Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded Thursday to President Donald Trump's criticisms of his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, saying he is honored to hold his post and will continue to serve as long as it is appropriate.
Trump called Sessions' decision to recuse himself "very unfair to the president" in an interview with the New York Times published Wednesday.
"Sessions should have never recused himself, and 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.
Sessions held a press conference Thursday to discuss the takedown of AlphaBay, which prosecutors say was the largest dark internet marketplace for illicit items like drugs, weapons, and hacking tools. However, reporters were more interested in his reaction to Trump's rebuke of him.
"What is your reaction to those remarks and how seriously are you considering possibly resigning?" a reporter asked.
"We in this Department of Justice will continue every single day to work hard to serve the national interest and we wholeheartedly join in the priorities of President Trump," Sessions said. "He gave us several directives. One is to dismantle Internet, transnational criminal organizations."
Sessions added that he is honored to hold the position of attorney general.
"We love this job, we love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate," he said.
"How do you feel you can effectively serve from here on out if you don't have the confidence of the president?" another reporter asked.
"We serve him right now. The work we're doing today is the kind of work that we intend to continue," Sessions said. "Just last week we announced the largest health care [fraud] takedown ever in the United States. We had all the major law enforcement leaders in my office yesterday to talk about our unified efforts to improve our crime-fighting with state and local officials."