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Fri. 8:52 a.m.: Trump this morning escalates feud with Sessions

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference regarding the country's opioid epidemic, Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump escalated his long-running feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions today, calling on him to probe a litany of recurring complaints against those investigating his administration and Democrats.

Responding to Sessions’ declaration that he would not be influenced by politics, Trump tweeted that Sessions must “look into all of the corruption on the “other side,“” later adding: “Come on Jeff, you can do it, the country is waiting!”

Trump also continues to assert this morning that social media companies are “silencing millions of people.”

Trump tweeted: “Can’t do this even if it means we must continue to hear Fake News like CNN, whose ratings have suffered gravely. People have to figure out what is real, and what is not, without censorship!”

The president’s pushback against Sessions marked the second day of highly public smack down between Trump and his beleaguered attorney general.

Earlier this week, Trump, concerned by the legal downfall of two former advisers, accused Sessions of failing to take control of the Justice Department. Sessions punched back Thursday, saying that he and his department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations.”

Trump’s anger with Sessions boiled over in an interview with Fox News in which the president also expressed frustration with the plea agreement his onetime legal “fixer” Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, including implicating Trump in a crime that Cohen admitted. Trump said it might be better if “flipping” — cooperating with prosecutors in exchange for more favorable treatment– were illegal because people cooperating with the government “just make up lies” to get favorable treatment.

On Twitter this morning, Trump also complained about the five-year sentence given to a former government contractor convicted of mailing a classified U.S. report to a news organization.

Trump said “this is “small potatoes” compared to what Hillary Clinton did.” Prosecutors are calling that sentence handed down to 26-year-old Reality Winner the longest sentence imposed for a federal crime involving leaks to the media.

Trump has spent more than a year publicly and privately venting over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the federal Russia-collusion investigation because he’d worked on Trump’s campaign. Trump, who blames that decision for the eventual appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, told “Fox and Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt in an interview aired Thursday that Sessions “never took control of the Justice Department and it’s a sort of an incredible thing.”

“What kind of man is this?” Trump said.

“You know the only reason I gave him the job? Because I felt loyalty, he was an original supporter,” Trump said of Sessions, an Alabama Republican who was the first senator to endorse Trump’s bid.

Sessions on Thursday made clear he is tired of the president’s attacks.

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the President’s agenda.” Then he declared, that while he’s attorney general the actions of the department “will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action.”

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