Jeff Sessions has been on board the Trump Train for a good long while now, and he is of course sent out to defend Donald Trump and try to negate some of the blowback that naturally occurs whenever Trump speaks. Because, let’s face it, Trump is a walking gaffe. No clearer is this job than when Sessions has to defend Trump from Khizr Khan, who has taken the (probably much larger than Trump’s) gloves off in his criticisms of the GOP presidential candidate.

On CNN’s State of the Union, Sessions expressed a bit of sadness over the feud, particularly toward… Khan, obviously.

“Donald Trump complimented him,” Sessions whined. “He praised his son who gave his life for this country… I don’t think anybody that says that we ought to slow down and be more careful about bringing in immigrants from countries that have terrorist tendencies and can’t be vetted properly, I don’t believe that that’s a person who lacks a soul.”

However, the more notable thing about the Sessions interview is what he said about Russia.

“Donald Trump is right. We need to figure out a way to end this cycle of hostility that’s putting this country at risk, costing us billions of dollars in defense, and creating hostility that should not exist,” he asserted.

“We have a lot of bad leaders around the world that operate in ways we would never tolerate in the United States,” he added. “The question is, can we have a more peaceful, effective relationship with Russia, utilizing interests that are similar in a realistic way to make this world a safer place and get off this dangerous hostility with Russia.”

It should come as no surprise that a surrogate for Donald Trump is going to say we need to be nicer to someone, and that someone not be the one who was slighted by Trump originally. No apologies, no calls for decorum in a war of words with the father of a fallen solider (one who, by the way, has actively called for his fellow Muslim Americans to stand up to and oppose radical Islamic terrorists). Instead, we should be nicer a nation that

1. has given asylum to a man who stole information from the U.S. and fled the country
2. has been actively involved in this election (in Trump’s favor) by hacking and releasing information on the DNC that would make them look bad
3. is Russia

Demeaning oneself in order not only stand by but defend Donald Trump is not a new phenomenon this election cycle. But it is almost always a tremendously sad thing for someone who was at one time considered a pretty good conservative.

Oh well.