JEFF SESSIONS/ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A day after voters chose divided government by handing the House majority back to Democrats, President Donald Trump made the sort of I-do-what-feels-right-when-it-feels-right move that has become his hallmark over his past three years in political life: He fired Jeff Sessions. And in so doing, Trump appears to have wrestled back operational control of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the possibility of collusion between Trump’s campaign and a foreign power. In firing Sessions — by tweet, natch — Trump announced that Matt Whitaker, Sessions’ chief of staff at Justice, would become the acting Attorney General, a post he can hold for roughly 200 days because he has not been confirmed previously by the Senate…Trump got rid of Sessions because he could never forgive the former Alabama Senator for recusing himself in the Russia probe, a recusal that placed deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge of the investigation and, in Trump’s mind, led to the Mueller appointment.”
–Chris Cillizza, “Donald Trump just seized control of the Russia probe,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, November 7, 2018 8:17 pm