it s led us to where we are right now in many respects. that decision to recuse, do you think it was the proper and appropriate decision by jeff sessions? i do think that that was the right decision given the controversy over his testimony about his own contacts. but he did have a choice, i guess, ultimately, right? there is no one that can tell an attorney general to investigate, though i imagine there s internal doj procedure. yes, there are. there are very good ethics lawyers who advise the attorney general and others about their ethical obligations, and there are bar rules that all attorneys are subject to.
elect a president who then determines who his prosecutors are going to be, from the attorney general of the united states down to the u.s. attorney like me in new jersey. the people underneath you are typically career people. and i think that the fact of the matter is that the person who should be making the most sensitive decisions should be the person who is designated to do so by the president of the united states. i don t know what analysis attorney general sessions went through. i can t make a judgment. i don t know what the ethics lawyers at justice were telling h him. i don t know if he has personal counsel, what they were telling him. i don t know if there are other factors beyond what rt rowas red in the press. he didn t specifically say why. what i will tell you, my approach in general is to be reluctant to accuse. once you do, you can t put the toothpaste back in the tube. the oacomey asked to not be
decision. it s led us to where we are right now in many respects. that decision to recuse, do you think it was the proper and appropriate decision by jeff sessions? i do think that that was the right decision given the controversy over his testimony about his own contacts. but he did have a choice, i guess, ultimately, right? there is no one that can tell an attorney general to investigate, though i imagine there s internal doj procedure. yes, there are. there are very good ethics lawyers who advise the attorney general and others about their ethical obligations, and there are bar rules that all attorneys are subject to. so those ethics attorneys probably did give him advice, and he may have made his decision based on their advice. it seems to me a broader theme here is sort of the president versus the lawyers, right? that even someone like jeff sessions, who is obviously ideologically committed to the president s agenda, an early supporter of his vision, he is a lawyer. he s w
now washington, d.c. s chief watchdog wants to know who is getting those waivers and why, but the white house has said no. ethics lawyers, both republicans and democrats i spoke to say this breaks with precedent. remember, the obama administration did make these documents publicly available, of course, voluntarily because the law does not require it. sure, i remember writing a bunch of stories hammering them for the lobbyists that they allowed to work for them. what is the trump white house s excuse for in? they basically say the office of government ethics has overstepped its legal boundaries. it says the oge wants too much information in an unrealistic time frame calling the request, quote, breathless. the administration wants the ethics office to withdraw the data request until the justice department weighs in, but, look, realistically the oge cannot force the white house or other agencies to disclose who is getting waivers and why, but former ethics officials are
violate the hatch act. comes from prnl account. not official white house account. created official account to enter in compliance with the hatch act and taken necessary steps to ensure there s a clear distinction between both twitter accounts. scavino tweeted his response last night. quote, what ethics lawyers, the ones from the obama administration who want to take trump down or the bush administration. who were never trump. no thanks. meanwhile, the president was tweeting about the state of affairs between him and congressional mall republicans yesterday morning. quote, anybody especially fake news media that thinks repeal and replace of obamacare is dead does not know the love and strength in our party. talks of repealing and replacing obamacare are and have been going on and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck. joining us once again from capitol hill. national political reporter. jonathan swan. you have the president yesterday golfing with senator rand pau