Jeff Sessions is trying to finish the job
This weekend, Donald Trump took essentially his entire cabinet with him to Camp David, while making a point of leaving Attorney General Jeff Sessions home. Is Sessions merely in time-out again as punishment? Is Trump truly preparing to get rid of Sessions this time around? Would the Republican Senate allow Trump to fire its old pal Sessions? We’re seeing one big hint: Sessions seems to think his time may be very short.
Even as Trump had made a big deal out of publicly humiliating Jeff Sessions yet again, here’s what we’ve seen play out in terms of real world policy. Suddenly, Sessions’ Department of Justice is making moves against states that have legalized marijuana. We’ve long known that, for whatever reason, this is one of his most important policy issues. And today the Trump administration announced that it’s kicking 200,000 people from El Salvador out of the United States for no good reason. This is a blatant attempt at making America whiter, and one has to assume that the white supremacist Sessions is also the driving force behind this move.
In other words, Sessions is suddenly trying to hurry up and finish the job. He’s been Attorney General for nearly a year, and he’s made a number of horrible moves that have ruined a lot of lives. But now he’s swinging for the fences. He’s going for broke with these kinds of moves. We all know that it’s not because he suddenly feels empowered; no one has worse job security than he does. Instead it’s a fair conclusion that Sessions is accelerating his reign of terror because he worries he may not have much time left. And yet there is still no real indiction that Trump is actually going to fire him this time. So what gives?
Maybe Jeff Sessions knows something we don’t about his job status, and he truly does fear Donald Trump is going to fire him this time. Or maybe Sessions has taken a look at how the Russia scandal investigation is moving in on him, and he’s concluded that he’ll soon have to cut a plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller to avoid being arrested. If Sessions does cut a deal and word gets out, Trump will fire him for sure. One way or the other, Sessions thinks his time may be nearly up, and so he’s trying to finish the job while he still can.
