Attorney General Jeff Sessions remains more popular than President Obama’s second attorney general, Loretta Lynch, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.
Polling data suggests that 37 percent of likely U.S. voters have a favorable impression of Sessions, while 47 percent view him in a negative light.
Lynch’s favorability rating peaked at 35 percent prior to her confirmation as AG under Obama between 2014-2017, which plummeted further after her airport meeting with Bill Clinton prior to the election. Sessions also polls higher than Lynch’s predecessor Eric Holder, who polled in the mid-20s from 2008-2014.
President Donald Trump has recently labeled Sessions “beleaguered.”
So why aren’t the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017
Sessions still polls better than Lynch after former FBI Director James Comey revealed last month that Lynch followed through on orders to misleadingly brand the Clinton email investigation as a “matter” in attempt to downplay its severity.
Trump told the New York Times that he would have chosen someone else for the position of attorney general had he known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation, a decision Trump believes was self-serving and “extremely unfair to the president.”
Despite falling out of favor recently with the president, Sessions continues to tackle President Trump’s bedrock campaign issue: illegal immigration. Sessions has achieved noteworthy success targeting the violent criminal gang MS-13, with Trump praising Sessions’ efforts in June by boasting that the gang “will be gone pretty soon” under Sessions watch.
Trump’s tweets have urged prominent conservative commentators Tucker Carlson and Rush Limbaugh to denounce the presidents actions as “misguided” and “unseemly.”
Tucker to President Trump: for God’s sake, lay off Jeff Sessions. He’s your friend, one of the very few you’ve got in Washington. pic.twitter.com/IRiIoZWhKP
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 21, 2017
The verdict remains split as to who voters view more favorably: Trump or Sessions. Their most recent favorability ratings both poll in at 37 percent, indicating that Trump’s base is satisfied with the legislative progress Sessions has made during his tenure. This is corroborated by 53 percent of Americans expressing “slightly more confidence” in the Justice Department under Sessions than under former AG Loretta Lynch.
