Jeff Sessions has no idea what to do now
Some have posited that Attorney General Jeff Sessions knows his job is safer than it appears to be, and that he knows Donald Trump will end up pardoning him in the Trump-Russia scandal. Others have suggested that Sessions may have already cut a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in order to ensure his own freedom. However, after watching Sessions testify publicly before Congress on Tuesday, we now know that neither of these scenarios can possibly be true.
What we saw from Jeff Sessions on Tuesday was not his usual mix of feigned innocence and gleeful arrogance. Instead we saw something different entirely. Sessions, despite having had plenty of time to prepare for his Trump-Russia testimony, and having known what most of the questions would be before they were even asked, seemed totally lost.
Sessions couldn’t seem to figure out whether to tell the Congressmen questioning him what they wanted to hear so they’d stop trying so hard to get him fired, or whether he wanted to say what Donald Trump wanted to hear so Trump wouldn’t fire him. At times he tried to do both in the same sentence, which got him nowhere because those are two opposite and incompatible goals, and only served to make him come off like a stumbling idiot.
It’s now clear that Jeff Sessions has no idea what to do next. He’s facing the very real possibility of ending up with a prison sentence in the Trump-Russia scandal, and he can’t seem to make up his mind whether to play for a deal or play for a pardon. Cutting a deal is his only reliable way of assuring his freedom, but if he goes that route, he loses his job for sure. Sessions is screwed one way or the other – which at this point is precisely what he deserves.
