in the service of avoiding "appearance of impropriety."
But here we are: Sessions is attorney general Trump is his boss. And the New York Times must think they'd died and gone to Heaven . . . if they believed in Heaven:
Sessions was asked about it at a presser shortly thereafter, and here is his response:
It was Sessions's mistake to recuse himself, and I don't know if it's even possible to un-recuse yourself. But for now what's done is done, and if Trump wants to keep Sessions in the job regardless, he is not making either of their jobs any easier by complaining about it to the New York Times, which as we've already seen is only too happy to let the world hear him grumbling about it.
Perhaps Trump sees an opportunity to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Russia investigation by pointing out that his own attorney general is helpless to oversee the investigation or ensure that it goes in a responsible direction. As it stands, we now have Robert Mueller expanding the probe to look into Trump family finances. This is no surprise at all. It's what independent counsels always do. Once they get started they can't seem to stop until they find something to pin on someone, and it usually turns out that the person who gets nabbed got caught up in the legal technicalities of the investigation itself, rather than having done anything wrong related to the alleged underlying crime - if there even was one.
I don't blame Trump for not liking that. But I blame him for blabbing to the New York Times how unhappy he is with Jeff Sessions. I'm sure other presidents have also been unhappy about decisions their underlings made, but told them privately and dealt with it in house. Usually I like the fact that Trump eschews Beltway conventional wisdom and follows his own instincts.
But I don't like it here. He's put both himself and Sessions in a very awkward position, and now that he's said it publicly, I don't see how it can be undone.
