“He really is not on the president’s team, never was,” Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, said of Jeff Sessions. | Steve Helber/AP Photo Jerry Falwell Jr. says Sessions has lost evangelical support

Jerry Falwell Jr., a top conservative religious leader, said Monday he urged President Donald Trump to fire Jeff Sessions over his handling of investigations into Russian election meddling, saying the attorney general has lost evangelicals' support.

“He really is not on the president’s team, never was,” Falwell, the president of Liberty University, said of Sessions. “He’s wanted to be attorney general for many, many years. I have a feeling he took a gamble and supported the president because he knew he would reward loyalty.”


Falwell said he has urged the president to fire Sessions and told POLITICO he planned to bring up the subject again Monday evening at a small gathering with Trump and the first lady. Later, Falwell and dozens of other faith leaders were to attend a formal White House dinner celebrating the evangelical community.

In forsaking Sessions, faith leaders are turning on one of their own, a man who for decades fought in the political trenches for conservative Christian causes. As a senator from Alabama, Sessions was one of the first Republicans to endorse Trump’s long-shot presidential campaign, taking heat from his party in return.

But he has angered Trump loyalists more recently because the Justice Department has not declassified all materials sought by Republicans in regard to the Russia investigation. The president believes Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe because of his involvement in the 2016 campaign, has failed to rein in a probe that Trump claims is driven by politics.

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“There’s growing disillusionment in the conservative faith-based community” with Sessions, said Gary Bauer, president of American Values, an educational nonprofit group.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment Monday. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Falwell's remarks but pointed to Sessions' record on religious issues.

During an Aug. 8 speech, the attorney general received a standing ovation from faith leaders after he praised the Trump administration's record.

"The people of this nation are still the most religious nation in the developed world. Yet people of faith are facing a new hostility. Really, a bigoted ideology which is founded on animus towards people of faith," Sessions told the assembly at Alliance Defending Freedom.

"Fortunately, President Donald Trump has heard these concerns," Sessions said. "He made a promise — and from Day One of this administration he has delivered. He is defending religious freedom at home and abroad."

As a community, evangelicals have been willing to overlook what they see as the president’s personal shortcomings — including payoffs to women during the 2016 campaign who said they had previously had affairs with Trump — in return for his attention. Vice President Mike Pence has hosted a series of dinners at his home for faith leaders.

On Monday afternoon, faith leaders met with White House officials in a series of meetings on immigration, prison reform and abortion.

Falwell said Sessions lost the group’s loyalty “a long time ago" and has not stopped the Justice Department from going after Trump's allies. Last week, the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of fraud and his onetime lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

“A lot of Republicans pretend to be friends to conservatives and the faith community for decades when they really were not,” Falwell said. “I don’t know if he’s in that category. If he was really a fair person, he’d be going after both sides.”

