Why Trump won't fire Sessions

Congressional Democrats will keep demanding Attorney General Jeff Sessions' scalp, but President Trump is unlikely to give it to them anytime soon.

Sessions is under fire for meeting twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States without disclosing it to the Senate during his confirmation hearings. He announced Thursday that he would recuse himself from all investigations related to the 2016 presidential campaign.

Democrats were hardly mollified. "Attorney General Sessions is right to recuse himself, but the fact is he should have done so the moment he was sworn in," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. "The DOJ regulations that led him to recuse himself existed three weeks ago when I first asked him to do so and were just as dispositive then as they are now."

Trump could try to appease them by firing Sessions, something Democrats have demanded, but that won't be easy for him to do. As a Republican senator from Alabama, Sessions was the first important federal elected official to endorse Trump's presidential campaign. Sessions was also critical in lining up Washington meetings and helping Trump establish relationships inside the national GOP.

Sessions is a much more important figure in Trumpworld than ousted National Security Adviser Michael Flynn ever was. The administration is layered with his associates. Deputy White House chief of staff Rick Dearborn and senior adviser Stephen Miller were top Sessions staffers.