Back in 2016, the idea of someone like Jeff Sessions at the helm of the Justice Department was enough to make any Republican giddy.
As someone who is arguably of this modern incarnation of American populism that led to the presidency of Donald Trump, Sessions was a favorite of many conservatives.
Sure, he had some detractors in Republican circles. But he was a favorite among Alabamians because he was fighting the good fight on immigration, welfare and other favorite causes of the GOP.
When he became the first significant Republican officeholder to endorse Trump just days before the Alabama GOP presidential primary in Madison, it solidified Sessions as not just a favorite of Alabama Republicans, but Republicans all over the country that backed Trump’s eventual presidential nomination.
Then the unlikely happened: Not only did Trump win the Republican nod, he defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th president of the United States. Even more unimaginable was the idea that Sessions would be elevated to one of the highest-ranking cabinet posts in the administration.
Now instead of being a thought leader, he could actually implement some of these ideas. He could crack down on illegal immigration. He could clean up the so-called deep state elements within the Department of Justice and be a force for good.
It would be a new era in American government.
Maybe that was a little ambitious. Obviously, Sessions marginalized himself by almost immediately recusing himself from the Department of Justice’s probe into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
However, given how he handled himself in the U.S. Senate, was there any reason to think he would deviate from that demeanor?
Sessions was never a rabble rouser in the Senate. He avoided using the tactics of Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, who staged filibuster-like oratories at times in the Senate to advance their pet causes.
Sessions always played by the rules. He would launch into stem-winder speeches on the floor of the Senate at times, but it was always by the rules and less about commandeering attention from the media.
Perhaps the biggest tell of what was in store for Sessions as attorney general came after the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans regained control of the Senate and, given Sessions’ role as the ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, he was thought to be a given for the chairmanship.
As it turned out, that wasn’t to be. As goes the often confusing rules of the U.S. Senate, Sessions ceded the chairmanship to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wisc.).
Sessions could have (and probably should have) made a stink of being passed over. Alabama was in a position to have both of its U.S. Senators be chairmen of two important committees – Richard Shelby as the Senate Banking Committee chair and Sessions as Budget.
Sessions was instead given the consolation prize of being the chairman of some irrelevant subcommittee on immigration.
Given the way he handled that situation, and seeming to be content with mid-to-backbencher status – was there any reason to believe he would have been more of an aggressive figure as attorney general?
Trump and his supporters probably should have set expectations on Sessions’ track record outside the U.S. Senate, primarily as Alabama Attorney General and as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
His time as Alabama’s attorney general was short-lived, but seemed to avoid many pitfalls that have plagued many of his successors in that role.
As a U.S. Attorney, he was aggressive in cracking down on voter fraud in Alabama. He also put a stop to the ongoing of corruption that plagued Mobile’s city government under Gary Greenough in the 1980s.
He was a solid prosecutor, not too flashy.
However, to make it in the Trump administration, there has to be an element of style beyond the substance. Sessions needed to make a splash as attorney general that just wasn’t in his character. And for that reason, Sessions failed to live up to expectations.
All that being said, friction between a sitting U.S. president and his attorney general is nothing new. Clinton had his issues with Clinton Attorney General Janet Reno and the Whitewater probe. Many in the Bush administration had their problems with Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft and the infamous torture memos.
Rarely do we have situations like the Obama administration had with Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch where the attorney generals don’t have public disagreements with the sitting president.
Given the what we had known about Trump and all of his pre-presidency antics, what were we to expect with Jeff Sessions? Probably what we have now, but most us didn’t see it coming.
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