Conservative lawyer George Conway, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, revealed to the Skullduggery podcast what finally made him turn on and start challenging the president.
"Is there a turning point when you decided that you were ready to start tweeting and taking on the president or was it a slower evolution?" co-host Dan Klaidman asked Conway. "Is there a moment you found so appalling that you just had to speak out?"
"Somebody asked me that question the other day," Conway replied. "I think the things really that bugged me the most were the tweets at [former Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and the Justice Department. Those things bugged me the most."
Listen to the entire Skullduggery interview below. The segment about Sessions begins at 1:19:14.
Conway said that "whether you like the policies or not that Sessions follows or was most known for, he was a very faithful servant to the administration's policies - immigration, crime, whatnot."
Shortly after taking office, Sessions recused himself from overseeing Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and Trump's presidential campaign's alleged connections to the Kremlin after Sessions admitted he had contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 race.
"But the fault," Conway continued, "was the recusal thing and I never heard a coherent explanation in why he shouldn't have recused himself."
Sessions was "trying to follow the law" in his recusal, Conway said. "He was trying in good faith to do what was right and if somebody doesn't like it... it's because it was contrary to somebody's personal interest. And that's the problem."
Trump's frayed relationship with Sessions can be traced all the way back to the beginning of Session's tenure as head of the Justice Department.
Sessions' recusal never sat well with the president, who often belittled Sessions for not acting as Trump's own personal protector.
In July 2017, Trump lamented that he would never have hired Sessions as AG had he known Sessions planned on recusing himself from the Russia probe, leaving oversight duties to Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein.
“Sessions should have never recused himself," Trump complained to the New York Times, "and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else.”
The chip on Trump's shoulder toward Sessions over the recusal waxed for the remainder of Sessions' tenure.
Trump began attacking Sessions on Twitter earlier this year after rumors circulated that Trump made fun of Sessions in private, purportedly referring to him as "Mr. Magoo."
In May, Trump's frustration with Sessions reached its zenith as Trump lashed out on social media, berating Sessions for not acting as Trump's personal lawyer - which isn't the job of the attorney general in the first place.
Trump wrote in June that he would have picked a different AG had he known Sessions would not be overseeing the Russia investigation.
Trump blamed Sessions for the "rigged witch hunt" that has cast a shadow over his presidency, continuing to this day.
Trump also suggested Sessions was incompetent.
Trump blamed Sessions for exposing two Republican Congressmen who were under investigation shortly before the midterms.
Trump saw it as a misstep by Sessions that put control of Congress in jeopardy.
On the same subject, Trump Democrats "must love" Sessions for continuing the probe of Duncan Hunter (CA) and Chris Collins (NY), both of whom won reelection last week despite being under indictments.
Bob Woodward in his book Fear: Inside the Trump White House recalled instances where Trump called Sessions "mentally retarded" and a "dumb southerner," both of which Trump denies.
Conway's aversion to Trump bristles with his wife Kellyanne's position as senior advisor to the president.
Trump fired Sessions on November 7, 2018, the day after Republicans lost the U.S. House of Representatives in the midterms. In an unusual move, Sessions' replacement would be Matt Whitaker, his chief of staff and outspoken critic of the ongoing Russia investigation.
Et tu, Kellyanne?
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