Former attorney general fears feud between Trump, Sessions makes president look weak

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday that he fears the ongoing feud between President Trump and his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, makes the president look “weak.”

“I fear that, because the president is head of the executive branch and can remove the attorney general anytime that he wants, that the continuous criticism without taking any action … makes the president look a little weak,” Gonzales said on “Fox News Sunday.” 

Gonzales’s comments come days after Trump lambasted Sessions in an interview with “Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt that aired last Thursday morning. In that interview, Trump called Sessions “an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department.”{mosads}

“That is a very serious allegation, that the Department of Justice is ‘out of control,’ ” said Gonzales, who served as attorney general under former President George W. Bush. “Jeff Sessions has been, mainly, quiet until now in the face of a lot of criticism from the White House.”

Sessions issued a rare rebuke of the president last Thursday afternoon, issuing one of his toughest criticisms of the president since joining his Cabinet.

“While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action,” Sessions said in a direct response to Trump’s interview. “However, no nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States.”

Gonzales said on Sunday that he thought it was appropriate for Sessions to respond to Trump’s remarks.

“It’s important for the attorney general to reassure the American people, and speaking to the American president, that he is in control of the Department of Justice and that it is operating the way that it should be operating,” he said.

“As president of the United States, [Trump] has a right to be critical, to say what he wants to say about his Cabinet officials,” he continued. “As a general manner, I think it’s more effective to do it privately than publicly because it undermines the department, the attorney general, and also hurts the morale of the Department of Justice.”

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Sessions and the Justice Department over special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which he has dubbed a political “witch hunt.”