The attorney general’s former colleagues in Congress, as well as conservative allies, publicly questioned the president’s attacks on Sessions.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was among Sessions’ most vocal defenders Wednesday, when he seemed to almost be taunting the president, suggesting that his failure to fire Sessions showed weakness, while also hinting that the impact of such a move could be catastrophic for Trump’s presidency.
“He’s trying to get Sessions to quit and I hope Sessions doesn’t quit. If the president wants to fire him, fire him,” Graham said. “I think anybody who’s strong would use the power they have and be confident in his decision. Strong people say: ‘I’ve decided this man or woman can’t serve me well and I’m going to act accordingly and take the consequence.’ To me weakness is when you play around the edges and don’t use the power you have.”One conservative activist said that an effort is underway to coordinate and amplify such statements because of fears that Trump doesn’t understand the blow his administration and the conservative movement would suffer if Sessions departs.
.. Is this fight to have right now? The danger of this fight with General Sessions is he’s not only a loyal supporter of the president which sends a bad message to supporters, but he’s also getting the job done,” said the source, referring to Session’s initiatives on such issues as illegal immigration and toughening criminal sentencing.
.. Numerous prominent conservative voices have publicly rallied to Sessions side, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), former Trump transition domestic policy chief and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
.. Gingrich said on NPR early Wednesday. “I think that Jeff Sessions, in fact, was one of his earliest and most loyal supporters. I think Jeff Sessions is a solid conservative. I think, yeah, you can argue either way. I mean, even a guy like Rudy Giuliani, who’s very pro-Trump, said he would have recused himself.”.. The senators view Trump’s treatment of their former colleague as “offensive,” the source said... Some GOP senators also fear that if Trump pushes Sessions out, the results could be dire for Trump. Such a development might lead to mass resignations at the Justice Department and it might be impossible to find a majority in the Senate to confirm a replacement for Sessions, the source added... the president took another shot at Sessions Wednesday morning, faulting him for failing to remove acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.“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... Trump’s statement was puzzling because the president has the authority to name an acting FBI director and the White House publicly toyed with the idea of bringing in another FBI official to replace McCabe, but never did so.
.. Senior White House strategist Steve Bannon is the moving force in the effort to persuade Trump to back away from his public salvos at Sessions
.. American should be troubled by the character of a person who humiliates and turns his back on a close friend after only six months.
.. Schumer—who in March called for Sessions to resign over his contacts with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak
.. “Only Trump could make Sessions into a sympathetic figure,” said James Gagliano, a former FBI agent in New York and an adjunct professor of leadership studies at St. Johns University. “It’s unifying some factions I don’t think would ever have unified. Maybe he is a unifier.”
Trump Administration to Bar Transgender Individuals From Serving in U.S. Military
The president made the announcement in a series of tweets
“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military,” Mr. Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”
.. The presidential announcement, which left unclear the status of those currently serving in the military, appeared to take many in the Pentagon by surprise.
..Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who opened the department to transgender troops said the decision would hurt the military.“I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified,” he said in a statement. “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military. There are already transgender individuals who are serving capably and honorably. This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service.”.. Tony Perkins, president of the social conservative group Family Research Council, praised Mr. Trump’s decision. “The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda,” he said in a statement... A report commissioned by the Pentagon on the effects of allowing transgender individuals to serve openly, released in May 2016, found that policy shift would have little to no impact on military cohesion or readiness, and that costs would be negligible. The study, conducted by the Rand Corp., found that between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender individuals now serve in active duty, amounting to about 0.05% of the total U.S. active force. The study pegged the likely estimate at 2,450... The report estimated that few of those service members would require treatment or surgery and concluded that the cost of implementing the policy would be between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year. Total military health-care expenditures were $6.27 billion in 2014... The report also found few problems in foreign militaries that provide for open transgender service. It said 18 countries reviewed in the study “do not report evidence of negative impacts on unit cohesion and readiness.”
Tony Perkins Backs #DumpKelloggs: After Election Defeat, Left Will ‘Use Corporate America to Marginalize Conservative Thought’
Tony Perkins, host of the Family Research Council’sWashington Watch radio show, discussed the#DumpKelloggs boycott with Breitbart News CEO Larry Solov on Monday.
“The Left has lost control of the government – at least, it’s about to – which they have used to basically punish dissenting thought, when it comes to their politically correct agenda. So now there is this, it appears to be [a] rapid move to consolidate their control of corporate America – to use them to be their tool or their weapon of choice,”
.. “It’s like a different version of Hillary Clinton’s ‘basket of deplorables,’” Perkins observed. “Kellogg’s has their bowl of deplorables, and they’re basically dumping this on half of America.
.. “You’re right, a lot of our material is published on Breitbart. When petitions that we do on religious liberty in the military get to Breitbart, they do extremely well – because you’re right, it’s God-fearing Americans who read Breitbart,” said Perkins.
.. What that is, is an attempt – and we’ve seen it come from the Left many times – an attempt to shut down mainstream conservative thought, because they cannot compete in the realm of ideas. We know that we will win on that basis. They try to marginalize people so that you can’t get your ideas out there, and they marginalize you by calling you racist, sexist, and terms like that.”
.. maybe this long-held, long-gone-to playbook of calling conservatives racist is maybe beginning to lose some of its effectiveness,”
.. Frankly, they cannot point to a single fact, a single article on Breitbart that is white nationalist, because it has never existed.”
Donald Trump Reveals Evangelical Rifts That Could Shape Politics for Years
“Those men have never spoken for me or, frankly, anyone I know,” saidMs. Hatmaker, the author of popular inspirational Christian books.
.. The fault lines among evangelicals that the election of 2016 has exposed — among generations, ethnic groups and sexes — are likely to reshape national politics for years to come, conservative Christian leaders and analysts said last week in interviews.
.. To these pragmatic players, the election boiled down to only two issues, both that could be solved with Supreme Court appointments: stopping abortion and ensuring legal protections for religious conservatives who object to same-sex marriage.
.. “I do not think there’s any way to get evangelical women in any force to show up for Donald Trump at this point,” Mr. Moore said.
.. Several polls show that Mr. Trump is underperforming among evangelicals compared with previous Republican nominees, who commanded about 80 percent of the white evangelical vote. Mr. Trump received 65 percent to 70 percent of white evangelical support
.. “the millennial generation has a lot less patience for Trump.” Of the 33 influential millennial evangelicals she profiled for a cover story two years ago, she says she can now find only one, Lila Rose, who is pro-Trump, and even she has been publicly critical of him.
.. The student body president, Jack Heaphy, as well as some students interviewed on campus, defended Mr. Falwell and Mr. Trump.
.. “I believe the vast majority of students on campus will be voting for Mr. Trump on Nov. 8 — not because he’s the perfect candidate, but because his policies align most with the viewpoints of students,” Mr. Heaphy said.
.. “It’s inconceivable that someone could run an organization named the Family Research Council and support a man like Donald Trump for president,” said Matthew Lee Anderson, 34, the author of several books and the blog Mere Orthodoxy.