Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in an interview that aired Friday on “Rising” that he was disappointed in how the White House chose Matthew Whitaker to replace Jeff Sessions as acting attorney general.
“I think everyone knew that the president wanted to get rid of Sessions,” Warner told Hill.TV’s Alison Spann on Thursday.
“I was a little surprised that he acted as quickly as he did. I’m very disappointed that he didn’t go ahead and move up to the acting attorney general position the current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or he could have moved up the solicitor general, someone who also had received congressional approval,” he continued.
“Instead, he took this gentleman, Mr. Whitaker, who I think [is] very political, and who seems to have as his biggest asset that he’s a big Trump loyalist,” Warner said. “That raises a lot of questions. It raises questions about what this individual may try to do or not do in terms of either shutting down the Mueller investigation, or impeding, such as cutting back funding, cutting back on access to the FBI agents, not being willing to have Mueller be able to file further indictments that may be up.”
Warner is the top Democrat at the Senate Intelligence Committee and has helped lead the panel’s probe into Russia’s election meddling.
The senator called on Whitaker to recuse himself from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into election meddling in a tweet on Wednesday.
Given Mr. Whitaker’s public comments on the Special Counsel’s investigation and the President’s obvious self-interest in appointing him to the Acting AG role, Mr. Whitaker should recuse himself. https://t.co/XuRpcT3Gxd
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) November 7, 2018
Democrats have slammed Whitaker’s appointment, citing his past comments criticizing the Russia probe.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in an interview on Thursday that he should not be overseeing the investigation.
— Julia Manchester
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