« I would say Jeff should be investigating… »
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President Donald Trump is still furious with the idea that the loyalty of his White House staff is crumbling around him.
The latest blows have included bombshell excerpts from Bob Woodward’s new book and an anonymous editorial in the New York Times by a senior official in the Trump administration.
With his paranoia reportedly reaching a fever-pitch, the president is now weighing a new tactic: sending Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the official behind the Times piece.
On Friday, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of this piece was because I really believe it’s national security,” CNN reports. When asked if he would take any legal action against the paper of record, he answered, “We’ll see.”
NEW: President Trump wants his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to investigate who is behind a scathing anonymous New York Times op-ed https://t.co/H0b5O3a8Ex pic.twitter.com/es1xm5SI7n
— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 7,2018
The president insisted that his hunt for the leaker is due to issues of national security rather than his dislike of criticism. He said, “Suppose… he goes into a high-level meeting concerning China or Russia or North Korea or something and this guy goes in. I don’t want him in those meetings.” Trump added, “I don’t mind criticism, I handle it and I fight back.”
Trump has been souring on his attorney general for months after Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe. In June of 2017, Trump even said that he would not have hired Sessions if he knew the former Alabama Senator was going to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation.
At one point, Sessions even tried to hand in his resignation letter, but Chief of Staff Reince Priebus managed to hold that off and also managed to keep Trump from firing Sessions.
Many presidents have found themselves infuriated with leaks at some point during their tenures. Former President Barack Obama famously pursued prosecutions against leakers and former President Richard Nixon set up an entire unit — termed the “plumbers” — to find and stop leakers.
Alex is a Washington DC based contributor. He is from Delaware and holds a degree in English from Salisbury University. Find him on Twitter @AlexThoma… more
