It's been less than a day since voters across the country delivered a forceful rebuke to President Donald Trump's administration and the former reality star is already trying to change the narrative of his party's brutal losses. The president forced his long-suffering Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, as he cleans house in the aftermath of the election.
It's been clear for months that Sessions, who went from being the first U.S. senator to support Trump during the 2016 presidential election to perhaps his least favorite human after the Alabama native recused himself from the Russia probe, was on his way out.
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"We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well," Trump tweeted. "We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date."
....We thank Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his service, and wish him well! A permanent replacement will be nominated at a later date.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
In his resignation letter, Sessions wrote he had been “honored to serve as Attorney General” under Trump and had “worked to implement the law enforcement agenda based on the rule of law that formed a central part of your campaign for the presidency.” That agenda included, but was not limited to, policies such as trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children; rolling back protections for transgender workers; changing the rules to reject the asylum applications of domestic violence survivors; and issuing a sweeping religious liberty directive that could directly harm vulnerable communities.
But even though Sessions jumped on this right wing agenda with gusto, it was never enough for Trump, who could never get over the recusal and savagely criticized his attorney general — typically via Twitter. It was just a matter of time before Sessions was ousted, but it took less than 24 hours after Democrats took back the House for Trump to be all "thank u, next."