Does Trump Even Like Jeff Sessions?

Short answer: it seems unlikely.

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia during the election.

“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 told The Times.

Following up, Trump called Sessions’s decision to recuse himself as “frankly, very unfair to the president” and then again “extremely unfair.” Trump suggested he was holding back with his frustration towards Session since he also said unfair was a “mild word” to express his feelings.

Sessions certainly had every reason to recuse himself: he was caught lying about whether he had any contact with Russian officials during the time he was an advisor to Trump’s campaign. Sessions did meet with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice, despite saying he had not met with any Russian officials during his confirmation hearing.

Trump also spoke about the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, now handling the inquiry during the interview. The president said Mueller was leading an office “rife with conflicts of interest” and cautioned Mueller against investigating anything but the campaign’s alleged contact with Russian officials. He also seemed to think that Mueller’s investigation would “cross a red line” if it scrutinized his children.

Per The Times:

Asked if Mr. Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if it expanded to look at his family’s finances beyond any relationship to Russia, Mr. Trump said, “I would say yes.” He would not say what he would do about it. “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia.”

Trump did not seem to acknowledge that the investigation would be obligated to probe his children since at least one of them, Donald Trump Jr., who was an advisor during the campaign, publicly admitted to meeting with someone he thought was a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

As far as Trump is concerned, however, he is not under federal investigation for obstruction of justice after firing former FBI director James Comey.

“I don’t think we’re under investigation. I’m not under investigation. For what? I didn’t do anything wrong,” Trump told The Times.

In July, The Times also reported that Mueller wanted to question the director of national intelligence, the head of the National Security Agency, and the former N.S.A director. Mueller’s request suggested, according to The Times, that he might be considering if Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.

According to The Times, Sessions did not respond to Trump’s recorded comments. Though, if I were him, I would be pressing the eject button right about now.