President Donald Trump on Tuesday declined to say whether he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to keep his job.
“I told you before I’m very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens, time will tell. Time will tell,” Trump said during a joint White House press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Trump said he wants “the attorney general to be much tougher on the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like — rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level.”
“These are intelligence agencies. We cannot have that happen,” he said. “You know many of my views in addition to that, but I think that’s one of the very important things that they have to get on with.”
Asked about his recent public criticism of Sessions and why he was letting Sessions’ job security “twist in the wind rather than making the call for him,” Trump reiterated his criticism of Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“I don’t think I am doing that, but I am disappointed in the attorney general,” Trump said. “He should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office. And if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office and I would have quite simply picked somebody else.”
He said Sessions’ recusal was unfair to the institution of the presidency.
“I think that’s a bad thing not for the President, but for the presidency. I think it’s unfair to the presidency,” Trump said. “And that’s the way I feel, thank you.”
