同情特朗普
- 主题发起人 ccc
- 开始时间
- 注册
- 2003-04-13
- 消息
- 238,888
- 荣誉分数
- 37,355
- 声望点数
- 1,393
Defiant Donald Trump accuses Michael Cohen of making up hush money stories
Ex-fixer says Trump directed him to make payments and lawyer says Cohen is ready to tell all he knows about Russian interference
David Smith in Washington and Erin Durkin in New York
Thu 23 Aug 2018 02.26 BST
Donald Trump has angrily protested his innocence after the criminal convictions of two associates plunged the White House deeper into turmoil.
The US president hit back at his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen who, in pleading guilty to eight charges including campaign finance violations on Tuesday, directly implicated Trump in paying “hush money” to prevent two women speaking out about alleged extramarital affairs.
Trump lashed out at Cohen via Twitter the following morning, accusing his once-loyal confidant of making up “stories in order to get a ‘deal’ from federal prosecutors”.
He also posted a bitter message: “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
Trump suffered twin setbacks on Tuesday when Cohen pleaded guilty in a court in New York, just minutes before Trump’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial crimes in Alexandria, Virginia, that could see him jailed for the rest of his life.
The developments stunned Washington, dented Trump’s claim that the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russian election interference is a “witch-hunt”, and revived speculation that he could face impeachment proceedings if Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.
Noting the multiple legal troubles of Trump’s inner circle, some critics even drew comparisons with President Richard Nixon’s notorious claim in November 1973: “I am not a crook.” Nixon, engulfed in the Watergate scandal, was eventually forced to resign.
Appearing in federal court in Manhattan, Cohen – who worked for Trump for more than a decade – said that during the 2016 presidential campaign, the candidate directed him to make payments to two women who claimed they had sexual affairs with the president in exchange for their silence.
The payments to the pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model amounted to illegal campaign contributions and were designed to influence the results of the election, Cohen admitted in court. He said Trump repaid him for the $130,000 in hush money received by Daniels.
On Wednesday Trump offered a characteristically combative response, insisting that the campaign finance violations that Cohen had pleaded guilty to “are not a crime”.
In an interview with the conservative network Fox News, due to be broadcast on Thursday, he said: “They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me. And I tweeted about it. You know, I put – I don’t know if you know but I tweeted about the payments. But they didn’t come out of the campaign.
“But they weren’t – that’s not a – it’s not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently.”
Trump was apparently referring to a fine levied on the former president’s 2008 campaign over missing and delayed disclosure of high-dollar donors in the final days of that race.
On Wednesday evening, Trump issued another self-exonerating missive, tweeting: “The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The problem is, they forgot to campaign in numerous states!”
But Trump’s offensive did not dominate the news agenda. Cohen’s own lawyer, Lanny Davis, kept up the pressure in a series of TV interviews. He told NBC’s Today show that Cohen “said under oath the most damaging, definitive information yesterday – that the president of the United States directed him to commit a crime.”
Cohen would not accept a pardon, Davis added, even if Trump were to offer him one.
“Not only is he not hoping for, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never accept.”
Davis also suggested that Cohen was ready to tell Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, everything he knows.
“Michael Cohen knows information that would be of interest to the special counsel, in my opinion, regarding both knowledge about a conspiracy to corrupt American democracy by the Russians, and the failure to report that knowledge to the FBI,” he told MSNBC.
Davis did not specify what information Cohen has about Russian interference, but said he was “100%” prepared to reveal everything.
“What he knows that he witnessed will be of interest to the special counsel,” he said on ABC’s Good Morning America. “He will tell the truth to everyone who asks him about Mr Trump.”
Cohen was for years one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, but his lawyer made it clear he has thoroughly turned on his billionaire boss, less than a year after he said he “would take a bullet for” the president.
Cohen believes Trump is “unsuitable to hold the office”, Davis said, citing his refusal while standing alongside Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, to accept the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that the Russians were responsible for the election disruption.
“He’s turned his life [around] from what he did for Donald Trump, much of which he now regrets,” Davis said on the Today Show. “That’s the kind of thing that caused Michael Cohen to change his mind, and decide to dedicate himself to telling the truth to the American people.”
Trump’s opinion of Manafort is very different. He lavished praise on his former campaign chairman, saying he was “brave” and had “tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Cohen, he refused to ‘break’”.
At the White House briefing, the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, declined to rule out the possibility that Manafort might receive a presidential pardon, saying only: “The Manafort case doesn’t have anything to do with the president, doesn’t have anything to do with his campaign, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the White House.”
She also insisted: “As the president has stated on numerous occasions, he did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him in this. And just because Michael Cohen made a plea deal doesn’t mean that that implicates the president on anything.”
Asked if the president lied to the American people about the payments, Sanders replied: “I think that’s a ridiculous accusation. The president, in this matter, has done nothing wrong and there are no charges against him.”
But there has been sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. The Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, said the cases were “further evidence of the rampant corruption and criminality at the heart of Trump’s inner circle.
“Cohen’s admission of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money ‘at the direction of the candidate’ to influence the 2016 election shows the president’s claims of ignorance to be far from accurate, and places him in even greater legal jeopardy.”
Most Republicans remained loyal but Senator Ben Sasse said: “Paul Manafort is a founding member of the DC swamp and Michael Cohen is the Gotham version of the same. Neither one of these felons should have been anywhere near the presidency.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/22/michael-cohen-has-information-on-conspiracy-by-russians-says-lawyer
Ex-fixer says Trump directed him to make payments and lawyer says Cohen is ready to tell all he knows about Russian interference
David Smith in Washington and Erin Durkin in New York
Thu 23 Aug 2018 02.26 BST
Donald Trump has angrily protested his innocence after the criminal convictions of two associates plunged the White House deeper into turmoil.
The US president hit back at his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen who, in pleading guilty to eight charges including campaign finance violations on Tuesday, directly implicated Trump in paying “hush money” to prevent two women speaking out about alleged extramarital affairs.
Trump lashed out at Cohen via Twitter the following morning, accusing his once-loyal confidant of making up “stories in order to get a ‘deal’ from federal prosecutors”.
He also posted a bitter message: “If anyone is looking for a good lawyer, I would strongly suggest that you don’t retain the services of Michael Cohen!”
Trump suffered twin setbacks on Tuesday when Cohen pleaded guilty in a court in New York, just minutes before Trump’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial crimes in Alexandria, Virginia, that could see him jailed for the rest of his life.
The developments stunned Washington, dented Trump’s claim that the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russian election interference is a “witch-hunt”, and revived speculation that he could face impeachment proceedings if Democrats win a majority in the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.
Noting the multiple legal troubles of Trump’s inner circle, some critics even drew comparisons with President Richard Nixon’s notorious claim in November 1973: “I am not a crook.” Nixon, engulfed in the Watergate scandal, was eventually forced to resign.
Appearing in federal court in Manhattan, Cohen – who worked for Trump for more than a decade – said that during the 2016 presidential campaign, the candidate directed him to make payments to two women who claimed they had sexual affairs with the president in exchange for their silence.
The payments to the pornographic film actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model amounted to illegal campaign contributions and were designed to influence the results of the election, Cohen admitted in court. He said Trump repaid him for the $130,000 in hush money received by Daniels.
On Wednesday Trump offered a characteristically combative response, insisting that the campaign finance violations that Cohen had pleaded guilty to “are not a crime”.
In an interview with the conservative network Fox News, due to be broadcast on Thursday, he said: “They didn’t come out of the campaign, they came from me. And I tweeted about it. You know, I put – I don’t know if you know but I tweeted about the payments. But they didn’t come out of the campaign.
“But they weren’t – that’s not a – it’s not even a campaign violation. If you look at President Obama, he had a massive campaign violation but he had a different attorney general and they viewed it a lot differently.”
Trump was apparently referring to a fine levied on the former president’s 2008 campaign over missing and delayed disclosure of high-dollar donors in the final days of that race.
On Wednesday evening, Trump issued another self-exonerating missive, tweeting: “The only thing that I have done wrong is to win an election that was expected to be won by Crooked Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. The problem is, they forgot to campaign in numerous states!”
But Trump’s offensive did not dominate the news agenda. Cohen’s own lawyer, Lanny Davis, kept up the pressure in a series of TV interviews. He told NBC’s Today show that Cohen “said under oath the most damaging, definitive information yesterday – that the president of the United States directed him to commit a crime.”
Cohen would not accept a pardon, Davis added, even if Trump were to offer him one.
“Not only is he not hoping for, he would not accept a pardon. He considers a pardon from somebody who has acted so corruptly as president to be something he would never accept.”
Davis also suggested that Cohen was ready to tell Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, everything he knows.
“Michael Cohen knows information that would be of interest to the special counsel, in my opinion, regarding both knowledge about a conspiracy to corrupt American democracy by the Russians, and the failure to report that knowledge to the FBI,” he told MSNBC.
Davis did not specify what information Cohen has about Russian interference, but said he was “100%” prepared to reveal everything.
“What he knows that he witnessed will be of interest to the special counsel,” he said on ABC’s Good Morning America. “He will tell the truth to everyone who asks him about Mr Trump.”
Cohen was for years one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, but his lawyer made it clear he has thoroughly turned on his billionaire boss, less than a year after he said he “would take a bullet for” the president.
Cohen believes Trump is “unsuitable to hold the office”, Davis said, citing his refusal while standing alongside Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, to accept the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that the Russians were responsible for the election disruption.
“He’s turned his life [around] from what he did for Donald Trump, much of which he now regrets,” Davis said on the Today Show. “That’s the kind of thing that caused Michael Cohen to change his mind, and decide to dedicate himself to telling the truth to the American people.”
Trump’s opinion of Manafort is very different. He lavished praise on his former campaign chairman, saying he was “brave” and had “tremendous pressure on him and, unlike Cohen, he refused to ‘break’”.
At the White House briefing, the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, declined to rule out the possibility that Manafort might receive a presidential pardon, saying only: “The Manafort case doesn’t have anything to do with the president, doesn’t have anything to do with his campaign, and it doesn’t have anything to do with the White House.”
She also insisted: “As the president has stated on numerous occasions, he did nothing wrong. There are no charges against him in this. And just because Michael Cohen made a plea deal doesn’t mean that that implicates the president on anything.”
Asked if the president lied to the American people about the payments, Sanders replied: “I think that’s a ridiculous accusation. The president, in this matter, has done nothing wrong and there are no charges against him.”
But there has been sharp criticism from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. The Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, said the cases were “further evidence of the rampant corruption and criminality at the heart of Trump’s inner circle.
“Cohen’s admission of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in hush money ‘at the direction of the candidate’ to influence the 2016 election shows the president’s claims of ignorance to be far from accurate, and places him in even greater legal jeopardy.”
Most Republicans remained loyal but Senator Ben Sasse said: “Paul Manafort is a founding member of the DC swamp and Michael Cohen is the Gotham version of the same. Neither one of these felons should have been anywhere near the presidency.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/22/michael-cohen-has-information-on-conspiracy-by-russians-says-lawyer
- 注册
- 2003-04-13
- 消息
- 238,888
- 荣誉分数
- 37,355
- 声望点数
- 1,393
Facing legal threats, Donald Trump says impeachment would 'crash' US economy
AFP | Updated: Aug 23, 2018, 18:48 IST
Highlights
Days after Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen told a federal judge he made illegal campaign contributions at the president's request -- to silence women alleging affairs with Trump -- the Republican leader told Fox News that an impeachment would only cause more turmoil.
"I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor," Trump said on "Fox and Friends." "You would see -- you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse."
The US president then launched into a rambling statement on job creation and other economic progress he said had been made during his presidency.
"I don't know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job," Trump said.
Trump was dealt severe back-to-back blows on Tuesday when Cohen pled guilty to illegal campaign finance violations and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud within minutes of each other.
The Manafort conviction was the first case sent to trial by the special prosecutor probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
But an unchastened Trump appears intent on riding out the storm as Washington grapples with the latest upheaval in his tumultuous presidency.
The president has insisted he did nothing wrong after Cohen, his longtime private lawyer and fixer, implicated him in the illicit hush payments made before the 2016 election to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the Republican presidential candidate.
Although Cohen did not name them, the women were believed to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Because the hush payments were intended to influence the outcome of the elections, they violated US laws governing campaign contributions.
In entering a guilty plea, Cohen said the payments were made "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," in clear reference to Trump.
Trump was evasive when asked in the Fox News interview if he had instructed Cohen to make the payments, saying that his former lawyer "made the deals," and insisted that Cohen's actions were "not a crime."
"Campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly," he said.
Trump then said the hush payments were financed with his own money -- to which Cohen had access -- and that while he had no knowledge of them at the time, he had since been fully transparent.
Despite Trump's defiant tone, Washington-based campaign finance expert Kate Belinski, of the Nossaman law firm, said to expect legal consequences for both Trump and his campaign -- most likely in the form of a civil complaint before the Federal Election Commission.
In addition to the two counts of violating campaign finance laws, Cohen also has pled guilty to six counts of fraud.
In the sit-down with Fox, Trump slammed his once close associate for "flipping," saying it "almost ought to be outlawed."
Trump conversely praised Manafort for going to trial -- where the president's former campaign chief was found guilty of eight counts of financial fraud.
The US president lauded the 69-year-old Manafort for leaving his fate to a jury rather than striking a plea deal -- a move that has sparked speculation Manafort hopes for a pardon.
Asked if he was considering such a move, Trump said only that he has "great respect for what he has done, in terms of what he has gone through."
"One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial," Trump said.
AFP | Updated: Aug 23, 2018, 18:48 IST
Highlights
- Days after Trump's former aide told a federal judge that he made illegal campaign contributions at the president's request, the Republican leader said that an impeachment would only cause more turmoil
- "I don't know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job," the US president said
Days after Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen told a federal judge he made illegal campaign contributions at the president's request -- to silence women alleging affairs with Trump -- the Republican leader told Fox News that an impeachment would only cause more turmoil.
"I will tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor," Trump said on "Fox and Friends." "You would see -- you would see numbers that you wouldn't believe in reverse."
The US president then launched into a rambling statement on job creation and other economic progress he said had been made during his presidency.
"I don't know how you can impeach somebody who has done a great job," Trump said.
Trump was dealt severe back-to-back blows on Tuesday when Cohen pled guilty to illegal campaign finance violations and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of tax and bank fraud within minutes of each other.
The Manafort conviction was the first case sent to trial by the special prosecutor probing Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
But an unchastened Trump appears intent on riding out the storm as Washington grapples with the latest upheaval in his tumultuous presidency.
The president has insisted he did nothing wrong after Cohen, his longtime private lawyer and fixer, implicated him in the illicit hush payments made before the 2016 election to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the Republican presidential candidate.
Although Cohen did not name them, the women were believed to be porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Because the hush payments were intended to influence the outcome of the elections, they violated US laws governing campaign contributions.
In entering a guilty plea, Cohen said the payments were made "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office," in clear reference to Trump.
Trump was evasive when asked in the Fox News interview if he had instructed Cohen to make the payments, saying that his former lawyer "made the deals," and insisted that Cohen's actions were "not a crime."
"Campaign violations are considered not a big deal, frankly," he said.
Trump then said the hush payments were financed with his own money -- to which Cohen had access -- and that while he had no knowledge of them at the time, he had since been fully transparent.
Despite Trump's defiant tone, Washington-based campaign finance expert Kate Belinski, of the Nossaman law firm, said to expect legal consequences for both Trump and his campaign -- most likely in the form of a civil complaint before the Federal Election Commission.
In addition to the two counts of violating campaign finance laws, Cohen also has pled guilty to six counts of fraud.
In the sit-down with Fox, Trump slammed his once close associate for "flipping," saying it "almost ought to be outlawed."
Trump conversely praised Manafort for going to trial -- where the president's former campaign chief was found guilty of eight counts of financial fraud.
The US president lauded the 69-year-old Manafort for leaving his fate to a jury rather than striking a plea deal -- a move that has sparked speculation Manafort hopes for a pardon.
Asked if he was considering such a move, Trump said only that he has "great respect for what he has done, in terms of what he has gone through."
"One of the reasons I respect Paul Manafort so much is he went through that trial," Trump said.
New Person
本站元老
- 注册
- 2003-08-26
- 消息
- 5,827
- 荣誉分数
- 1,349
- 声望点数
- 323
- 注册
- 2003-04-13
- 消息
- 238,888
- 荣誉分数
- 37,355
- 声望点数
- 1,393
- 注册
- 2003-04-13
- 消息
- 238,888
- 荣誉分数
- 37,355
- 声望点数
- 1,393
WASHINGTON – Anxiety and uncertainty.
Those are familiar feelings for aides to Donald Trump, a president who seems to relish combat and controversy and whose inner circle has been increasingly rocked by revelations stemming from federal investigations.
This week, White House staff members experienced a new level of turbulence after a guilty verdict was announced for Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman, while in a separate case, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to criminal charges.
In interviews with a half-dozen Trump aides and people close to the White House, many described rising concerns about federal inquiries underway, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
"I think people are genuinely shaken," said one official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. "They're still trying to digest it – process it."
In the latest sign of the potential dangers for Trump and those close to him, The Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair reported Thursday that David Pecker, CEO of American Media Inc., had been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in a deal in which he has been discussing Trump's role in hush agreements ahead of the 2016 election to women who said they had sexual encounters with the president.
Pecker, a close Trump ally, has been accused of helping silence negative stories about the president, including purchasing the rights to stories, then quashing them in a practice known as "catch and kill."
As the developments unfolded this week, television screens in the West Wing played cable television programs dominated by the news about Manafort, Cohen and the Mueller investigation. Aides sought to go about their business, focusing on tasks such as planning Wednesday’s Medal of Honor ceremony in the East Room and the effort to shepherd through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Trump himself went on the attack.
"I've always had controversy in my life and I've always succeeded," Trump said in a Fox & Friends interview broadcast Thursday. "I've always won."
The president also has been tweeting, denying wrongdoing and attacking Cohen. In one post, Trump praised Manafort because, unlike Cohen, "he refused to 'break' " to prosecutors and "make up stories in order to get a 'deal.' "
He has also lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the investigation of Russian election interference, which paved the way for Mueller’s appointment.
Of the two bombshells that dropped this week – the Manafort guilty verdict and the Cohen guilty plea – aides said their biggest concern right now was about Cohen and his claim that the president directed him to pay the women to buy their silence. Prosecutors say the payments violated campaign finance laws because they were made to prevent information from coming out that could have damaged Trump’s campaign.
Throughout the course of Manafort's trial, aides said they more or less expected Trump's former campaign chairman to be convicted on financial fraud charges. As they did so, they echoed Trump's claims that charges against Manafort stemmed from long-ago allegations and had nothing to do with the president’s campaign or Russians who sought to influence the race in Trump’s favor.
One concern of aides is the suggestion by Cohen's attorney that his client is eager to provide information about Trump and Russia to Mueller. Cohen is a longtime associate of the president who had long been known as his “fixer.”
In a somber yet tense briefing with reporters on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to get into the "back and forth" on the Cohen and Mueller investigations and repeatedly said Trump "did nothing wrong." At one point she said, "Just because Michael Cohen made a plea deal doesn’t mean that implicates the president in anything."
Disputing the idea that the administration needs to make changes to meet its new legal challenges, Sanders said Trump and his team would "continue to focus on the things Americans care about," particularly the economy,
President Donald Trump is distancing himself from his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, in the wake of Cohen's guilty plea to eight charges, including campaign finance violations that Cohen says he carried out in coordination with Trump. (Aug. 23) AP
Longtime allies said Trump and the staff were holding up well.
"It's a huge distraction to many in the media," said Boris Epshteyn, a former White House aide who is now chief political analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group. "But it's not a huge distraction to the president and his staff, who continue to work very hard for the American people."
Some aides predicted that Trump will be increasingly aggressive as the investigations roll on into the fall, along with high-stakes political campaigns for control of Congress.
Echoing those feelings, former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo said Cohen is not a trustworthy witness and the president should continue to speak out against him.
Caputo also said the legal actions against Manafort and Cohen clarify something that has been obvious for awhile: Democrats will push for impeachment, and the White House should be prepared to deal with it.
"It's very clear now – if it wasn't clear before – that the 2018 midterm elections are a referendum on the impeachment of the president of the United States," Caputo said.
Some aides to Trump noted that they have been through tense times before: the firing of FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, the appointment of Mueller as special counsel that same month, Trump's tweeted admission this past May that he reimbursed Cohen for hush payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, and Cohen's release in July of a taped conversation with Trump.
These latest revelations? "To be honest," one official said, "it's kind of like ... whatever."
- 注册
- 2003-04-13
- 消息
- 238,888
- 荣誉分数
- 37,355
- 声望点数
- 1,393
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference regarding the country's opioid epidemic on Aug. 22 in Cleveland.Tony Dejak / AP
Attorney General Sessions fired back at President Donald Trump on Thursday after the commander in chief said his top law enforcement official "never took control" of the Justice Department.
In an unusual statement, Sessions said, “I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda."
"While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations," Sessions added. "I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action."
The formal response marked a rare instance of pushback from Sessions, who despite facing repeated and harsh criticism from Trump — as well as calls from him to end special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation — has largely refrained from replying.
Sessions, who was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump during the 2016 race, provoked his boss's ire when he announced last year that he would recuse himself from any federal probe into Russian election meddling. In his latest attack on Sessions, Trump slammed his attorney general for the decision, saying he didn't take control of the Justice Department.
"I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions," Trump told "Fox and Friends" in a taped interview that aired Thursday. "It's an incredible thing."
Trump told "Fox and Friends" that "Sessions shouldn't have recused himself” or at least, "should have told me."
"He took the job and then he said, 'I'm going to recuse myself,'" the president said. "I said, 'What kind of man is this?' And by the way, he was on the campaign. The only reason I gave him the job, I felt loyalty. He was an original supporter."
But when asked whether he would fire Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who, because of Sessions' recusal has authority over the Mueller probe, Trump said he wants "to stay uninvolved."
Trump has criticized Sessions several times since the attorney general announced his recusal in March 2017. In May 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, which ultimately led Rosenstein to appoint Mueller as special counsel.
Earlier this month, Trump called on Sessions to end the Mueller probe, and in July, he ripped him as "very weak." In June, he directly criticized Sessions in a tweet for removing himself from overseeing Mueller, saying if he had known the attorney general would do that, he would have appointed someone else to that position instead.
The mounting criticism has led many, even top Republicans, to speculate about Sessions' fate.
On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggested to Bloomberg News that Trump could fire his attorney general, but not until after the November midterm elections.
Later, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a speech on the Senate floor, said it would be a "very, very, very bad idea to fire" Sessions "because he's not executing his job as a political hack" and that he felt the attorney general was "doing his job honorably."
Sasse added that he found it "difficult to envision any circumstance" under which he'd vote to confirm a successor to Sessions if Sessions were fired for political reasons.
Mueller's wide-ranging investigation has so far secured guilty pleas, including from Trump’s former national security adviser, and the indictments of at least 32 people and three Russian firms.
The confluence of bad news has prompted chatter that Democrats might try to impeach Trump if they take the House in the November midterms.
But in his Fox interview Thursday, Trump said that if he were to be impeached, "everybody would be very poor."
"I don't know how you can impeach somebody who's done a great job," Trump said, adding that if he were to be removed from office, the "market would crash."
"Everybody would be very poor," he said.
