Tucker Carlson to interview Sessions from El Salvador

Tucker Carlson will interview Attorney General Jeff Sessions Thursday night on Fox News, according to a network announcement.

The Fox News host nabbed Sessions’s first media interview since President Trump began a relentless criticism campaign against his attorney general last week.

Carlson will conduct the interview from El Salvador. Sessions is in the country to focus on the administration’s attempts to halt violence entering the U.S. via the MS-13 gang.

Fox News says Carlson and Sessions will “discuss the current situation with President Trump and the latest on an investigation into intelligence leaks.”

Sessions has faced escalating criticism from the president over his job performance and decision to recuse himself from the Russian election interference investigation that is haunting the White House.

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Trump has attacked Sessions on a daily basis since harshly criticizing him in a New York Times interview last week.

Sessions has avoided public comment on Trump’s criticism since the topic took over an unrelated press conference the day after the report came out. Sessions said at that time that he plans to continue to serve in his post “as long as that is appropriate.”

On Wednesday, Trump opened a new line of attack on his attorney general, questioning why Sessions didn’t fire the acting FBI director over his ties to the Clintons.

“Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!” Trump tweeted to his 34.5 million followers.

“President Trump and Attorney General Sessions have made eradicating transnational criminal organizations like MS-13 a top priority of this administration,” reads a statement from the Justice Department about the Sessions trip.

The attorney general is meeting with President Salvador Sánchez Cerén and senior law enforcement officials.

Fox News will also send a camera crew to follow Sessions during his time in El Salvador and film his work on the MS-13 threat. Fox News said “Tucker Carlson Tonight” will “broadcast the full trip in a weeklong series entitled “Hunting MS-13.” The series will focus on the mission of MS-13 and how gang members enter the U.S. It plans to include interviews with former and current MS-13 members.

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” has been the highest-rated program on Fox News in recent months.

The host took over for the ousted Bill O’Reilly in the 8 p.m. ET time slot in April.

-This report was updated at 11:47 a.m.