Trump personally lobbying GOP senators to flip on Sessions
Opposition to the attorney general's firing, long seen as a red line by lawmakers, has softened in recent days.
By ELIANA JOHNSON and ELANA SCHOR
08/29/2018 06:44 PM EDT
The willingness of Republican senators to turn on Attorney General Jeff Sessions is the result of a furious lobbying campaign from President Donald Trump, who for the past 10 days has been venting his anger at Sessions to “any senator who will listen,†as one GOP Senate aide put it.
The president, who has spent a year and a half fulminating against his attorney general in public, finally got traction on Capitol Hill thanks to the growing frustration of a handful of GOP senators with their former colleague – most importantly, Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, who have been irritated by Sessions’ opposition to a criminal justice reform bill they support, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen congressional GOP aides, Trump advisers, and Republicans close to the White House.
Trump raised the prospect of firing Sessions last week in a phone conversation with Graham, according to two Capitol Hill aides, who said that Graham pressed the president to hold off until after the midterm elections. The president has also complained loudly about Sessions to several Republican senators, according to a GOP chief staff.
Grassley has not gotten a call from the White House, according to a Republican familiar with events.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/29/trump-sessions-firing-senators-white-house-803922
