Senate Republicans are getting more aggressive in fighting back at President Trump’s attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTuberville incorrectly says Gore was president-elect in 2000 Next attorney general must embrace marijuana law reforms Tuberville unseats Jones in Alabama Senate race MORE.
Sen. Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin GrahamLawmakers question tech CEOs about content moderation in first post-election hearing Graham becomes center of Georgia storm GOP senators congratulate Harris on Senate floor MORE (R-S.C.) says there will be “hell to pay” if Sessions is fired, while Sen. Charles Grassley
Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC - Dems push McConnell on COVID-19 relief; Grassley contracts COVID-19 Colorado Democrat Ed Perlmutter tests positive for coronavirus On The Money: Trump's controversial Fed nominee stalled | Economists warn of lag time between vaccine and recovery | Business group calls for national mask mandate, COVID-19 relief MORE (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, warned he won’t hold hearings to confirm a successor to Sessions.
“The agenda for the judiciary [committee] is set for the rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd/ AG no way,” he tweeted.
Senate Republicans also quickly slammed the door on the possibility that Trump could use recess appointment powers to get around Grassley.
“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Sen. Jeff Flake
Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeProfiles in cowardice: Trump's Senate enablers McSally concedes Arizona Senate race The Hill's Morning Report - ObamaCare front and center; transition standoff continues MORE (R-Ariz.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, who said Republicans will hold pro-forma sessions every few days to block Trump from making recess appointments.
“If we have to stay in session to protect Sessions, we’d do so,” he said.
Trump’s rough treatment of Sessions, who was the first senator to endorse his presidential campaign last year — and for months was the only member of the upper chamber to back his unorthodox candidacy — has unsettled many Republican senators.
It’s more evidence of what they see as the president’s mercurial nature and his disdain for Washington’s conventions.
A senior GOP aide said Trump’s consideration of a recess appointment to replace Sessions was completely out of step with the Senate recent tradition of holding pro-forma sessions every few days of a break to prevent such action.
If the chamber convenes every few days — even for a few minutes — then it is not, technically, on recess and, therefore, the president cannot make recess appointments.
The heated back-and-forth between Trump and Republican senators over Sessions came at a delicate moment, as Senate GOP leaders sought to win passage of an ObamaCare repeal bill. Their effort failed after three Republicans — all of whom have tangled with Trump — voted against it.
Trump’s rhetoric appears to have hurt more than helped him with senators.
“This effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate. I don’t think it’s going over well in the conservative world,” Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters Thursday. “If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay.”
Grassley’s move found few if any critics in the GOP conference. In fact, many rushed to back him up. One GOP senator called his tweet “masterful.”
The use of pro forma sessions to block recess appointments isn’t unusual.
Then Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Harry Mason ReidBottom line Senate roadblocks threaten to box in Biden How a tied Senate could lead a divided America MORE (Nev.) insisted on such pro-forma sessions in 2007 to block President George W. Bush from making recess appointments and Republicans did the same under President Obama.
What’s unusual here, is that Republicans are vowing to use the tactic to thwart a president from their own party.
Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), one of the Senate’s most senior Republicans, said Trump’s criticism of Sessions is out of line.
“It’s a mistake for the president. I don’t think you should be brutalizing Sessions or anybody, someone who’s been loyal to him,” said Shelby, who often worked closely with Sessions when he served in the Senate.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his frustration and disappointment with Sessions for recusing himself from the Department of Justice’s investigation of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election.
Senate Republicans, however, are defending his decision, noting he followed department guidelines.
Sessions served as a senior advisor to Trump’s campaign.
“I would hope the president would want Sessions to stay on because I think ultimately he did the right thing in recusing himself,” Shelby added.
Republicans are acting partly out of friendship to Sessions but also out of concern that Trump may be laying the groundwork to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is leading the investigation of possible collusion between Russian agents and Trump’s inner circle of family and advisers.
They worry Trump might pick a new attorney general who would go on to dismiss Mueller.
Graham warned that such a move could provoke a constitutional crisis.
He is working on legislation would require judicial review of any presidential decision to fire a special counsel to determine whether it complied with the law.
He predicted it would have a large number of Republican and Democratic co-sponsors.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong. Right now I have no reason to believe Mueller is compromised,” Graham warned.
