As of this moment, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has yet to resign from his cabinet post despite being publicly attacked by his own boss, President Donald Trump. On Twitter Trump called his AG "weak" and "beleaguered." Both in print and during a press conference, the president said he was "disappointed" with Sessions for recusing himself amid the Russia investigation. "Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!" Trump tweeted. (Does the president not have a direct line to the attorney general?)
If the Trump-Sessions drama had its own soundtrack, it’d be from Dunkirk—Hans Zimmer’s constant ticking of a clock as time expires. Not that Sessions appears to be in any rush. Last week, when asked how he could still serve Trump after the president expressed his disapproval, Sessions replied with a rather blank stare, "We’re serving right now."
So what is going on inside Sessions’s head? Is he a foolish optimist like Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber? That even if the odds are one-in-a-million that he stays, that’s good enough odds for him?
Or is he Milton from Office Space? He just isn’t taking the hints. Sessions was at the White House today. Trump was at the White House today. The two did not meet. (Has Sessions stopped receiving a paycheck? Did he not get a slice of birthday cake? Has his office been moved to the basement of Main Justice? If Sessions has a red stapler, he better guard the hell out of it.)
Who knows? Sessions may stick this one out. If the pushback from firing him is strong enough, Trump may back down—consider those tweets punishment enough. But if the angry tweets continue, I’m not sure Sessions can—or should—take much more abuse.