WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Attorney General Jeff Sessions (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
The Senate Majority Leader says he has “total confidence” in Attorney General Jeff Sessions and suggests President Donald Trump should not try to replace him.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that Sessions “ought to stay exactly where he is.”
McConnell’s remarks come after fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on NBC’s “Today” that it’s clear the relationship between Trump and Sessions is “dysfunctional” and “beyond repair.”
Graham has said Trump could consider a new attorney general after the midterm election.
But McConnell outlined a busy fall agenda that did not include plans for confirming a new Trump pick at the Justice Department.
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11:35 a.m.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says the relationship between President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions is “dysfunctional” and “beyond repair.”
Graham told NBC’s “Today” that the Justice Department needs a leader who can work with the president and that Sessions was not the only person for the job.
But he said anyone picked to replace Sessions would have to commit to allowing special counsel Robert Mueller to finish his investigation into Russian election interference and potential coordination between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The comments represent a stark turnabout for Graham, who served with Sessions on the Senate Judiciary Committee and who said last year that there would be “holy hell to pay” if the attorney general was fired.
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