Sessions will stay on as AG 'as long as that is appropriate

Sessions will stay on as AG 'as long as that is appropriate'
By Rebecca Savransky - 07-20-17 10:38 AM EDT

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he plans to continue to serve in his post "as long as that is appropriate."

"I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It's something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself," Sessions said during a press conference Thursday, one day after President Trump expressed frustration with the top Justice Department official.

"We love this job, we love this department and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate," Sessions said.

He added that those who work in the Department of Justice "will continue every single day to work hard to serve the national interests and we wholeheartedly join in the priorities of President Trump."

"I'm totally confident that we can continue to run this office in an effective way," he said.

In an interview published Wednesday, Trump told The New York Times he would not have chosen Sessions to serve as attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the federal investigation into Russian election meddling.

Trump called Sessions's recusal "very unfair to the president."

"Sessions should have never recused himself, 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," Trump said.

"How do you take a job and then recuse yourself? If he would have recused himself before the job, I would have said, 'Thanks, Jeff, but I'm not going to take you,' " he continued. "It's extremely unfair - and that's a mild word - to the president."

A report last month said Sessions had offered to resign from his position, but Trump did not take him up on the offer.

Multiple investigations are currently looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race. A special counsel was appointed earlier this year to lead the federal Russia probe.

Trump has previously criticized the Russia investigation as a "witch hunt," and the president and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia to influence the outcome of the presidential election.