Trump privately praises Matt Whitaker's "courage"
Jonathan Swan3 hours ago
President Trump has been telling people privately that hes impressed by the "courage" acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is showing in the face of burgeoning legal challenges and questions about his history of publicly criticizing the Mueller investigation.
What they're saying: A source familiar with Trumps thinking said the president has privately used the word "courage." "Clearly what he likes about him is hes holding his ground, not running for the tall grass," the source said.
"You cant be attorney general if you have to walk away from really important work that an attorney general should be doing. And so you have a duty to really think carefully before you just throw up your hands and say: I dont want to take that on or I want to run from that particular controversy."
Whitaker isnt out of the running for the permanent job, but there is some internal opposition to him because of a sense of how difficult he will be to confirm.
Trump has shown no great urgency to settle on a permanent replacement for Jeff Sessions and seems happy with Whitaker's current status, a source with direct knowledge told Axios.
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https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-matt-whitaker-attorney-general-98b68285-12fa-4407-a807-8e03fe2b9b8c.html