Attorney General Jeff Sessions was right to recuse himself from the investigation into Russia's activities during the 2016 election, Rep. Will Hurd said Tuesday morning, and if President Donald Trump fires the former senator, he feels sorry for his next choice.
"Someone's going to have to be nominated and go through a pretty grueling Senate confirmation," the Texas Republican told CNN's "New Day" co-anchor Alisyn Camerota.
"If this does happen, I feel sorry for the next person to have to go through the Senate, and it's going to be a pretty rough and tumble process."
Early Tuesday, The Associated Press reported Trump has spoken with advisers about firing Sessions, while he continues to be angry over Sessions' recusal. Trump also has lashed out at Sessions through Twitter for the past two days, calling him "beleaguered" on Monday and accusing him on Tuesday of being "weak" on "Hillary Clinton crimes."
Hurd said he thinks Sessions and Trump "probably need to sit down and deal with their issues," and that the matter is a "distraction from other activities."
"It's a distraction from being able to talk about things, like how do we have a counter covert influence strategy against the Russians?" said Hurd. "How do we make sure that we look at what our response was to the Russian hacking and what should it be again in the future?
"We know the Russians are going to likely try to do this again in 2018, so we should be prepared for that. I think this is an important position . . . having this fight out in the open is good for nobody."
But when asked if he thought Sessions deserved the attacks, after he left the Senate after two decades to join Trump's team, Hurd said that would be something "you are going to have to ask the president."
"I haven't been following every step and every move he's made," said Hurd. "I will say this, when it came to him stepping down and recusing himself from the Russia investigation, that was the right move, because of his intimate involvement in the Trump campaign."
Sessions was one of the first senators to endorse Trump early in the primary, continued Hurd, "so his involvement in that organization from an early stage was a reason why it was a right move in order to recuse himself from this investigation."