President Donald Trump vented at his Justice Department, his Cabinet members and his former political opponents in searing remarks Monday evening.
The remarks came during a round-table discussion at the White House that was intended to discuss the administration’s response to a suspected chemical weapons attack carried out by the government of Syria against its own people.
But in remarks to the press before the meeting’s business, Trump spent more time ripping special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
“It’s a disgraceful situation, it’s a total witch hunt,” Trump said of recent reports that the FBI searched the office and residence of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, after receiving a referral from the special counsel.
“I have this witch hunt constantly going on for 12 months now,” Trump said. “It’s frankly a real disgrace. It’s an attack on our country in a true sense.”
Trump also spoke against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who became a regular target of the president’s ire in public and private after recusing himself from the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sessions’ command of the special counsel was ceded to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
“The attorney general made a terrible mistake when he did this,” Trump said of Sessions. Had Sessions let Trump know he was planning to recuse himself over failing to report contacts with a Russian ambassador in congressional testimony, “we would have used a — put a different attorney general in.”
Asked if he would fire Mueller, Trump said the investigation is a “disgrace.”
“Many people have said, ‘You should fire him.’ Again, they found nothing,” Trump said of Mueller and his team.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
