On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urged President Trump to refrain from constant public criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and said, “if the president is unhappy with the attorney general, he should make a change.”

Gonzales said, “[T]he president’s head of the executive branch, and he decides who serves in his Cabinet, and to continue to criticize the attorney general, I think, makes the president appear weak. If, in fact, there is displeasure in his service, then he has an obligation, from my perspective, to make a change. But what I also worry about is the fact that constant attacks upon the attorney general, I think, weakens the authority of the attorney general. … I think if the president is unhappy with the attorney general, he should make a change. I don’t say that with the intent to have Jeff Sessions fired. I say that, hopefully, with the intent to encourage the president not to be so public [in] his criticism of a Cabinet official.”

He added that Sessions “has an obligation to look at” what the president asks him to look at, “but the attorney general should not make any decisions that are not consistent with the evidence and not consistent with his — the good judgment that he has that, in fact, a crime may have been committed here and there needs to be an investigation and the department needs to move forward with an investigation — with prosecution.” Gonzales further stated that the president shouldn’t tell the attorney general who to look at in public, and should do so privately.

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