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Washington • White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that President Donald Trump has "100 percent confidence" in all of his Cabinet members, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whose performance Trump has repeatedly publicly criticized.
Sanders was asked during a White House briefing about rumors that Trump could move Sessions to lead the Department of Homeland Security, where there is now a vacancy after Trump's appointment of Secretary John Kelly as his new White House chief of staff.
"There are no conversations about any Cabinet members moving in any capacity, and the president has 100 percent confidence in all members of his Cabinet," Sanders said.
As recently as last week, Trump declined to say what Sessions's future holds.after calling his attorney general "beleaguered" on Twitter.
"We will see what happens," Trump said of Sessions at a news conference on Tuesday. "Time will well. Time will tell."
On the same day, appearing on "Fox & Friends," Sanders said that Trump continued to be "frustrated and certainly disappointed in the attorney general," in part for his recusing himself from the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign last year.
Asked during the Fox interview if Trump wants to see Sessions depart, Sanders said: "I think that's a decision that if the president wants to make, he certainly will. ... That frustration certainly hasn't gone away, and I don't think it will."
Several colleagues of Sessions, a former Republican senator from Alabama, have spoken out on his behalf in recent days, warning Trump would be making a big mistake to fire him or move him to a different position.