Sessions firm on recusing himself from Russia probe, uncertain about Senate fixing DACA

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suggesting he has no regrets about recusing himself on anything related to Russia, telling Fox News that he believes he “did the right thing.”

Sessions' decision in March 2016 to step aside from the Justice Department investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 White House race reportedly infuriated his boss, President Trump, because special counsel Robert Mueller would now lead the investigation.

In a wide-ranging interview with Maria Bartiromo for "Sunday Morning Futures,” Sessions said, “I believe I did the right thing, the only thing I could do. I participated in this campaign and as such, under explicit regulations of the Department of Justice, no one can participate in the investigation, in the campaign, of which they were an active participant.”

Sessions, a former Alabama Republican senator and an early Trump for president supporter, also said Sunday that he didn’t know whether Congress would find a permanent legislative solution to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program -- which temporarily protects some illegal immigrants but will expire on March 5.

“I don’t know,” Sessions said. “The people who say they want to fix that, President Trump has offered (them) that. He’s been very generous in his legislation. I think that is a very generous policy. It goes beyond, actually, what President Obama had in his DACA policy, goes beyond what, even some people who favored the DACA expected. So that’s been very generous. … He’s already made compromises.”

DACA protects an estimated 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to the United States by their parents.

Trump’s immigration reform plan offers a potential path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million illegal immigrants. However, the Senate last week stalled on immigration-reform efforts, despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., conducting full, open debates on bipartisan and other reform proposals, as the March deadline approaches.

Sessions on Sunday also said law enforcement officials think that everybody needs to improve on identifying signs of potential mass shooters, after the FBI acknowledged being alerted but failing to follow up on a tip about the alleged shooter last week at a Florida high school, where 17 people were killed.

“I met with a group of sheriffs, yesterday,” Sessions said. “They all believe that we need to do a better job, of receiving these signs and acting on them and following up on them better. That is probably the most valuable thing we can do to stop these kind of cases.”