US Republican Senator Ted Cruz has denied rumors that he is on President Donald Trump’s list of possible replacements for Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
“Jeff Sessions is a friend and a strong conservative. I was proud to vote to confirm Jeff and to vigorously defend his confirmation, and I’m deeply gratified that we have a principled conservative like Jeff Sessions serving as Attorney General,” Cruz said in a statement on Monday night.
“The stories being reported in the media tonight are false. My focus is and will remain on fighting every day to defend 28 million Texans in the US Senate.”
The statement came shortly after The Washington Post claimed in a report that Cruz and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were shortlisted for the job.
Giuliani, a Republican and a strong ally of the president, has also denied the report.
Trump has openly expressed dissatisfaction with Sessions over his recusal of a high-profile investigation into the president and his associates’ possible “collusion” with Russia.
Last week, he told the New York Times that he would not have chosen Sessions for the job if he knew that the former senator would later on recuse himself.
"Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else," he said.
He renewed the attack on Monday, telling blasting his “beleaguered AG” for not launching an investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her alleged ties to Russia.
“So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered AG, looking into Crooked Hillary’s crimes and Russia relations?” Trump told his more than 34 million followers on Twitter.
Sessions announced in March that he would step aside from the US Justice Department’s Russian inquiry after reports revealed that he had discussed the 2016 election campaign with Russian ambassador to America Sergey Kislyak.
Last month, the US media reported that Sessions had offered to resign after running into issues with Trump over his recusal.
Tirade against Washington Post
In his Monday tweets, Trump also went on a tirade against the Post, one of the many new outlets he has constantly denounced as “fake news.”
“So many stories about me in The Washington Post are Fake News. They are as bad as ratings challenged CNN. Lobbyist for Amazon and taxes?” he wrote.