JEFF SESSIONS/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump escalated his attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying, ‘I don’t have an attorney general.’ Trump, in a Hill.TV interview released on Wednesday [9-18-18], said that he’s ‘so sad over Jeff Sessions,’ whom he has repeatedly denounced for recusing himself from the Russia investigation…The president softened his stance slightly when talking to reporters on the White House lawn hours after the interview’s publication, saying, ‘I’m disappointed in the attorney general for numerous reasons, but we have an attorney general.’ Trump has repeatedly asserted that Sessions, a former U.S. senator from Alabama, did not need to step away from the Russia probe, a move the president believes in part led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians. Trump, a Republican, suggested that Sessions’ rocky Senate confirmation hearings may have impacted his performance as attorney general.”
–The Associated Press, “Trump Rips Sessions: ‘I Don’t Have an Attorney General’,” The New York Times online, September 19, 2018