WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's scathing criticisms have been "kind of hurtful," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday, even as he again signaled that he wants to stay on the job.
"He wants all of us to do our job, and that's what I intend to do," Sessions said in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. The network released an excerpt in advance of the scheduled air time Thursday night.
The comments were the first this week on the subject from Sessions, who has been subjected to harshly critical tweets from Trump for three days. The president has called him "weak" and said he wasn't aggressive enough in going after leakers.
Last week, after Trump criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview, Sessions told reporters he planned to stay on as long as it was "appropriate."
Sessions has seemed to redouble his attempts this week to win back the president's favor.
He announced another crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that don't cooperate with immigration enforcement and on Friday traveled to El Salvador to highlight arrests of MS-13 gang members, both favorite topics of the president.
The Justice Department also plans to address leaks next week.
On Wednesday evening, after Anthony Scaramucci, Trump's incoming communications director, falsely tweeted that he'd been the victim of a leak, Sessions' chief spokeswoman released a statement agreeing that leaks are undermining the government and promising to "aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead."
In the interview, Sessions reached back to Trump's campaign slogan to praise the president as a "strong leader."
"He is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again," he said.
