Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency for the new Spectator USA website.

I'm joined today by Zach Christensen, who is publisher of Spectator USA and Paul Wood from the BBC, a regular on the Americano podcast. And we're going to be

talking about the midterm elections and the fallout. First of all, actually, before we get

started on the midterms, I thought perhaps we'd just ask a little bit about Jeff Sessions,

who's been forced out today. That's quite dramatic news, is it not? And it relates to the Mueller inquiry, which you've

been following very closely, Paul. Well, he resigned at the request of the president, as you say.

This had been telegraphed well in advance. I think President Trump had tweeted about half a dozen

times that really Sessions wasn't up to much and had to go. Trump feeling personally betrayed

that Sessions recused himself, took him out of the game insofar as you might and had to go. Trump feeling personally betrayed that Sessions recused himself,

took him out of the game insofar as he might be able to influence the Mueller inquiry,

and Trump really had no use for him. He personally humiliated Sessions many times, calling

into question his abilities, ridiculing him in front of other people, ridiculing him on Twitter.

And for a proud man such as Senator J. Beauregard Sessions, I imagine all that was pretty difficult.

And perhaps there's something of relief in resigning now.

Of course, matters because of what will happen now with Mueller.

The man in the chain of command now, acting attorney general, former chief of staff,

and he has previously, it has been noted in an op-ed, criticised Mueller and said that if he was

going to stray into Trump's business affairs, that would be a red line, echoing language the president

himself has used. So what next? I am guessing now, but I think it would

be rash, tactically foolish of President Trump simply to order his attorney general to fire

Mueller. But an attorney general can restrict lines of inquiries, can cut budget, can make all sorts of

problems for the Mueller

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