Norfolk, Virginia (CNN) Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday addressed allegations of bias at the FBI amid controversy over text messages exchanged between two bureau officials and promised he is tackling problems "head on, not sweeping them under the rug."

"My purpose every day is to get the department back to its fundamental mission of enforcing the law and protecting the safety of Americans with integrity and fairness," Sessions said as he concluded an unrelated immigration speech in Norfolk, Virginia.

"It means absolutely eliminating political bias or favoritism, in either direction, from our investigations and our prosecutions," he said. "That sort of thinking is the antithesis of what the department stands for. We will not tolerate it."

Several high-ranking Republicans, including President Donald Trump, in recent days seized on text messages produced to Congress last weekend as evidence of anti-Trump bias among some members of the FBI who worked on the Russia investigation.

The officials -- a top counterintelligence expert and an FBI attorney who were having an affair -- have come under fire for past exchanges that included insults aimed at Trump. Their texts were collected as part of an internal Department of Justice investigation and shared with lawmakers.

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