CNN: Trump Pressured Sessions Multiple Times to Overturn Recusal.
BERMAN: All right. New to CNN, a source tells us that President Trump pressured attorney general Jeff Sessions not once but on multiple occasions the last 14 months to reverse his decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation. Back now with CNN political analysts John Avlon and David Gregory. You know, David, this just gets to one of the things we knew. The president was really upset that Jeff Sessions recused himself. The idea that he went back to him many, many times.</s>GREGORY: Well, as remarkable as that and what he has said publicly, the president has said publicly, you know, "President Obama had in Eric Holder a loyalist as his attorney general, and I ought to get the same." And that's really what he wanted out of Sessions. He wanted somebody who would lead this investigation or make it go away, who would handle it in a way that a loyalist would. I mean, it was just -- from the start, zero idea that the Justice Department ought to have some independence from the executive branch or that Jeff Sessions ought to do the right thing. Now, we've been batting this around over the past few days. I do think it's a fair frustration for the president to say, "Look, you knew this was all building out here. If you were going to take yourself out of the game, you know, we maybe should have had that discussion."</s>CAMEROTA: Does the timeline work?</s>GREGORY: I'm not sure it does. I'm not sure it does. I don't think -- I don't think -- because remember, you only get a special counsel after he fires Jim Comey. So I don't know how you have that conversation. So what is so painfully clear: Jeff Sessions, as an ultimate Trump loyalist, doing the right thing, having integrity, as his FBI director does. It makes so stark what the president is doing.</s>AVLON: It's disqualifying. I mean, effectively disqualifying. Remember, Jeff Sessions is the first and, basically, for a long time, only senator to back the Trump administration.</s>CAMEROTA: Definition of loyalist.</s>AVLON: Yes. And yet he has been harangued and bullied in public by the president, because he hasn't put personal loyalty ahead of professional obligation.</s>GREGORY: And I keep coming back to this point. You know, I think we're in real trouble in a bigger sense when, in our political fights and how divided we are, that we can't agree on the basic foundations of an investigation like investigating, you know, what Russia did. And the president wants to turn it into some kind of conspiracy. And that -- and that political supporters have jumped on this to say that everything is rotten in the Justice Department. You know, we remember the Valerie Plame investigation. The Bush White House was so angry about this. They thought it was so unfair. Never did you see this kind of innuendo. Never were people fired and all the rest. They took it, because they respected the process.</s>AVLON: Yes.</s>GREGORY: And that lack of respect does hurt the Justice Department and the</s>FBI. AVLON: It undermines our institutions. It's an attack on institutions. But also this new news that it's multiple times that, according to new word yesterday, the president urged (ph) him to unrecuse himself. Multiple times. That's not a good fact pattern for the president.</s>CAMEROTA: It's also been interesting that we've had many people, Republicans included, on who think that, of course, Jeff Sessions had to recuse himself. And it has been particularly interesting, Steve Bannon. OK? The president's chief strategist, the president's brain, whatever he was called back when he was he in the White House, agrees. So listen to this sit-down that he had with Fareed Zakaria.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Donald Trump now says he wishes he had picked another attorney general. Is Donald Trump right?</s>BANNON: I think the president is wrong. I think the president has been wrong from the beginning about -- if I can respectfully disagree with the president of the United States. I think that -- I think the whole concept of recusal is not even an issue. I think that Rudy Giuliani, a Chris Christie, or Jeff Sessions, anybody associated with the campaign would have had to recuse themselves before Grassley's committee even voted them out to go to the floor for a vote. So I think the recusal is an issue -- yes, an issue that was dealt with and had to be dealt with. And whether you picked Rudy or Christie. And by the way, this thing with Sessions was not the first pick. Rudy was always the first pick. Jeff Sessions and Rudy all he wanted was secretary of state. OK? So even Rudy knew at the time there was going to be this issue of recusal. So I think the president is wrong. I think if you look at what Jeff Sessions has done on immigration, on migration, on all the key issues of the Justice Department, I think Sessions has personally done an excellent job.</s>CAMEROTA: That's why he's still there. When people say why doesn't the president fire him, it's because of those policies that he just spouted out.</s>BERMAN: I think the reason the president that he's still there, the reason the president didn't fire him is because his lawyers won't let him fire him. Because he thinks that will be a real problem. The reason that Jeff Sessions stays and doesn't quit after being repeatedly humiliated is because he wants to do those things.</s>AVLON: And if he resigns, Trump gets to reappoint. If he's fired, then all of a sudden, you have the prospect of Rosenstein becoming attorney general and the Senate not confirming the replacement. So there's a bit of double jeopardy. But the point that Bannon is making is, look, Sessions hasn't only been personally loyal to the president during the campaign. He's actually been an incredibly effective implementer of his policies on immigration. Very conservative policies.</s>GREGORY: But he's also saying -- he's also saying that it was easy to anticipate that he'd have to recuse himself.</s>BERMAN: Yes.</s>GREGORY: And that the others who were in line for that job would have had to do the same. And remember, we should underline, Comey still isn't fired at this point.</s>BERMAN: No.</s>GREGORY: Which by the way, Steve Bannon said was a horrible idea.</s>BERMAN: That's the point that I find fascinating here. Steve Bannon is a pretty interesting witness, perhaps, for the special counsel investigation. Because it's clear that he was uncomfortable at many points during those months that he was actually part of the administration.</s>GREGORY: I actually -- I actually think this. I don't know that it deserves a ton of credit for this amount of restraint. I actually think, you know, the president will not fire Sessions or Rosenstein. I mean, I think he -- he fired Comey, because he thought he had a basis to do it, which Rosenstein provided in the -- in the memo. But he thought that there was a kind of, you know, cause</s>AVLON: Well, I mean, he's reaped (ph) the whirlwind by firing Comey, which to your point, Bannon warned him against. And that is sort of the original sin in much of this. I'm not sure I buy that Christie or Rudy would have had the same recusal pattern, and the time line isn't exactly on. But I will say Bannon and Zakaria, that is a buddy comedy I would watch all day long.</s>BERMAN: No, I mean, look, they have a full hour. It airs tonight. I have to believe this is a fascinating conversation. There are other things there. Steve Bannon does say the president should fire Rod Rosenstein, like now, today.</s>CAMEROTA: It gets curiouser and curiouser. That logic. I mean, that is also complicated, with a cascading effect, as you point out.</s>AVLON: Well, look, I mean, clearly, that has been the overriding private impulse of the president.</s>GREGORY: Right.</s>AVLON: Because that is, you know, in some ways, a cleaner way of making things go away than Sessions.</s>GREGORY: But why does he -- I don't think he wants to do that at this point. What he's doing is trashing the investigation.</s>AVLON: Yes.</s>GREGORY: So it's kind of garbage in, garbage out. He can use this; he can play himself as the victim, use this as a tool on the campaign trail. I think now he's kind of welcoming, you know, the rest of what's going to come.</s>AVLON: I wouldn't say welcoming.</s>GREGORY: Not welcoming it, but he wants to use it as --</s>AVLON: He doesn't want to go full Nixon.</s>GREGORY: Yes.</s>AVLON: He just wants to play the victim, which is, by the way, a really absurd thing for a president of the United States.</s>BERMAN: All right. Meatloaf, Gary Busey.</s>AVLON: Meatloaf.</s>BERMAN: Thank you -- thank you very much for being with us this morning. I appreciate it. John Avlon, David Gregory, great to have you here. And be sure to watch Fareed Zakaria's full interview with Steve Bannon tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. It is fascinating, and it is only here on</s>CNN. CAMEROTA: OK. The Trump administration meanwhile imposing steep, steep tariffs on metals imported from America's allies, Canada, Mexico, and the European union. They now vow to retaliate. Is a trade war brewing?