Republicans for the Rule of Law on Tuesday will start running an ad on “Fox and Friends” and “Morning Joe” urging all GOP senators to support Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has received public criticism from President Trump for much of his tenure.
Trump complained about Sessions from the moment he said he would recuse himself from the ongoing investigation into whether Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. Because of Sessions’ recusal, special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017.
But the ad applauds Sessions for “pushing back against political pressure by upholding the rule of law.”
[Opinion: Trump can disparage Jeff Sessions all he likes, but he’s in trouble if the AG quits now]
“Jeff Sessions is standing up to President Trump,” the ad said. “It’s time for Senate Republicans to stand up for him.”
Trump is known to be an avid watcher of “Fox and Friends” on Fox News each morning. Many of his remarks on Twitter coincide with stories that run or remarks that are made on that show, and have often included jabs at Sessions and the Justice Department.
Republicans for the Rule of Law is a nonprofit and a project of Defending Democracy Together, a political action committee that defines itself as “conservatives and Republicans standing up for the rule of law, for free trade, and for more welcoming legal immigration policies.”
Trump most recently criticized Sessions in an interview with Fox News, when he said Sessions never took control of his department.
In a rare rebuttal, Sessions said he “took control of the Department of Justice” the day he became attorney general, and that “the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”
Trump has continually called Mueller’d team “highly conflicted” and a group of “Angry Democrats,” and said his investigation is a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” Mueller is a registered Republican.
Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, was one of the first Republican lawmakers to back Trump’s presidential election bid. Since taking the helm of the Justice Department, he has helped carry out many of Trump’s campaign promises, including hard-line immigration policies.
Last summer, support for Sessions amid similar anger from the president was strong among Senate Republicans.
There will be “holy hell” to pay if Trump fires Sessions, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. said in July 2017, saying he is “100 percent behind” Sessions. But last month, Graham said that “the president is entitled to an attorney general he has faith in.”
A handful of Republican lawmakers did make sure Sessions knew they supported him at the same time.
“I think it would be bad for the country, it would be bad for the president, it would be bad for the Department of Justice for [Sessions] to be forced out under these circumstances,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas in late August.
“I have total confidence in the attorney general. I think he ought to stay exactly where he is,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters earlier this month.
Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said he thought Sessions still had support in the Senate and believed “people are just looking at the tea leaves in terms of what the president is saying and trying to divine what that means for Jeff, but I don’t think he’s lost support up here.”
