WASHINGTON (TIP): Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he plans to stay on the job. That wouldn’t be news except that in an interview with The New York Times, July 19, President Trump openly criticized Sessions for recusing himself from Russia investigation.  Trump said that if he knew then what he knows now, he wouldn’t have nominated Sessions to be the attorney general. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he would – 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 in the interview.

Sessions said that he had the “honor of serving as attorney general,” and that he plans “to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate.” Asked whether he could keep running the Justice Department given Trump’s comments, he responded: “I’m totally confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way.”

Meanwhile, President Trump has no plans to fire Jeff Sessions, his spokesperson said Thursday, July 20, even after his extraordinary attacks cast doubt on the fate of the attorney general and Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the Russia investigation.

While Trump still disagrees with Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said, “clearly, he has confidence in him, or he would not be attorney general.”