Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has declared that if Donald Trump fires his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, “there will be holy hell to pay”.
Over the past week, the President has verbally attacked Mr Sessions, making clear that he is angry with the Attorney General for recusing himself from a probe into possible ties between Trump campaign advisers and the Russian government.
Republicans in Congress have not taken kindly to Mr Trump’s treatment of Mr Sessions, including Mr Graham and Charles Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr Grassley said in a tweet on Wednesday that if the President fires Mr Sessions, there will be no confirmation hearing for a new attorney general in 2017.
“Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way,” he wrote.
Mr Graham told reporters that Mr Trump’s “effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the Attorney General is not going over well in the Senate” or with conservatives, adding that he is “100 per cent behind” Mr Sessions.
“The President has the right to fire anybody in his cabinet. As a human being, I think he should show some respect for Jeff Sessions as a person,” Mr Graham said.
Mr Sessions’ recusal from the Russia probe ultimately led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to lead the investigation following the President’s firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Mr Trump opposed the appointment of Mr Mueller, who has reportedly now expanded his inquiry to look at a broad range of transactions involving Trump businesses.
As Mr Mueller has continued his probe into whether Trump campaign advisers colluded with Russians, the President has floated the idea of firing him. Mr Trump’s lawyers are also reportedly exploring ways to limit or undercut the investigation, which the President has denounced as a “witch hunt”.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,” Mr Graham said.
