GOP lawmakers, top advisers have campaigned to stop Trump from firing Sessions: report

Top current and former allies of President Trump have been involved in a monthslong campaign to convince Trump not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to a new report.

The Associated Press reported Thursday that several of the president’s top advisers in Congress and elsewhere have spoken with the president over the phone and through the media as they attempt to assuage Trump’s discontent with Sessions.

{mosads}

The effort reportedly began after Sessions announced last year that he would recuse himself from the Justice Department’s investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, a decision Trump has publicly challenged.

It was an issue that united former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who were frequently at odds but agreed, according to the AP, that firing Sessions would kick the investigation into high gear.

Other lawmakers and allies of the president have reportedly spoken on the phone with Trump in recent months and used the opportunity to raise several points to the president: Namely, that conservatives in Congress would revolt against the administration if Sessions, a longtime senator, was fired.

Among the more public challenges to firing Sessions came from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has pledged not to hold confirmation hearings for a new attorney general if Sessions were to be fired.

Additional concerns include fears of angering Trump’s base, which favors Sessions’s views on immigration and law enforcement, according to the news service.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who joined the president’s legal team this month, has reportedly been among the advisers who have urged Trump to keep Sessions over the months.

On Wednesday, Giuliani told reporters that Sessions’s job was likely safe while the Russia probe continued.

“There’s no doubt he’s complained about him, there’s no doubt he has some grievances. I don’t know they’ve aired them out yet. He’s not going to fire him before this is over,” Giuliani told reporters. “Nor do I think he should.”