The Russia investigation saga has taken another bizarre twist with US president Donald Trump escalating “an extraordinary series of attacks on Jeff Sessions, his oldest political ally”, says Rhys Blakely in The Times. The president’s anger centres on the attorney-general’s decision “to step away from overseeing investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin” ahead of the US election. Experts agree that Sessions “had little choice”, but Trump nevertheless “has reportedly speculated out loud to allies about the potential consequences of sacking Sessions”.
The irony is that “Sessions has been a loyal proponent of the president’s ‘America First’ agenda on immigration and crime”, says David Lynch in the Financial Times. “He has ordered all 94 US attorneys to prioritise criminal prosecutions for immigration violations and championed tougher sentences for violent criminals.” Yet instead of “a presidential ‘thank you’, Trump has chosen a public humiliation”. This has “stirred concerns among Republicans, including Sessions’ former Senate colleagues, and raised questions about the president’s ability to attract professionals for hundreds of vacant government jobs”.
Trump is “obsessed with obstructing” any serious investigation of this case, says Albert Hunt on Bloomberg. His latest actions are really part of a plan “to rein in” Robert Mueller – the special prosecutor in charge of the Russia probe – or even fire him, although the latter “would produce a firestorm the likes of which Washington hasn’t seen in decades”. Trump may be particularly spooked by Mueller’s decision to hire a “tough financial-fraud expert” to investigate his “financial links with Russians and whether that gives Moscow any leverage over the president”.
Trump should make a virtue of necessity and embrace “radical transparency”, argues The Wall Street Journal – reveal “every meeting with any Russian or any American with Russian business ties. Every phone call or email. And every Trump business relationship with Russians going back years.” It’ll come out anyway. And any downsides “couldn’t be worse than the death by a thousand cuts of selective leaks, often out of context, from political opponents”. Americans may even give “Trump credit for trusting their ability to make a fair judgment”.
After all, “a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn’t abide Hillary Clinton’s legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling”. If he continues down his current path, Republicans will start to distance themselves from him, and “impeachment will be a constant undercurrent if not an active threat”.