Attorney General Jeff Sessions withstood another week of public attacks from President Trump, but there’s one group that’s still standing by him: law enforcement.
From day one, Sessions said he intended uphold the law and back those charged with that same duty. “This is a new era. This is the Trump era,” Sessions declared from the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2017.
For several months now, Trump has publicly flogged Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, but Sessions is still supported by law enforcement officials around the country, whatever else Trump thinks of him.
“Jeff Sessions has done the finest job of any attorney general I’ve worked with as it relates to law enforcement, and that’s a very high bar to get over,” National Sheriffs’ Association executive director Jonathan Thompson told the Washington Examiner. He said Sessions’ best trait was being a good listener.
“This [attorney general] actually listens and responds and reacts,” Thompson said.
Thompson said it would be a “very significant” mistake if Trump fired Sessions — now or after midterm elections — and said he has told many people in the Trump administration how good Sessions is doing his job. “He’s taking initiatives that are directly aligned with the president’s stated goals and objectives,” he said.
“Do not fire this man. He’s doing exactly what you wanted,” Thompson added.
Sessions has transformed the Justice Department in a way that nearly perfectly reflects the Trump administration’s priorities: targeting transnational gangs, violent crime and the opioid epidemic, reversing Obama-era sentencing policies, implementing tough immigration and border policies, and promising to eradicate the department of bias.
And unlike many of Trump’s other Cabinet officials, he has not been battling any ethics probes and also continues to praise the president in all his speeches.
“I think that support is solid,” Ron Hosko, president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund told the Washington Examiner. “Sessions is executing the policy perspectives of this administration.”
Hosko said he believes law enforcement is behind Sessions, and they feel like he is strongly behind them “at every level.”
“My sense is a growing disappointment with the Trump posture of how a president treats his own attorney general,” Hosko said.
Hosko said he “absolutely” would urge Trump not to remove Sessions, and that it would be clear he would do so only to get at Mueller’s investigation.
“There are a lot of other issues plaguing the administration right now,” Bob Bushman, president of the National Narcotic Officers’ Associations’ Coalition, told the Washington Examiner. “Sessions really for us is the bright spot.”
Bushman said he hopes Sessions can “stay the course” on issues like fighting violent crime and the current drug epidemic.
“Jeff Sessions understands cops on the street are the experts … He’s the first attorney general in a long time to really reach out,” said Bushman.
Bushman said they have written letters to the president urging him to keep Sessions. “We need a strong attorney that we have in Jeff Sessions. Don’t pull the rug out from underneath us now,” he said.
“We’re not backing down in our support,” added Bushman.
“Attorney General Sessions has been very aggressive in concentrating resources on violent crime and drug trafficking. His efforts in prosecution of violent gang members and attempting to deal with the crime problems associated with sanctuary cities should be commended,” Nancy Savage, executive director of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, told the Washington Examiner in an email.
