(CNN) House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff rebuked "two GOP senators" for comments signaling a possible openness to President Donald Trump's call to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions as "not something you would have ever heard John McCain say."

"Look what happened after the President started attacking his own attorney general for not getting rid of Bob Mueller and persecuting his political rivals," Schiff told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" on Sunday. "You had two prominent GOP senators say, 'well, if he wants to get rid of the [attorney general], we will help him get a new one, but let's wait until after the midterms.' That is not something you would have ever heard John McCain say." Schiff added, "We need people like John McCain now more than ever."

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, for whom McCain was a longtime friend and mentor, told CNN on Thursday that "after the election, I think there will be some serious discussions about a new attorney general."

"Replacing him before the election would be a nonstarter," Graham added. "The idea of having a new attorney general in President Trump's first term is very likely."

Graham is one of the first Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to suggest he might be open to Trump ousting Sessions in his first term. The comments came after a Fox News interview in which Trump repeatedly disparaged Sessions and rebuked his attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the special counsel's Russia investigation, saying he never took control of the Department of Justice.

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