Democrats want you to think the real issue at hand is that Trump might fire someone at the FBI [Video]
Democrats and establishment Republicans in Congress are giving the media stories about how they can preserve Mueller even if Trump fires him.
It is obvious some people wish to preserve Mueller as a campaign issue into 2018. At this point, posing as Robert Mueller’s defenders and treating any attempt to reign in his witch hunt as a “Constitutional crisis” serves two purposes. The first is obvious: to criminalize the Trump presidency in order to obstruct him as much as possible and hurt Republicans in elections. The second though is more important at this point: to divert attention away from the REAL Constitutional crisis that gave birth to the Mueller investigation.
Right now, it looks like the FBI inserted a spy into the Trump campaign.
But Democrats and #NeverTrump Republicans want you to think the real issue is that Trump might fire someone at the FBI!
NBC News reports, “Lawmakers weigh Plan B to protect Mueller’s work.”
As the probe closes in on the White House, much of the public debate has centered on the fate of Mueller and whether Trump might fire the former FBI director, who’s now led the probe for nearly a year.
Advertisement - story continues belowBut warnings now from Capitol Hill focus on the possibility of Trump replacing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the special counsel probe. If Trump takes that step and installs a loyalist in the job, Mueller’s scope could be narrowed, his resources squeezed, and Rosenstein’s successor could withhold the report from Congress and the public.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who helped draft a bipartisan bill to protect Mueller that passed the Judiciary Committee late last month, confirmed to NBC News on Thursday that talks are underway for a “Plan B” after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to bring the original legislation for a floor vote.
The discussions “involve assuring the evidence is preserved and reports are done if the special counsel is fired or other political interference is undertaken by the president,” Blumenthal told NBC News.
Notably, Blumenthal added, some GOP senators are participating in the effort.
“There’s strong interest on the Republican side in avoiding a constitutional crisis,” said Blumenthal, who’s also drafting a measure to protect Rosenstein but declined to provide details.
Advertisement - story continues belowSome Judiciary Committee members believe the fresh effort would be politically harder for McConnell to reject since it focuses primarily on transparency and not the president’s personnel decisions — and it could apply to all future special counsels.
In the House, where the Republican majority has refused to consider any legislation to protect the Mueller probe, Democrats are debating taking matters into their own hands if Trump acts against Mueller. Some options Democrats are considering include keeping vigil at Mueller’s office.
“We have to do everything we can to make it politically unsustainable for the president to destroy the investigation and accountability and the rule of law,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told constituents in his New York district last week.
