When Jeff Sessions resigned Wednesday afternoon, he was forced out. But the fact is, he has probably wanted to leave since May 2017.
That’s when he wrote his first resignation letter to President Trump, which Trump did not accept. It came after a humiliating meeting in which Trump berated and insulted him to his face for following the ethical code of the Justice Department instead of Trump’s express wishes.
Sessions never deserved the treatment he got. He certainly didn’t deserve it from the president whom he supported from early on, when no other elected official would. Sessions was always a friend of Trump, and the tragedy is that his loyalty led to his humiliation.
[Related: Humiliating details of Trump’s firing of Sessions emerge]
As attorney general, Sessions was unfairly smeared by the Left as a racist. He rose above this abuse and served his country ably. And from Trump’s perspective, he was arguably the most effective Cabinet member at implementing his agenda. A hawk on immigration and a true believer in law and order, Sessions helped form the Trump administration’s policy of enforcement. He cracked down on violent foreign gangs, such as MS-13, and the sanctuary city policies that were enabling them. He reformed the immigration court system to make it a more effective institution designed to serve Americans’ interests before anyone else’s.
You might wonder, what was there for Trump not to like? Well, what soured the relationship between Sessions and Trump was something Sessions was honor-bound to do.
Upon his swearing-in, Sessions recused himself from the investigation of Trump’s campaign because he had himself been involved in that campaign. It was his only choice under Department of Justice ethics guidelines. For that reason, perhaps, Sessions wrongly assumed that Trump would understand.
Trump did not understand. Instead, he said he never would have nominated Sessions had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from what soon became the Mueller investigation. He called Sessions an “idiot.” Despite having just gone through the nomination process with him, Trump said Sessions ought to resign from the position.
Early on, Trump’s anger was nearly the undoing of his presidency. Whereas Robert Mueller is actually highly unlikely to come up with anything against him, Trump nonetheless encouraged the idea that he had something to hide by throwing such tantrums over it.
Trump proceeded to heap abuse upon Sessions, both in private and in public, for the next two years. He disparaged him as a less than a “real” attorney general. He reportedly called him a “dumb Southerner.”
Trump’s threats to fire Sessions hurt no one but Trump himself. The speculation over whether the Senate would vote to confirm anyone as his replacement was always harmful and distracting to Trump’s agenda, and even to such Trump priorities as immigration enforcement.
But during this period, Sessions did his work at Justice in accordance with his and Trump’s beliefs. He was a loyal soldier, willing to tolerate Trump’s bullying if that’s what it took to wield the power of his office and implement what he believed to be right and lawful.
Sessions will probably not be cashing out, going on to some lucrative K Street career. Still vilified by the Left, which has come to view law enforcement as a form of racism, he now has few friends on the Right, which has adapted itself to be Trump’s Republican Party.
Sessions’ story is a sad one. It is one that we hope Trump learns from as he enters the new Congress.
