'Not Up to the Job': Former Republican Rep Wants Sessions to Resign

Cortney O'Brien | December 18, 2017 3:45 PM

Former Congressman-turned Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz thinks it's time for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign.

"It pains me to say this a little bit [but] I don't think the attorney general is up to the job he's doing," Chaffetz said on Fox News Saturday.

.@jasoninthehouse: "I think it's time for [Jeff Sessions] to go." pic.twitter.com/aOgLa4FIvg
— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 16, 2017

Sessions isn't doing a good enough job responding to the controversies surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion, Chaffetz argued. For instance, FBI agent Peter Strzok's political bias. Strzok, a former member of the investigation, was found to have texted his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page, seething anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton messages last year. A House Judiciary Committee hearing largely focused on the texts last week, with the panel grilling Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about what the FBI is doing to maintain its integrity. Then, over the weekend, Trump's counsel suggested that Mueller's team had obtained Trump transition emails illegally, a claim Mueller rejects.

Trump questioned Sessions's strength long before the special counsel debacle. In a stunning public criticism in July, he called his attorney general "beleaguered" for failing to pursue an investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. You remember the tweet.

The president was reportedly just as annoyed that Sessions decided to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for having met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Had he known Sessions was going to recuse himself, Trump never would have appointed him attorney general, according to reports.

Trump, well aware of the special counsel's scandals, told reporters over the weekend he has no plans to fire Mueller.