Analysis: Trump has now attacked basically everyone who is in charge of the Russia investigation
The trend here is clear. If you are going to investigate the president, you better be prepared for him to try and send a message or undermine you.
WASHINGTON – President Trump has declared the Russia investigation to be a "witch hunt" and a "hoax," but he sure seems to be concerned about all the people who are leading it.
Trump in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday made crystal-clear his previously reported distaste for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from oversight of the Russia probe, going so far as to say he wouldn't have even nominated Sessions had he known it would result in the recusal.
"Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump said.
Trump's statement is remarkable for a few reasons. The first is that he's publicly splitting with his own attorney general, who as a senator was his earliest supporter alongside many skeptical Senate Republicans. The second is that Trump's version of events is a little odd; Sessions wouldn't have even known there was reason to recuse himself when he was nominated, given his recusal had to do with his failure to report contacts with Russia's ambassador during the ensuing confirmation process.
But perhaps the biggest takeaway here is that Trump has now repeatedly attacked the people tasked with overseeing federal law enforcement's Russia probe. Five people have had a leading role in that regard, and Trump has now attacked all of them.
Trump, most notably, fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May and later admitted the Russia investigation was on his mind when he did it. "In fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself — I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story," Trump told NBC News's Lester Holt. "It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won."
Trump has also sought to cast doubt upon the special counsel who was appointed following Sessions's recusal, former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, by pointing to reports that Mueller has hired lawyers who contributed to Democrats. "You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people!" Trump tweeted last month. Trump's surrogates have joined in that questioning of Mueller's neutrality.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who assumed oversight of the investigation after Sessions's recusal, was the one who appointed Mueller. And Trump apparently hasn't been happy with him either. Shortly after the tweet criticizing the team assembled by Mueller, Trump cited the fact that Rosenstein had sent him a memo at Trump's request pointing to Comey's failures as FBI director. "I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director!" Trump tweeted. While Rosenstein at the time wasn't technically investigating Trump himself, it was pretty clear he was the one Trump referenced.
And very early in Trump's tenure, he fired then-acting attorney general Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration while Sessions wasn't yet confirmed. At that point, the scope of the Russia investigation and its focus on the Trump team wasn't well known, but she would later testify about how she believed then-national security adviser Michael Flynn was compromised due to his dealings with Russians, and she had informed the White House counsel of this. Before her testimony to the Senate in May, Trump suggestively hinted Yates may know something about classified information being leaked. "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council," Trump tweeted, misspelling "counsel."
The trend here is clear. If you are going to investigate Trump, you better be prepared for him to try and send a message or undermine you. Precisely why he feels the need to send that message is the big question.
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