President Donald Trump said in an interview on Tuesday that he could "fire" Attorney General Jeff Sessions whenever he wants to and echoed his frustration with his top lawyer for recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel investigation.
“I could fire him whenever I want to fire him, but I haven’t said that I was going to,” Trump told the Associated Press in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.
Trump has repeated his frustration with Sessions since the former Alabama senator recused himself from the Russia investigation in early 2017.
While the president hasn't said definitively that Sessions will be fired, he also hasn't publicly committed to keeping him as the attorney general past next month’s midterm elections.
“I could fire him whenever I want to fire him, but I haven’t said that I was going to."
In an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Trump said that he was “very disappointed” in Sessions' decision to recuse himself from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
However, when asked if they could assume Sessions would be dismissed after the midterms, Trump answered: "No. No. You can't assume that."
In an interview with The Hill last month, Trump tore into Sessions, saying his frustrations extend beyond the Russia recusal, going so far as to say “I don’t have an attorney general.”
“I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this,” he said.
Sessions addressed the president’s frustration during a Department of Justice news conference on Tuesday, telling reporters he was “pleased and honored” to have the responsibility to serve as attorney general.
"He's been frustrated about my recusal and other matters," Sessions said of Trump. "But we have been so pleased and honored to be given the responsibility to execute his agenda at the Department of Justice ... I am pleased and honored to have that responsibility and I will do so as long as it's appropriate for me to do so."
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain, Adam Shaw and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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