Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., suggested Thursday that the media played a role in sparking President Trump’s recent attacks against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
In an interview with CNN, Brat responded to a question as to whether he believes the media forced Trump to tweet his criticisms of Sessions, as he’s done the last four days.
“I think you did,” Brat said on CNN when asked if the press essentially forced Trump to attack Sessions by covering Russia’s election meddling so much.
“You got 24/7 coverage, and he doesn’t have an attorney general in place to cover the most important issue that the media covers with 90 percent of your coverage,” Brat said. “The anchors across the mainstream media, you guys are good, you’re fair to me. … But some of the others are just relentless.”
“I will concede the president did touch his keypad.” As far as @RepDaveBrat will go on Trump v Sessions. Wild.https://t.co/HHZpvxYFtz— Kate Bolduan (@KateBolduan) July 27, 2017
When pressed by CNN on whether Brat truly believes the press pushed Trump to issue several public condemnations of Sessions, the Virginia Republican said the media contributed to Trump’s frustration.
“I’m using ‘force’ in a bank shot metaphor,” he said. “You didn’t coerce him, but you made him frustrated.”
“He is frustrated because he does not have an attorney general at the highest level who can respond to the key issue that the media is grilling him on all day,” he continued. “In politics, sometimes you’ve got to do politics, so I think that’s the source of the frustration.”
Brat did concede that it was the president, not the media, who was sending out the slew of tweets over the last four days criticizing Sessions for a host of issues.
The president first began airing his grievances against the attorney general last week when, in an interview with the New York Times, Trump said he wouldn’t have selected Sessions for attorney general if he knew he was going to recuse himself from the Russia probe.
Trump has since tweeted about Sessions over the last few days. He called him “beleaguered,” and suggested the former Alabama senator should investigate Hillary Clinton, and questioned why he didn’t fire acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
In a press conference in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, Trump said he was disappointed in Sessions, and wants him to pursue leaks from the intelligence community that have plagued the Trump administration.
