This sort of seals the deal:
President Trump on Sunday sought to douse speculation that he may fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III amid an intensifying campaign by Trump allies to attack the wide-ranging Russia investigation as improper and politically motivated.
Returning to the White House from Camp David, Trump was asked Sunday whether he intended to fire Mueller. “No, I’m not,” he told journalists, insisting that there was “no collusion whatsoever” between his campaign and Russia.
The president’s comments came a day after a lawyer representing Trump’s transition team accused Mueller of wrongfully obtaining thousands of emails sent and received by Trump officials before the start of his administration — a legal and public relations maneuver seen as possibly laying the groundwork to oust the special counsel.
Trump criticized Mueller for gaining access to those emails, telling reporters the situation was “not looking good.”
“It’s quite sad to see that,” Trump said. “My people were very upset about it.”
The funny part of this, in a sick way, is that I think there are still people out there clinging to the fantasy that Trump firing Mueller would finally be the bridge to far and Republican Senators would stand up to Trump and appoint another prosecutor.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
They won’t. The “great mean” of the Republican party have had multiple opportunities to stand up to Trump, and the have passed every single time. Maybe it’s time to realize there are no great men left in the GOP?
RedDirtGirl
Good morning, jackals!
Waspuppet
Yeah he’ll fire Rosenstein and replace him with someone who’ll fire Mueller.
oatler.
I don’t know about that, Chuck Todd’s Twitter feed assures me that all the republicans he talks with say it’s not gonna happen. Sad coincidence he doesn’t retweet any dem opinions…
NobodySpecial
He’s too much of a coward to fire him in person.
Mustang Bobby
@NobodySpecial: He’ll get Ivanka to do it.
HinTN
Yep. When the fifth richest senator, that paragon of deficit bothering, Bob Corker, can have his vote bought with an earmark specially tailored to his means of producing income, I think it’s safe to say greatness has gone from the GOP.
Montanareddog
If Trump asks Rosenstein and Rosenstein refuses, so he fires Rosenstein and Mueller? Genuine question – what happens next? Sessions will not do make the DOJ do anything.Trump and the alt-right puke funnel will say Trump is showing what a real leader does when confronted with sedition. Who has standing to sue apart from Rosenstein or Mueller? The Federalist-packed lower courts will agree that a Republican president can do what he wants or Rosenstein/Mueller have no standing only the DOJ does. Gorsuch as the deciding vote in the SC anyone? And Roberts will say that the suit is definitely a ball not a strike. And the Republican Congress will ignore any public protests and assert that Trump is still learning the job and Mueller overstepped his mandate anyway.
I may well get flamed here for being pessimistic but I have never seen anything other than assertions that Trump cannot fire Mueller.
Chyron HR
the situation was “not looking good.” – Yeah, for you.
“It’s quite sad to see that,” – I bet it was.
“My people were very upset about it.” – No shit.
NotMax
Now you’re just dipping all ten toes into Pander Pond
IMHO
satby
I’m sure Mueller has contingencies in place of that happens.
And no, there are no great men, statesmen,or patriots left in the Republican party. Just corrupt, power mad ideologues.
Waldo
Ain’t no thang.
Step 1: Fire Mueller.
Step 2: Put Jared in charge.
Step 3: Lock her up.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
If he does this, and I’m guessing he will, it’s going to be up to us. We need to take to the streets. We aren’t going to take this shit. When the Republicans don’t do shit about it, it’ll be time to march, march, march. We need to make the Women’s March look like a warm up. It’s up to us now. We need to step up.
Elizabelle
I am more interested in this: do you think John McCain will return to DC to vote for the tax bill, if it becomes necessary? My guess is that he will not, and that there is at least another senator or two who will not vote for this monstrosity. They don’t have the votes, much as they are signalling to their donors and base that they do.
That McCain, soon to be the late Senator McCain, may be giving political cover to his asswipe coward colleagues who don’t want the blowback from this horrible tax legislation, but also don’t want to shut off the megadonors’ political $$$$ spigot. This tax bill is rightly seen as an assault on the middle class and all those who work for their earnings.
Further, health and fate can intervene too.
Glidwrith
OT: Anne Laurie was kind enough to front page my request for a Juicer meet-up in Louisville KY downthread. Any takers?
Elizabelle
WRT Mueller: yeah, when I saw the WaPost headline I thought “Trump is totally thinking of firing Mueller”, because who takes Trump at his word on anything? However, maybe this will encourage Mueller to play even more hardball. Make it clear to Mr. Trump that a firing and disrupting another investigation is not in his or his family’s interests. At all.
Does Trump want to bury something over the Christmas holidays, when people are otherwise engaged? Maybe.
Elizabelle
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Agreed. Taking to the streets (and the voting booth) gets way more results than griping on the internet or signing internet petitions. Puh-leeze.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Yeah, that train left the station when you left the party Cole.
BretH
Wonderful typo in there, since it works as well as what you intended.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
No, McCain has returned to AZ, per CBS:
Boatboy_srq
@HinTN: The one difference between Lord Dampnut and the rest is that the Old Guard have pretensions of respectability. The SINGLE reason they detest him is that he’s so gauche.
NotMax
@Elizabelle.
We’ve all been around this block before. Code for “Pack your bags, you’re outta here” is “I have full confidence in [insert name here].”
The current eruption of pearl clutching over a possible Mueller firing is naught but lustily swallowing their propaganda narrative hook, line and sinker.
JPL
@Montanareddog: My biggest concern is that Trump comes away unscathed. At that point his poll numbers might rise, and big dem wins in 2018 will look less likely.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, that is what I thought. I was responding to reports that der Trump told folks that McCain would return to vote, if needed.
Uh, no. Probably not …
@JPL: What do you think the probability that Trump comes out unscathed is? He already bragged to the Russians that he had fired Comey. Other than the declining GOP base, a lot of Americans are well aware Trump is a crook.
People are laughing at him. All over the world. Maybe less so in the US big media universe. But do you really think Trump is going to be able to con folks again, particularly those who have woken up a bit? Enough folks? Really?
NotMax
@NotMax
Shorter version: “Look, shiny! Pay no attention to the tax bill behind the curtain.”
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Montanareddog: Short answer: the DOJ regulations regarding Special Counsel permit only the AG to fire a Special Counsel. With the Mad Elf recused from the investigation, that authority becomes Rod Rosenstein’s, as he’s the Deputy AG overseeing the investigation. Here’s a link to a CREW report on the topic.
debbie
@JPL:
This is why it would be nice to see Adam Schiff out there talking about the tax break that Trump, despite his repetitive protestations to the contrary, will in fact be getting from this bill.
Derelict
As I have written many times this year: Trump could rape and murder a child on live TV, and the only reaction you’d get from congressional Republicans was some throat clearing about how they don’t necessarily agree with the president’s actions, but they have more pressing business for the American people that must be dealt with. And 48 hours later, you’d have Ryan, McConnell and the entire rightwing Wulitzer talking about how that child was no angel and maybe even deserved to be raped and murdered by the president.
Kay
I don’t think he’ll fire him. Firing Comey was a disaster. It got him Mueller. LMAO that Trump’s low quality employees were “upset” about Mueller obtaining their emails. The same people who cheered (and probably helped coordinate) the release of stolen emails object to the legal process to obtain emails.
Trump and his employees are getting way more process and legal protections than Clinton and her employees ever did.
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Unscathed only because his fellow Republican Congress Critters will never impeach him. Not sure why you believe Trump’s popularity ratings will improve if he fires Mueller though. Among which segment of the population? He already has the White Supremacist vote locked down. The rest of us hate his guts and firing Mueller isn’t going to miraculously change that.
Princess
He might fire him, he might not, either way the GOP will do nothing. No matter what Muller uncovers, the GOP will do nothing.
Elizabelle
@Derelict: You are boring the shit out of me with comments like that. Hyperbole much?
rikyrah
You are up early, Cole
Princess
@Elizabelle: If they wanted to give political cover to let the bill fail, they would just seat Jones. With McCain gone, that would be easier and leave fewer fingerprints then having McCain gone and needing two more GOPers to grow a spine.
Kay
Just to be clear, I know congressional Republicans won’t do anything if Trump fires Mueller. I don’t think Trump will fire Mueller because it’s not in Trump’s best interest to fire Mueller.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Not just that, Kay, but they didn’t realize it,until the plans to lie to Bobby Three Sticks didn’t go as planned.
Remember, Rudy 9-11 was supposed to take care of the email problem, by putting his guy at the GSA. But, he died, and the career staffers did their job when Bobby Three Sticks came a knocking.
No wonder we haven’t heard from Rudy 9-11. He had ONE JOB, and it got phucked up.
Didn’t see too many post on this..these were emails from the transition…and, who headed the transition?
Ah yes, Race Bannon. I do believe that he was stupid enough to lie to Bobby Three Sticks.
rikyrah
I like the hashtag CorkerKickback
Wish some enterprising folks would find the specific kickback for every GOP Senator.
Derelict
@Elizabelle: Here’s hoping you’re right and I’m wrong. But evidence and experience thus far says it’s not entirely hyperbole. Just look at Republican reactions to all other other atrocities–from backing Trump despite his boasts of being a serial sexual predator to backing Roy Moore despite him being a child molester–and I think it’s clear that there is no bottom to this crew.
Cheryl Rofer
I disagree, Cole. I think that the road to firing is too complex for Trump and that he is too cowardly to do it. Besides, his toadies are telling him all is sweetness and light, and he will get a Letter Of Exoneration that he can show around the way he does the stuff he signs and then frame and put on the wall. I have seen reports, however, that his lawyer Ty Cobb has told him the investigations will wrap up by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and now early next year. I’m not sure how long he can string Trump along with that.
Jack Goldsmith agrees with me in a Twitter thread:
With one caveat that I share:
ETA: I agree that whatever he does, the Republicans in Congress will cravenly applaud and support him.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: My concern has to do with those who will feel sympathy for him, because of the witch hunt. He has been conning people all his life, and there is no reason to stop now.
My track record on guessing is hovering above zero, so hopefully I’m wrong.
Betty Cracker
Via CNN:
It’s probably true. One of the biggest headaches for Trump’s lawyers must be managing Trump’s expectations so he doesn’t blurt out something terrible that will make their jobs even harder. But that comes with the risk that he’ll go even more off the rails at some future date.
mai naem mobile
If he gets canned, I am guessing Mueller will release stuff through a slow running hose throughout 2018 making it impossible for Dolt45 or thr GOP to do anything. They’ll spread it through the WaPo,CNN,NBC,Bloomberg,
McClathlchy etc.Muellers been working at this for a long time. There’s more than enough salacious material to keep reporters coming back.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Derelict: Maybe you should have gone with “shoot a guy on 5th Avenue”.
coin operated
I’m going to paraphrase Adam here…Mueller has been 2-3 jumps ahead of Trump from the get-go. I don’t believe for a moment he doesn’t have a contingency set up with a State AG or two.
mike in dc
The downside to the naked tribalism, corruption and hyperpartisanship on display by elected Republicans and their acolytes in right wing media is that, so long as we have semi-free and semi-fair elections*, they need more than their fever-swamp base to win and continue to hold political power. Extreme actions like shutting down the special counsel investigation, passing an unpopular tax bill and ignoring wider public sentiment is going to push the generic congressional ballot to +15-20, push Trump’s approval under 30 and make the party brand toxic for a lasting period of time(several election cycles). It also pushes even the most reluctant bipartisan comity-ish pols like Schumer towards a harder line and adopting more ruthless political tactics. In short, while in the immediate present it may not seem like it, this is costing the GOP and Trump a great deal of political support, in the form of losing the center completely. They’ve lost elections they should have won, and are looking at a likely wipeout next November. Then they have to run in a presidential election with likely the most unpopular one-termer ever at the top of their ticket. Either they will cave, or we will make their actions irrelevant.
*in the event the elections themselves are no longer free or fair, well, guess we’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.
Immanentize
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: This! By why let law and process get in the way of people’s disaster fantasies? Trump would have to do a whole bunch of really public lawless acts to get rid of Mueller. The easiest would be to replace Sessions with a non-recused AG and let that person review the situation and decide. But for some reason, Trump won’t get rid of Sessions.
Now I wonder what that might be about?
Lee Hartmann
“no great men”? Try no vertebrates with a moral view larger than that of a two year old.
Tim C.
@mai naem mobile: There’s also the scenario Adam has mentioned several times that if the investigation is blocked in the U.S. There could be a shit-ton of information, some of it beyond awful for Prince Trumperdink, released by allied intelligence services. I’m not saying Trump wouldn’t or wont try to fire Mueller, but I think the GOP plan for the moment is to just wait till the report is issued, then trash Mueller, say it’s all lies and ignore it.
OzarkHillbilly
It’s the end of the world.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I feel fine…
monoglot
The great men were replaced by the great mean sometime ago; now the intellectually- and morally-stunted are the rule rather than the exception.
Citizen_X
@Betty Cracker: Oh, for fuck’s sake. “He’s gonna write me a letter! I kin show everybody!” What is Trump, a child? Don’t answer that.
jonas
The Wingnut Wurlitzer is already up to full spin power depicting Mueller as some kind of corrupt inquisitor out to railroad Trump, so whatever he finds will be dismissed out of hand by Trump’s base and his craven enablers in Congress. That said, Trump will have to fire Rosenstein and then replace Rosenstein with a sufficiently compliant toadie in order to fire Mueller. Congress may look the other way if he does that, but we can probably expect a major revolt at the FBI. I think Adam has observed here before that if Mueller is removed and it looks like Trump’s cooptions by the Russians has been complete, our and allied IS’s will start leaking like sieves. Trump’s been giving Putin tongue baths all week, so we may be mostly there already.
Shalimar
@Elizabelle: They had one vote against the tax bill the first time. My guess is they bought off Corker because they knew McCain and possibly Cochran won’t be able to vote yes. They needed Corker this time, everyone else will hold the line, and it will pass.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Right? Right!
Peter
@mai naem mobile: Not to mention that he’s basically got a bunch of New York State prosecutors straining at the leash to go after Trumpland for financial crimes.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
There’s a name for it in top-flight professional football: when a first-team manager is facing intense criticism from fans and the media, the club’s board of director may issue a statement expressing confidence that the manager can still revive the team’s fortunes. This is reported by sports media as “the dreaded vote of confidence”; its usual aftermath is no revival, and then the sack for the manager.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Yeah, really tiresome.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Obviously there is something wrong with you.
Immanentize
So McCain is out. Is Cochran back from Mississippi? He is reported to have had some skin cancer procedure, but Cochran is well known to be very very deep in Alzheimer’s dementia. Is he back in DC? Also, at some point this week, Doug Jones should be certified as the winner in AL. It’s getting tight up there for the GOP.
SFAW
@Citizen_X:
I was thinking that Mueller — well, some staffer — would write Lying Littledick a letter saying something like “Great news! You’re going on an all-expenses-paid vacation at Club Leavenworth! At taxpayer expense!!!” and Shitgibbon would get the same “Look, daddy, I made a poopy! Honk honk!!” look that he had when he was in the cab of the Big Wheel earlier this year.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: are you just figuring this out?
PS. I do want to see ice blossoms before I die, thank you for the pics. But it seems I would have to be out in the fields at sun up. So, until that unlikely moment, I will rely on you.
Shalimar
@Cheryl Rofer: The strategy they’re using afaict is to paint such a consistently horrible public image of Mueller that the Republican base is begging Trump to fire him, so Trump can say he is just doing what the American people want. We aren’t there yet, though the negativity is getting overwhelming. So not time today, but we probably aren’t more than a few weeks away.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
@Immanentize: Y’all do know that Trump is name-checked in that song?
Chyron HR
@Betty Cracker:
Yes, he can finally leave behind the “Man of Steel” chapter of his presidency and move on to the “Batman v. Superman” phase.
Amir Khalid
Here’s something I keep coming across: it might not necessarily matter if Congress refuses to impeach Trump. While no POTUS has ever been indicted on a criminal charge, nothing in the US Constitution actually forbids such an indictment. Mueller could, if he reckoned he had Trump dead to rights, indict him and set a precedent.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I just went back to check — I remembered Lenny Bruce, Leonard Bernstein, etc. But no Trump — then I saw this?
?
SFAW
@Chyron HR:
Given the stunning level of achievement he’s had, I was thinking it’s more like leaving behind Plan 9 from Outer Space and moving on to Glen or Glenda.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: When I am at stores I am constantly pestered by helpful employees asking me, “Do you need any help?” to which I always reply, “My wife says I am beyond help.”
Yeah, one has to be up, out, and about before the sun on a frosty morning to catch frost flowers. Either that or cloudy morning. One time my wife and I were driving on 185 when I noticed a field full of frost flowers. We stopped so I could show them to her and she got her iPad out to take pics of them. People driving by would see us out there and slow down wondering what the hell those 2 crazy people were doing taking pictures of blown insulation (or some other kind of trash) scattered in a field. None of them stopped, so I don’t think any of them had a clue what they were. They are a joy to behold. One of nature’s finest and most ephemeral creations.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
It all looks like normal Trump BS “Collusion, no you are the one who is in collusion!” I suspect Betty Cracker has it right – Trump is demanding to be cleared by Muller and these threats are part of it. All power games with that clown.
Immanentize
@SFAW: Hey now. No disparaging Ed Wood OR Bella Lugosi! Also too, the magnificent Tor Johnson!
trnc
@Elizabelle:
Not sure how hyperbolic it is now that we’ve seen the support Roy Moore got from republicans who said they believed his accusers. They came right out and said furthering the GOP crapgenda is worth supporting a pedophile.
Betty Cracker
@Shalimar: I follow Fox News on Twitter just to keep tabs on their evil machinations. Every day they inundate the base with a towering tsunami of bullshit about Mueller and his team.
But her emails!!!
@oatler.:
You know, we should at least try to get some entertainment value out of the media’s credulousness when it comes to Republican statements. You know, get them to commit to biting the head off a dead crow or streaking down Broadway if they’re wrong. Maybe after half a dozen times sprinting through Times Square with nothing but his shame and “Oops, I did it again” written in body paint on his torso, Chuck Todd would learn not to regurgitate every Republican talking point as if it were credible.
Elizabelle
@trnc: Remind me who won that race in Alabama?
EM
Trump cannot fire Mueller. Trump would first have to fire either Sessions or Rosenstein. He then would have to find a hand picked puppet willing to do the firing for him and get that person through the Judiciary Committee and confirmed by the Senate. This of course would all be going on with millions of people protesting in the streets. The odds are overwhelming that for any new person to be confirmed the Senate would almost have to put his confirmation through only with substantial strings preventing him him from being able to fire Muller.
But even if Trump managed to get his hand picked puppet through the confirmation process even then that new person can’t just go ahead and fire Mueller. As John Dean puts it “Unlike the summary firing of Archibald Cox by Nixon, to remove Mueller or any of his staff would require an investigation and proceeding by the Department of Justice, and would be subject to appeal in federal court. Indeed, these regulations were written to make it difficult to remove a special counsel, and I seriously doubt Trump can succeed. These regulations would have to be nullified by Trump, but I have little doubt Mueller could and would litigate that action, and prevail in federal court because a president cannot remove due process to accomplish his goal of removing the special counsel. Nor with a special counsel as experienced and careful as Mueller, can he exercise any control over the investigation.”
Thus even if he managed to get a new hand picked puppet through, the justice department would have to do an entire investigation present their findings to Mueller justifying why they’re firing him at which point they then would have to defeat Mueller’s appeal in federal court.
So yes theoretically he can fire Muller but the odds of that happening are about a million to one.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: ???
But her emails!!!
@Betty Cracker:
It important to remember they’re also inundating Trump. They’re not only priming the base to demand Mueller’s ouster, but also Trump himself.
trnc
@Cheryl Rofer:
Were they also telling him it was because they hid the emails? Or are they able to convince him everything is still A-OK since the wheels came off that bus?
They already are. See Cornyn vs Mueller.
Ryan
More like he’s going to get General Kelly to fire Mueller.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Back atcha.
Heading out to walk around in snowy Wiesbaden. But promised to clean a car off first.
It is minor powder, compared to where you are from.
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: “My wife says I am beyond help” is just a challenge to them to prove her wrong.
schrodingers_cat
I am not going to speculate about the President’s actions. Congressional Rs will take the path of least resistance and extreme cowardice.
But why are you so gleeful at the prospect of M’s dismissal. It is unseemly. I have a suggestion instead of Balloon Juice rename your blog as
The Daily Dose of Despair.
Doug Jones and Northam were going to be defeated too. What do these daily emo posts achieve?
But what do I know, I am just a non-native whose ancestors didn’t arrive on the Mayflower. So carry on guys.
Shantanu Saha
There is only one somewhat great Republican left: Robert Mueller.
My guess is that Mueller already has the pee tape.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, argues with my wife. Even if she’s not there. Not if they know what’s good for them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: That isn’t what it sounds like listening to the song.
Immanentize
This is the second trip of yours that I envy. My estate attorney made a great suggestion the other day; she said that the Immp and I should take a great vacation. Such a simple clear excellent suggestion. Now we need to figure out where to. Germany/Austria is high on my list. I think the Caribbean is on Immp’s.
But her emails!!!
@EM:
This is incorrect. Sessions has recused himself, leaving Rosenstein at the top of the chain. Trump fires Rosenstein, the next person in line gains authority over the special counsel. If they refuse, Trump can fire them and so on down the chain until he finds a new acting Deputy AG who will fire the special counsel. There’s no need for any appointments to be seated for it to happen. Now, once he gets canned, Mueller has legal remedy, but there’s going to be a serious crimps on the investigation if he and his staff aren’t actually allowed to investigate and are denied money and access to DOJ resources. There’s also the issue of Trump stacking the federal courts with his hacks. Prevailing in court becomes easier if one of those ends up being the judge.
satby
@Immanentize: that would be good for both of you. Do it!
trnc
@Elizabelle:
Doug Jones by 1.5 points, with Moore getting about 48% of the vote. Do those numbers totally disqualify my point about how much republicans will overlook to get their guy elected?
satby
Ok, I have had a three day headache, the epileptic dog had a series of four seizures this morning (she’s find now) and was going to call in, but the manager sent a group text to say she wouldn’t be in today at 7:30. It sucks when your day is bollocksed by 8 am.
I’m going in just so I can give notice.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/15/17
TRMS Law School: What happens if Donald Trump pardons Mike Flynn?
Former U.S. attorneys Chuck Rosenberg, Barbara McQuade, Edward Stanton, and Paul Fishman answer legal questions from Rachel Maddow and TRMS viewers about the Mike Flynn’s plea deal with Robert Mueller and a potential pardon from Donald Trump
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I know. It’s readership repulsion. Am glad to have you and others from the real world here to refute all the despair-mongering.
And you have picked up on something, with the glee in discussing possible future horrible events. I don’t understand it. At all.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/15/17
TRMS Law School: How independent is the FBI?
The character of the FBI and recent efforts to politicize its work are discussed by former U.S. attorneys Chuck Rosenberg, Barbara McQuade, Edward Stanton, and Paul Fishman answer legal questions from Rachel Maddow and TRMS viewers.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: So they can tell themselves that nothing needs to be done or can be done, since it is all hopeless, anyway.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/15/17
TRMS Law School: What happens to Trump probe if Mueller is fired?
What happens to the Trump Russia investigation and the progress made in cases so far if Robert Mueller is fired? Former U.S. attorneys Chuck Rosenberg, Barbara McQuade, Edward Stanton, and Paul Fishman offer their views.
hitless
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
I’m surprised by the number of people who assert that Trump can’t legally fire Mueller.
I don’t think that matters. He would just do it…just announce Mueller is fired. He can find a lawyer that says he has the power to do so since he’s the chief executive of the USA. And Fox will have on guests saying that Trump can fire him. Maybe WaPo runs an editorial saying it’s illegal, but, you know, obviously opinions differ because Fox has all these people on that are lawyers that say it was right and proper.
And so who would stop it? No one.
At that point, it’s up to the state AG’s and whatever evidence Mueller has shred with them to decide what they’ll do.
SFAW
@trnc:
Yes, because you’re a gloom-and-doom-er, and therefore nothing you say has any merit, because putting forth a cynical take on the political landscape means you’ve given up on everything forever, and therefore won’t try to fix things, so shut up.
Incoming!
Matt McIrvin
@Cheryl Rofer: At one point Goldsmith says
No, they have not–quite the reverse, they’re dropping again. I have no idea what he’s talking about there, except for ISIS.
SFAW
@hitless:
Well, not if Shitgibbon send the Marshal of the Supreme Court to arrest Mueller.
Or am I mixing up memes? Who can remember?
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 12/15/17
TRMS Law School: What is a constitutional crisis?
Can Donald Trump be indicted for crimes from before he took office? Can any president be indicted? Former U.S. attorneys Chuck Rosenberg, Barbara McQuade, Edward Stanton, and Paul Fishman answer legal questions from Rachel Maddow and TRMS viewers.
Cheryl Rofer
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, he’s wrong about the poll numbers. Trump might be able to make something of the others, though, if he weren’t such a doofus.
rikyrah
Even More Nonsense from John Kasich
by D.R. Tucker December 18, 2017
Does anybody buy the good-guy act at this point?
America’s favorite fake-moderate was dragged on to NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday, and again tried to promote the dubious idea that Donald Trump and Roy Moore are anomalies in the GOP, as opposed to being an accurate representation of what his party thinks and believes:
There is no such thing as an alternative part of the GOP ready to fix Washington’s problems. Kasich knows that, but he also knows there are people (in both the Washington press corps and in the general public) who want to believe that there is, so he simply tells them what they want to hear. This is almost as perverse and dishonest as Trump’s rhetoric.
rikyrah
Why is the government paying a firm to hire border patrol agents???!
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-border-patrol-hiring-20171217-story.html
rikyrah
The seven forbidden words in a tweet
https://mobile.twitter.com/krassenstein/status/942353682296967178
mike in dc
@But her emails!!!: Technically, Trump can revoke the special counsel rules entirely. Only the independent counsel statute created a prosecutor who could not be fired by the president.
rikyrah
EPA employee emails FOIA’ed
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricLiptonNYT/status/942566339704696833
SFAW
@rikyrah:
One of the reason Kay loves him, and would crawl over broken glass to vote for him. Wait a minute — “vote for him”? Sorry, that’s a typo, it should have read “spit on his carcass.”
rikyrah
Trump World doesn’t respond well to Mueller obtaining emails
12/18/17 08:00 AM—UPDATED 12/18/17 08:06 AM
By Steve Benen
………………………………………………..
Mueller’s team apparently obtained these materials through the GSA as part of the ongoing probe. According to an Axios report, Team Trump discovered that the special counsel had the emails “when his prosecutors used them as the basis for questions to witnesses.”
And this, in turn, appears to have caused a great deal of anxiety within Trump World. Indeed, by some accounts, officials with the president’s transition team, which evidently still exists, want Mueller’s investigators to give the emails back.
It’s a story with several important angles, but let’s start with the most entertaining one: the folks who wanted Russian operatives to steal Hillary Clinton’s emails are the same folks who are outraged that the special counsel’s office obtained government emails stored on a government server.
Because time is a flat circle, it’s hard not to appreciate the fact that as 2017 comes to a close, one of the big political controversies of the day is focused on … wait for it … email server management.
What’s more, it’s also worth appreciating the reason behind the Trump World’s apoplexy. Yahoo News’ Garance Franke-Ruta noted over the weekend, “The big freak-out over Mueller having the transition emails is that it means any interviewees who lied to the FBI about matters contained therein is already caught because the FBI has the record of what happened.”
rikyrah
The Outcome Is the Same Whether Trump Fires Mueller Or Not
by David Atkins
December 17, 2017
Much of the country is now asking the same questions in nervous apprehension: will Trump fire Mueller or won’t he? If he does, what do we do?
Special Counsel Mueller’s probe is tightening its noose around Trump’s immediate family and advisers, flipping core lieutenants, and digging both into potential crimes of state and financial misdeeds in the Trump Organization.
Republicans and their media allies are getting very nervous, and have moved from simply trying to discredit the Mueller probe to blatantly demanding that Trump instigate a modern Saturday Night Massacre by firing Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and replacing him with a loyalist who will fire Mueller. President Trump is setting the table for a authoritarian crackdown before Mueller can present his charges to Congress.
Trump will almost certainly do it, if for no other reason than that the calculus doesn’t change much for either side whether he does it or not. Accountability for Trump’s alleged misdeeds still comes down to the 2018 elections in either scenario. So why would Trump let Mueller continue to operate?
Even if Trump doesn’t fire Mueller, the likelihood that the Republican Congress will impeach him is next to nil. Republicans have already shown that they are far more afraid of Trump’s rabid fans in the GOP base than they are of anti-Trump backlash. They’re gearing up to pass a corrupt, massively unpopular tax cut just to please their donors, and they’ve shown themselves willing to support their president no matter how degraded his conduct. They’ll dismiss the financial crimes as an irrelevant personal attack, ignore the Russia collusion as sour grapes, and counter the obstruction of justice charges by muddying the waters over supposed partisan corruption in the FBI.
msdc
@Chyron HR: Pretty sure this administration has gone straight to Suicide Squad.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: Really? Two FPers agree with you and so do 95% of people who comment here. You could count the dissenters to this gleeful doomsday scenario on the fingers of one hand. And it is hardly the case that it is you (and those who agree with you) are being oppressed and not being allowed to state how you really feel.
schrodingers_cat
Time to close the Balloon Juice eternal misery and despair porn tab and do something else. Who the fuck is David Atkins?
El Caganer
@schrodingers_cat: Not exactly overflowing with holiday cheer, is it?
OzarkHillbilly
@El Caganer: I’ve decided that suicide is the only answer.
Goodbye cruel world….
marcopolo
Good morning folks. Hope everyone is nearing completion of all their pre-holiday task list. I’ll take a pass on making any substantive comments about the news of the morning–though I will be making my weekly phone calls to my congress critters in a few minutes. Enjoy the day!
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Sorry if my comment touched a sore spot for you. I’ll try to be more circumspect in my future comments.
Be that as it may: as I’ve said before, the fact remains that you and some number of others here have a knee-jerk response to anyone who puts forth a cynical take on the (perceived) political landscape. If there’s even a hint of a commenter saying “This is how I see things playing out, and it’s really gonna suck,” you seem to hear that as “Things are gonna suck, so I’m gonna bury my head in the sand, or just quit!” Although I expect there have been some comments of that nature, most of the cynical comments are just people ranting. The “I quit!” scenario that you seem to envision is neither a logical result of the cynical rant, nor an explicit (nor implicit, for that matter) part of that rant.
But your persistent “fuck you gloom-and-doom-ers” knee-jerk response, after a while, borders on Argle Bargle’s territory, or shomi’s. You’re smarter than that.
Yeah, I’m a cynical SOB, too. But that doesn’t mean that I’ve given up, nor will.
Chyron HR
@hitless:
So? He can announce that I’m fired but I’m still going to go to work and get paid because he can’t fire me.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW:
That’s good to hear. My rants take a different form than yours, speculating about how we are so fucked forever is not a rant in my book. YMMV.
jonas
@EM: Agreed, which is why they’re sticking with Plan A, which is just to discredit Mueller by a thousand cuts in the media, hoping that when his final report does land, Trumpnation is so firmly convinced of its illegitimacy that there won’t be any political pushback for just blowing it off. Heck, the WSJ editorialized the other day that the Chief Executive cannot, by definition, obstruct justice.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@jonas: Might sort of work in their little bubble – like how they’ve apparently got the old man convinced he’s gonna get a letter of exoneration (LOL). Reality has a habit of bursting those bubbles of collective delusion.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
People sometimes rant — in whatever form — to vent, to blow off steam as a way to relieve frustration, despair, whatever. It’s been my experience that most people, after that rant/blow-up, get back to their not-overly-frustrated lives. Some people peg the Rant-O-Meter at 11 (on the frustration/despair scale), which is where I put some of the WASFF rants; some only get to 5 or 6, but they all return to 1 or 2 after the rant. [Yeah, it’s not a great analogy/metaphor/semaphore/whatever.]
chopper
@schrodingers_cat:
so fucking pie everyone and stop all the damn complaining. christ.
sherparick1
@Shalimar: Dean Baker posts an a great tweet showing the “argument” that has apparently convinced Corker to go along. https://twitter.com/DeanBaker13/status/942480388584296448, a $1.2 million dollar per year argument, apparently.
Strange news judgements in the paper of record. Apparently, the fact that California is entering its second week of burning down is just old news to the N.Y. Times. There is no story on the “Thomas” fire on the Times front page but they do have a story that the Pentagon has spent a few hundred dollars on UFO malarky. Ditto the Washington Post. Very strange the decisions of the media and their fetish with right wing Republicans.
WereBear
Greatness in the GOP died with Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt was great… and had to break with the Republicans to do so.
What happened after that? Hoover helped bring on the Great Depression and then did nothing. Republicans were the isolationists before WWII, and pressured FDR for large concessions before fighting fascism on two fronts. And things just go downhill from there…
WaterGirl
@schrodingers_cat: I know nothing about him except that he writes at Washington Monthly. I started to read that post earlier and couldn’t get through it. Shorter version of the article: nothing matters, we are doomed.
chopper
@jonas:
this is likely the plan. it’s also trump’s MO, straight out of reality tv: make em sweat. of course, mueller is doing the same thing back, hence all the little leaks here and there about interview and pending indictments.
trump always plays to his base. his best bet is to delegitimize this with his true believers, and after shit starts getting real he’ll start tossing more red meat than a seasick tiger.
WaterGirl
@SFAW: That’s harsh. It doesn’t take “just a touch of” doom and gloom to set her off. Have you noticed how much doom and gloom there is here lately? And how many people have dropped off of Balloon Juice in recent weeks? The endless rehashing of all the doom and gloom – a lot of people seem to be leaving. I am hanging in because I love BJ and have been here for a decade, and I know this kind of thing happens and then the ship seems to right itself.
gvg
There are a lot of logical self interested reasons Trump shouldn’t fire Mueller. the problem is I think Trump is an idiot who has been over indulged by yes men his whole life to the point that he does not have a rational view of the world but doesn’t know that on top of aging into dementia. This does not mean he will fire Mueller, just that he is hard for normal people to predict. He might do some other stupid thing he thinks will get rid of the investigation.
I am reminded of a supposedly old bit of wisdom, that the best swordsman in the world doesn’t fear the second best, he fears the novice because he can’t predict what the novice will do. The proverb is hyperbole but kind of expresses where I am on what Trump will do. All we can do is keep an eye on him and react as needed.
The publicized plans to protest may be more useful in intimidating Congress than Trump. Some of them are rational.
I think we may need to start indicting Congressmen before Trump. Could state attorney general each check out their own MOC’s? Some of these guys seem to be as shady as Trump, and that is why Trump is still in office.
Kathleen
@rikyrah: Betcha Chuck Todd squealed with delight and wet his pants.
WaterGirl
@chopper: You don’t like s.c. complaining? She’s fighting for BJ not to lose its collective mind. We need more people who are wiling to fight for what they care about and fewer people to constantly whine that we are doomed.
When I get discouraged, I typically step away from the blog because I know that sort of thing is contagious. What we need is someone like Al G to call out “chicken little-ing” like he did when Barack Obama was first running for President.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: I find these kinds of posts to be tedious as well — the posts about Northam tanking and deserving to tank for this or that statement, I think the last one was sanctuary cities — just infuriated me, as a person who has to live in the state where he has been elected governor. For that reason I have started skipping these “prognostication posts” that are pessimistic venting. I understand the impulse, and I don’t think that the poster WANTS the predicted event to actually happen, but I don’t find them edifying. I stopped reading news articles that have “should” or “could” or “might” in the title or lead paragraph for the same reason. Prediction isn’t information. But some people need to vent in order to stay sane and it’s not my blog.
P.S. I find Dante Atkins to be all but unreadable. In fact, I have not read the Washington Monthly since Trump was elected.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: A Pure. Democrats bad Bernie good kind of guy.
chopper
@WaterGirl:
the thing is, the constant bitching about the “doom and gloomers” is as annoying as the doom-and-gloomers themselves. it’s even in open threads before anyone has said much of anything – “oh, here come the doom and gloom crew I’ll bet!”
Steeplejack
@satby:
Finally! What you have endured at that job is above and far beyond the call of duty. I hope on your way out you let the doc know that his office manager is the main source of his problems.
LAC
@rikyrah: ugh, that asshole in washington monthly can go suck a bag of salted dicks. He is still trying to court the “economic anxiety” white voter while telling the rest of us to sit in the back of the bus. In the nicest way possible, if course.
Kathleen
@WaterGirl: That’s why I subscribe to his newsletter. He helps me keep my eye on the prize rather than despair which I find easy to do. While I appreciate a fine rant I have to balance it with focusing on our power. Thanks to you, SC and Elizabelle for being the voices of hope.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
@Derelict:
Day 1 – Senators Flake, Collins, Corker and a few others call for Trump’s resignation or impeachment. They are joined by Rep. Curbelo and Rep. Dent, who takes a few minutes from planning his retirement cruise to issue a statement.
Day 3 – Hannity runs a segment on how the raped child’s parents donated to and voted for Democrats, which seems suspicious.
Day 5 – Alex Jones and Breitbart continue into 72nd straight hour of coverage on the lying liberal family that got some Obamacare-loving hospital to fake medical records. “Leave no doubt, folks, this is an intended coup!” sputters Jones.
Day 7 – Right-wing outrage builds as family refuses to publicly release medical records for the protection of their raped child. Steve Doocy breaks for commercial by asking, “What are they hiding? If it were my child, I’d have no problem showing the world endoscopy photos of his perforated rectum.”
Day 10 – Paul Ryan states that right now, the House is very busy with working on the next big legislative project for the American people and will leave it up to the American people to decide at the next election whether Trump should continue being president of the American people.
Day 11 – Mitch McConnell states that he will defer to the authorities to determine if the child rape accusations deserve further scrutiny. Refuses to answer whether he finds family’s accusations credible, but notes that their previous Democratic activity is “troubling.”
Day 12 – Twenty years of tax, business, medical and other personal records belonging to the child’s family are hacked and dumped online at 4chan.
Day 13 – Hannity states that although he does not condone hacking personal information, the records suggest that the family was struggling financially and probably thought they could get rich by blackmailing Trump with a false accusation of child rape.
Day 14 – CNN interviews conservative family in Tennessee who still support Trump. “Liberals don’t believe that a child’s life is important in the first place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they raped their own child to bring down Trump,” says Fred Smith, 53. “Besides, even if he did do it, he’s not your regular politician, and that’s what we liked about him. We always knew he’d do things different from other politicians, and look, he’s a human being and he sometimes makes mistakes.”
Day 17 – Trump approval rating gains 4%. Pundits declare that Trump is weathering the storm. Poll shows that Republicans believe Trump over child’s family by a margin of 5-to-1.
Day 21 – Trump golfs at his private club. CNN leads with story on Taylor Swift’s new feud with Cardi B.
chopper
@WaterGirl:
but it isn’t one or the other. yes, there are some doom porn people here, but it seems to me that most of the “oh Jesus, WASF” crowd still get involved and do more than complain on the internet. they’re letting off steam, which honestly is pretty fucking important when you live in a country run by donald “constitutional crisis from day one” trump.
the minority of “just give up” guys, well, pie em like any other troll. but when you’re just constantly complaining about the “doom and gloom” like even when nobody has even said anything yet you’re doing just as much to make the blog unreadable as they are.
Stan
@Kay:
trump’s not that smart. He does things that are obviously against his interests EVERY DAY.
I suspect he’ll fire him but it won’t matter one way or the other; the republicans will not act. The only things that matter are:
1. The 2018 wave election
2. Staying alive long enough for # 1 to happen.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
No, he’s saying that expecting any positive results, from anything other than a Dem retaking of the House in 2018, is pointless. Expecting that a Mueller firing will suddenly get the Rethugs in Congress to stand up to Shitgibbon is pointless.
He’s saying: focus on winning the midterms, not on Mueller-as-savior/martyr — at least, not from a political standpoint. He doesn’t really address the “can Shitgibbon be removed via criminal indictment and conviction” aspect.
He ain’t wrong, unfortunately.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
This. For all of their rantings, the doom-and-gloomers do not have a good track record when it comes to predicting the future, especially with elections. Northam was elected. Jones was elected. Both races that were supposed to go to the Republicans. So now I take all of their Mueller is totally going to be fired! predictions with a big ol’ grain of salt, because their prognostications have not been accurate, to say the least.
schrodingers_cat
@chopper: Nobody has even said anything.? Have you read the actual post written by John Cole? And my comment was #82. But yes, I need to shut up or pie. Well no one is stopping you from doing the same.
chopper
@Johnny Gentle (famous crooner):
yeesh, that is eerily prescient.
Stan
@Immanentize:
Trump doesn’t have to do anything.
Confederate AG Sessions just announces that he’s firing Rosenstein and Mueller due to (fill in the blank problem) that doesn’t violate his promise to recuse himself.
Trump stands there and says, “hey, the AG has that authority, now they can get on with investigating crooked Hillary…..”
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Barbara: Nancy at WaMo remains a national treasure
chopper
@schrodingers_cat:
I wasn’t referring to this thread.
your wish is my command.
Barbara
@chopper: I agree and I would separate the doom posters into those who just need to vent and perhaps vent more than is healthy for the overall balance of skepticism and hope among the readership, which is to say, venting can become a kind of self-indulgence, and those who do seem to want their predictions to come true so that their own political leanings can become more influential in shaping the narrative of what should happen and what kinds of candidates should be selected. This would include Amaranthine RBG, GoBlue, etc. I have zero patience for this kind of prediction wagering — the kind that congratulates itself for enlightening the rest of us as a matter of certainty even before an event transpires.
ETA: The second is the kind of person who will take a win, like that of Doug Jones, and spin it into a moral loss by saying things like a better Democratic candidate would have won by a wider margin. It’s just exasperating and basically not worth reading once you have skimmed it for the gist of the argument.
Stan
Not to state the obvious but: Robert Mueller was a rifle platoon leader in the Marine Corps. Pretty much one of the most basic things about leading an Infantry unit is to have plans for carrying on with the mission even if one or more of your leaders get killed.
Mueller probably had a plan on day one regarding the aftermath of his own firing.
chopper
@SFAW:
that’s fair. dems in the senate can throw sand in the gears but the house is hopeless as long as the GOP is in charge.
Ella in New Mexico
@Montanareddog:
@Stan:
Rumor has it that Trump and his lawyers and the entire Republican Congress know that pretty much all the pertinent work being done by Mueller’s team has been shared with NY AG who will drop huge RICO charges on him, his lovely sons, daughter, and Jared in less than 30 seconds. Also, that if he’s fired, every single indictment/case gets opened to the public which will implicate most of the Republicans as receivers of big money-laundered donations from Russian sources close to Putin.
They’re REALLY not wanting to rock that boat. Trump has to blither blather for the Fox News cultists back home, but he knows he’s in deep fucking shit which is why he’s taking so much Xanax he can’t keep his dentures in his mouth anymore.
SFAW
@Barbara:
Yeah, that’s ARGleBargle’s and goblue’s schtick. It’s just a variant of “Bernie woulda won if Hitlary hadn’t rigged things!” Drives me shithouse.
chopper
@Barbara:
are trolls anyways. there certainly are others in the “let’s you and him fight” brigade tho.
Doug R
Where does a “bridge to far” go?
...now I try to be amused
@WereBear:
Indeed. The GOP was founded in 1854 and was thoroughly corrupted by big money by the Grant administration, so the GOP went from idealism to rot in less than 20 years. That’s scary fast.
Doug R
@schrodingers_cat: Seems to reach peak despair just before some good news.
Virginia flipping.
Democrat elected to Alabama Senate seat for the first time in 25 years.
Pew, Quinnipiac and Monmouth all have trump at RECORD lows at 32 PER CENT, took Nixon and W TWO TERMS to get that low.
Quinnipiac from just over a week ago has the generic ballot at D+14, Monmouth from last week polled from Dec 10-12 has the ballot at D+15.
Still waiting on that JARED indictment, though-WOE IS US!
MCA1
@Doug R: Presumably, Far Rockaway, Queens, right?
“To far” is definitely one of my typo/spelling error pet peeves. Up there with “I wouldn’t want to loose my wallet” and “They were the dominate team today.” Way to go, Cole. :^)
charon
@rikyrah:
I would think a bigger problem is just the emails used to show intent and state of mind.
Lots of federal crimes require intent to be prosecutable.
MCA1
@jonas: That’s probably right, based on the desperate grasping at text messages of people who’ve been removed from the investigation, and whatever other bullshit they’ve tried to latch onto to discredit the lifetime Republican Special Counsel.
What’s upped the heat in the last week or two has been the slow realization by Team Trump that the report Mueller is putting together isn’t just going to make them look kinda venal and produce a political storm that they’ll need to weather. It’s going to be a fucking nuclear bomb that irradiates every one of them and the entire Republican Party. So they’re panicked. Jared’s about to get pinched, they just realized last week that Mueller already had the e-mails of every single person in the White House who interviewed with him, and the feds have been looking into Drumpf’s banking relationships.
I would not be shocked to learn that, right now, Trump is trying to figure out a way to sign the tax bill for his GOP colleagues and immediately resign under some bullshit pretext about health or stress or witch hunts, but is telling McConnell and Ryan he’ll veto it unless they can get him a way out from under Mueller’s blanket.
chopper
@MCA1:
for all intensive purposes it’s just a small mistake.
chopper
@MCA1:
I’d be shocked to learn that trump is smart enough to think of an idea like that. guy couldn’t think his way out of a wet paper sack.
NotMax
@MCA1
All teeth gritting, indeed, the nadir might be ‘for all intensive purposes.’
TenguPhule
@Montanareddog:
Trump can’t fire Mueller without breaking every rule in the book.
Granted this doesn’t seem as comforting as it did the last couple of months.
SiubhanDuinne
@Doug R:
North Dakota.
Ruckus
When in the last 40-50 yrs have there been great men in the republican party?
Could you name them please?
ruemara
@EM: Who’s at the DOJ again? And failing at recusing himself? Come on, people.
cain
Also keep in mind that we also tend to amplify right wing bullshit to ourselves. The polls show everyone with us, but we still point out the loudmouth right wingers and wring our hands. Fuck that shit. Keep organizing and #resisting. Trump is eventually going to get his. He’s going to piss off the wrong people, the people with the deep pockets because his interests and theirs don’t really align anyways. Eventually, a deal will be made or some stupid bullshit that will put him at odds with congress anyways. We’ll see. In the meanwhile, let’s focus on flippin the senate and get some great candidates to run for office.
burnspbesq
@Montanareddog:
I don’t flame, but I will tell you politely that you’re wrong, and wrong in some pretty stupid ways.
Annie
FSM forbid any injection of facts into this discussion, but:
1. I have no idea what Mr. Dolt45 will do and I don’t think he knows either.
2. I have a note in my calendar of the schedule for protest if Mueller is fired.
2. Here is the order appointing Mueller as special counsel. Take a look:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download
2. Notice how it says Mueller is covered by certain sections of the Code of Federal Regulations? Here is a link to 28 CFR 600.7:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.7
So in a literal sense it’s true that Trump himself cannot fire Mueller. Sessions can’t do it because he’s recused from the Russia investigation. That means Rosenstein, who’s (1) been burned by Trump already and (2) has said publicly that he sees no cause to fire Mueller. If Rosenstein refuses, Trump then fires him and goes down the line in the Justice Department til he finds someone who will fire Mueller. In any future job interview inside or outside the Justice Department, anybody who fires Mueller is going to be asked “what in your legal judgment was the misconduct that justified firing Mueller”. Maybe there’s an apparatchik who would be happy to spend the rest of their career working the wingnut welfare circuit, but that’s about what it would take.
What I’m trying to say is that this is not an episode of The Apprentice. Trump can’t just scream “you’re fired” at Mueller and have him leave office, any more than I can. Could he find a way to do it if he wants to badly enough? Sure. And I’m not saying he won’t, just that it won’t be simple. Mueller has some protections that Archibald Cox did not have. Also, does firing Mueller automatically disband the investigation team he’s put together? Does anyone know? Or does it have a separate existence? When Archibald Cox was fired (and yes, I’m old enough that I remember that), the attorneys he had recruited kept right on working.
One thing I think we all can do — call our Senators and make it clear that we believe no one is above the law and that firing Mueller will result in opposition. If like me you live in a blue state, reach out to relative/friends in red states if you have any. Get them to call their senators too. It may not help but has a much better chance of helping than doing nothing.
TenguPhule
@WaterGirl:
Have you noticed how bad things have gotten?
I was the fucking outlier in Feb predicting a Civil War from the GOP treason.
Even our MSM editorials these days are increasingly mentioning it half-seriously.
Bishop Bag
@WaterGirl:
It doesn’t matter I’ll probably get hit by a car anyway.