Rand Paul Backs Trump On Sessions: “He Should Have Been More Supportive Of The President”

During a Thursday interview on Fox & Friends, a TV show popular with President Donald Trump, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) attempted to repair his reportedly fraught relationship with President Donald Trump.

Sen. Paul was initially asked by host Brian Kilmeade about his phone conversation with President Trump last night.

“We have a good rapport,” Paul replied. “He understands where I am – that I am really probably the most adamant that we should repeal Obamacare.”

Asked about remarks made by Trump to the New York Times about Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the ongoing Russia investigation, Paul firmly backed the President.

“I think the President has a point, because the thing is here is that if everyone is going to recuse themselves just for incidental contact, I don’t think you get really good governance,” Paul said. “I think Jeff Sessions’ contact with Russians was incidental in the usual duties of being in the Senate.”

“He should have stayed in the fray and should have been more supportive of the President,” Paul continued.

Paul then used the opportunity to tear into Sessions for the Attorney General’s support for expansion of civil asset forfeiture, a policy Paul has railed against for years.

“My other objection with Senator Sessions is that he also now is going after people’s property, through what we call asset forfeiture, and I’m a big believer that this has been disproportionately applied to minorities and also poor people,” said Paul. “I think we shouldn’t take people’s property without a conviction, and this is something I believe very strongly and have worked in, and I’m disappointed now that Sessions is going after a lot of poor minorities to take their property without due process.”

According to Chuck Johnson of Gotnews, Jeff Sessions is set to resign at some point during the coming month. Asked whether Sessions should resign, Paul largely deflected, stating “I have been disappointed that Senator Sessions wants to take the property of people without a trial, civil asset forfeiture is a bit deal to me, it’s very very unfair, it’s the big abuse of our system and I’ve been trying to fix it and I’m disappointed that he’s going the opposite way, so I have my own beef to pick with Senator Sessions.”

Paul had previously accused Sessions of deceiving him during a May interview with Rare. Sessions recently announced that the Department of Justice would fully enforce mandatory minimum laws that had been relaxed during the Obama administration. Paul argued that this was “different from what [he] was led to believe” in conversations with then-Senator Sessions during his confirmation process.

During his Fox & Friends appearance, Paul also hit back against the Russia investigation itself, describing it as a “partisan witch-hunt” where Democrats with “an observer bias” have “concocted a storyline” by linking together a completely separate chain of interactions with Russians into a conspiracy.

Rand Paul went on to praise the achievements of the Trump administration so far, saying “I think that Gorsuch is a great pick for the Supreme Court, we put that through in record fashion, we repealed fourteen regulations that were costing business about $60 billion in record fashion, so there’s a lot good to be had” before slamming the media for getting “self-occupied with the made up Russian story”.

“A lot of good things have happened so far,” Paul concluded. “I always wake up every day and say it could’ve been Hillary Clinton, we could be at war in the Middle East because Hillary Clinton wanted to go to war everywhere, and she would be at war with American business, it could be terrible, and I think Trump’s doing a much better job than what we could’ve gotten.”