Congress would turn their backs on the President, but the President suggested he 648 could make a recess appointment to replace Sessions. Priebus believed that the President’s request was a problem, so he called McGahn and asked for advice, explaining that he did not want to pull the trigger 649 on something that was “all wrong.” Although the President tied his desire for Sessions to resign to Sessions’s negative press and poor performance in congressional testimony, Priebus believed that the President’s desire to replace Sessions was driven by the President’s hatred of Sessions’s recusal from the 650 Russia investigation. McGahn told Priebus not to follow the President’s order and said they should consult their personal counsel, with whom they had 651 attorney-client privilege. McGahn and Priebus discussed the possibility that they would both have to resign rather than carry out the President’s order to fire 652 Sessions. That afternoon, the President followed up with Priebus about demanding Sessions’s resignation, using words to the effect of, “Did you get it? Are you 653 working on it?” Priebus said that he believed that his job depended on whether he followed the order to remove Sessions, although the President did 654 not directly say so. Even though Priebus did not intend to carry out the 655 President’s directive, he told the President he would get Sessions to resign. Later in the day, Priebus called the President and explained that it would be a calamity if Sessions resigned because Priebus expected that Rosenstein and Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand would also resign and the President 656 would be unable to get anyone else confirmed. The President agreed to hold off on demanding Sessions’s resignation until after the Sunday shows the next 657 day, to prevent the shows from focusing on the firing. By the end of that weekend, Priebus recalled that the President relented and 658 agreed not to ask Sessions to resign. Over the next several days, the President tweeted about Sessions. On the morning of Monday, July 24, 2017, the President criticized Sessions for neglecting to investigate Clinton and called him 659 “beleaguered.” On July 25, the President tweeted, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are 660 E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!” The following day, July 26, the