Attorney General Fires Back after Trump Attacks; Rep. Duncan Hunter: My Wife Handled My Finances.
TRUMP: I put in an attorney general that never took control of the Justice Department, Jeff Sessions. Never took control of the Justice Department, and it's sort of an incredible thing.</s>BERMAN: Those words led to the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to fight back, really, for the first time in this way. He responded with this statement released by the attorney general's office that says, quote, "I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in. While I'm attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action." That's sort of the Jeff Sessions equivalent of saying, "I'm made as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."</s>CAMEROTA: This is not what Jeff Sessions was imagining when he was the first person to come out and support candidate Donald Trump. He was not imagining having to issue a statement like that to defend himself.</s>BERMAN: No. I think that's probably true. I also think that Michael Cohen wasn't imagining this when he signed up to be the president's lawyer. Or Paul Manafort wasn't imagining this when he signed up to be the president's campaign chair.</s>CAMEROTA: Omarosa was imagining this.</s>BERMAN: Omarosa had this whole thing charted out.</s>CAMEROTA: This is all planned.</s>BERMAN: We're back now with Abby Phillip, Ron Brownstein and Shan Wu. Abby, first to you. Again, the back and forth -- really has just been a forth. It's just been the president attacking Jeff Sessions for more than a year now. We're now seeing Jeff Sessions come out of his shell, a tiny little bit. He crossed a line here, the president did, in Jeff Sessions's mind, where he said, "You didn't take control of the Justice Department."</s>PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, I think it is, really. I mean, we should focus on that for just one second. The president just said that he believes that, when he took office, he put in senior leaders in the Justice Department, not just Jeff Sessions but leaders underneath him. But they still haven't taken control of his own Justice Department. That's really extraordinary. And I think that's why Jeff Sessions felt like he had to step in, because the president was essentially implying that there was still some kind of Democratic conspiracy against him in his own Justice Department. And Jeff Sessions is both working for the president of the United States, but he's also the leader of a sprawling organization of law enforcement officers who need to respect the person holding that office. And I think he felt not only that he needed to defend himself but also defend the organization from attacks against the president. And also, you know, I mean, I think frankly, here we are, you know, more than 18 months into the Trump presidency. What else is Jeff Sessions going to do? I think that he, at some point, realized that, you know, the president is either going to fire him or he's not, and it seems that almost nothing that he says or does is going to change the president's mind about underlying problems that he has. The president's now getting some, you know, some really important clearance from Congress, where they're saying, "We might be willing to take this up but only after the election." I think that will make a huge difference in this whole thing.</s>CAMEROTA: Ron, I keep coming back to the chronology here. Jeff Sessions was not a fortune teller, that he was named in -- he was picked by Donald Trump in January. He was confirmed in February. The Russian investigation came to light in March, and Jeff Sessions recused. So the idea that --</s>BROWNSTEIN: Based on misleading statements to the Senate, don't forget. I mean, that's what started it all.</s>CAMEROTA: OK. Thank you for adding that. But the point is, is that Donald Trump either thinks that Jeff Sessions knew all this was going to happen, and I don't know. Maybe somehow he knew in December. But he wants Jeff Sessions to have known in January how this would unfold by March.</s>BROWNSTEIN: There are so many things about this -- about the president's statement yesterday that are kind of, like, off the wall. I mean, first, there was no -- there was no elected official in the Republican Party who is ideologically closer to where Donald Trump wanted to take the party before his nomination than Jeff Sessions, as evidenced by the fact that it is his aide, Steven Miller, who is kind of like the -- you know, the ideological keeper of the flame on the -- on immigration and other issues, racially-inflected issues in the White House. Second, there is no cabinet member who has pursued a more aggressively conservative agenda. The idea that he hasn't taken control of the Justice Department; he has moved it significantly to the right on every possible policy area within its purview, particularly having to do with criminal justice reform where he just apparently, you know, beat back Jared Kushner's attempt to support even kind of modest criminal justice reform and oversight of police. Pretty much the whole panoply. The only question, really, here that the president is alluding to is the idea that Sessions has not, quote, "protected" him enough from an inquiry into the Russian investigation, which goes to his view of not only the attorney general but, I think, the entire government as, essentially, an extension of, you know -- of the kind of relationships he had at the Trump Organization, and kind of denies any independent role for any of them in upholding the law and safeguarding the Constitution.</s>BERMAN: A couple points I want to make here. No. 1, the president of the United States is enjoying his executive time this morning. I don't know if he's watching us, but he is engaged now in this debate. He's going after Jeff Sessions once again on Twitter. That's one thing he's saying. He thanks Jeff Sessions for saying he won't be improperly influenced by political considerations, and he basically says, "Go investigate Democrats," which is all the president wants to see the attorney general do. Shan, the other interesting thing that's happened to this is that you are now starting to see Republican senators who apparently are sick of defending Jeff Sessions. Or they've just grown weary of it. Lindsey Graham, who's been, frankly, on many different sides of the Donald Trump saga for the last three years, now says maybe Jeff Sessions should go. Listen to what Lindsey Graham says.</s>GRAHAM: Clearly, Attorney General Sessions doesn't have the confidence of the president. After the election, I think there will be some serious discussions about a new attorney general.</s>BERMAN: That's Lindsey Graham. Shan, you actually suggest, Shan, that one of the things that the attorney general should do is demand an apology, force the president's hand here.</s>WU: Absolutely. I mean, the president's emphasis on his personal loyalty is misplaced. I mean, Jeff Sessions, as well as the president, swore an oath of loyalty to the Constitution, not to each other. And Sessions, if he has any hope of being an effective attorney general, needs to really stand up and say, "Look, you know, if you don't have confidence in me, fire me, but you owe me and the Justice Department an apology."</s>CAMEROTA: Abby, we need to move on to Congressman Duncan Hunter. He is accused of mismanaging his campaign funds, using them improperly. Here's a list of some of the things that -- expenses where he used the funds improperly, allegedly. Family vacations: went to Italy for $14,000, Hawaii for $6,500, Las Vegas; airplane ride for the family pet; bachelor party drinks, $350; "Riverdance" tickets; Steelers tickets for family members; Costco. Using campaign funds for your groceries to the tune of $11,000. So last night he was on FOX, and he explained, really, whose fault this all is.</s>REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: The first time I gave her power of attorney, and she handled my finances through my entire military career, and that continued on when I got into Congress. I'm gone five days a week; I'm home for two. So -- and she was also the campaign manager. So whatever she did, that will be -- that will be looked at, too, I'm sure. But -- but I didn't do it. I didn't spend any money illegally. I didn't -- I did not use campaign money.</s>CAMEROTA: Abby, who was that rogue? Who is that rogue campaign manager? It's his wife. That's who he just threw under the bus there.</s>PHILLIP: That is really amazing. I mean, it also is interesting, because some of the details of these alleged actions that he took were involving him having allegedly affairs with other women, and they also involve him having conversations with his wife that -- that federal investigators know about. So it's amazing that this is the excuse. But it also, I mean, to your point, it brings up this question of why is everyone seemingly involved in all kinds of alleged grift, and it's a family affair. It's not just the person; it's their wife. You know, with Ben Carson it was the same thing. He blamed his wife for --</s>CAMEROTA: Wives are really acting badly here. Wives are going rogue.</s>PHILLIP: Maybe they are, but maybe they're not. I mean, I think it's also that people need to take responsibility for their actions. He's an elected official. He was elected by the people to be a steward of his office, a steward of the taxpayer dollars. His wife was not elected; he was elected. I think that's really the issue here. It doesn't even matter, really, who he thinks was responsible. He is the ultimate person holding the office.</s>CAMEROTA: Abby is blowing my mind.</s>BERMAN: Abby trying to gracefully handle your snark right there.</s>CAMEROTA: Well, I'm just curious that his wife paid $350 for bachelor party drinks. Wow, she's really mismanaging this money.</s>BERMAN: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: Abby, thank you for bringing up personal responsibility. Thank you. Ron Brownstein, Shan Wu, thank you all. OK, moving on. The pope is heading to Ireland to meet with survivors of priest sexual abuse. What will he say there? What will he do? We have a live report, next.