Story highlights It is a depressing spectacle, but liberals shouldn't be shedding any tears for Sessions, Jill Filipovic writes

Filipovic: Sessions knew who Donald Trump was when he was running for president, and he liked it

Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and Nairobi, Kenya, and the author of the book "The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) President Trump seems to have done the impossible: He's made liberals feel bad for Jeff Sessions.

Jill Filipovic

In a series of statements on Twitter, Trump attacked his own attorney general as "VERY weak" on investigating Hillary Clinton. And in claiming Ukraine tried to sabotage the election, Trump wondered, "where is the investigation A.G."

Clearly, the president is feeling the heat of the investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and he resents the fact that Sessions, who recused himself from that investigation, can't intervene on his behalf. He likely wants Sessions gone so he can appoint an even bigger sycophant who will help him evade questions he doesn't want to answer and safeguard information he doesn't want to come out.

But Trump can't fire Sessions, at least not without creating a national scandal. Instead, he's apparently decided to publicly berate and humiliate the attorney general until he resigns and Trump can appoint a replacement.

It is a depressing spectacle. But liberals shouldn't be shedding any tears for Sessions. Sessions knew who Donald Trump was when he was running for president, and he liked it. He papered over Trump's racism because it enabled his own; he shrugged off Trump's authoritarian tendencies because he has a few himself.

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