Discussion: NYT: Trump Moved To Fire Mueller In December

If someone repeatedly acts like he’s got a lot of skeletons in his closet…

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“We’re only going after Jared right now, Mr. President. Ivanka is safe----and she may soon be single, if you know what I mean.”

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I think this article is a bit of hyperbole. As Michael Wolff has written and said many times, firing Mueller (and Rosenstein) has been a constant refrain for Trump. It’s a bit like Gollum saying ‘my precious’ in reference to the ring of power in Lord of the Rings.

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The end game is a bit hazy to me. Trump and his whole family are criminals and will be exposed by state and federal charges most likely involving money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and likely foreign involvement in campaigns. Republicans will pretend it’s not really a problem and that the investigation is political. Charges will be brought. Republicans will shrug and mumble something about Benghazi or email servers. Then what?

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Then what?

Popcorn?

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Trials.
And, in a significant number of cases, jail.

Here’s the thing (for me, at least) – when it comes to firing people, Trump is a coward. He can’t do it face to face – he has one of his lackeys do it for him. I’m not sure that gambit is going to work this time.

And, very much O/T, but something to watch today: there is an Axios report (confirmed via Robert Costa tweet), that Paul Ryan has decided to NOT run for reelection. How bad does the Republican brand have to be for a sitting Speaker to NOT run for his own seat??

Blue Wave?? This is looking like a Category 5 tsunami!

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Then what?

I can’t tell you for sure. But this country is going to be very changed. Never Trumpers outnumber the feral trumpers. We aren’t going to just go along with the shrugs; we’ll be in the streets and it won’t be possible to ignore.

Agreed. I think there’s a Geek chorus in Trump’s head that constantly chants “Fire Mueller” and antiphonally responds “Fire Rosenstein”. I’m sure Trump consults his magic eight ball every morning before the twitfest to find out if this is the day to fire Mueller and Rosenstein. Fortunately, the M8B has so far always given an evasive answer.

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I do believe he will fire Mueller soon. As for what then… I’ve said before, the House will do nothing, we will careen rudderless until November. I believe the public outcry will be fierce, and the House will flip, I’m doubtful on the Senate. Then impeachment, with no conviction in the Senate. (Actually, I vacillate between “yes, the Republican senators will see it is in their best interest”, and “no they won’t”)

Frankly, if it seems likely the Senate will fail to convict, it might be best for the House to just hem him in and let him sit, stewing in his rage, continuing to damage the Republican brand for another two years. Impeachment always comes with political fallout. The long play might be to not bother with impeachment. If he manages to win re-election (a possibility I feel is more probable than many others do), impeach him then.

Whether or not they can tie his hands sufficiently to protect the Constitution and the American people is a bigger question than I can answer. If we win the Senate we can jam up the confirmation process (sorry, have to wait until the next election to find out who will appoint those judges…). I don’t know if the scope of the War Powers Act would give them enough power to truly contain any insane outbursts, but damage could certainly be done in spite of it.

In any event, I for one anticipate a rocky next 12 months…

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Wow – Trump really doesn’t want anyone snooping around in his business or financial dealings. Wonder why?

Also, to repeat. Trump cannot just “order” that Mueller be sacked. Because Sessions has recused himself (to Trump’s eternal outrage), he must direct Rod Rosenstein to fire Mueller, which Rosenstein has said pretty categorically he will not do without cause. So Trump will have to fire Rosenstein and try to replace him with a lackey who will try to fire Mueller, a la Nixon and Archibald Cox. Congressional Republicans will probably go along with this initially because Trump has their balls in a box under his bed with polling that shows his unwavering base support. But even if Mueller is somehow sacked, he and his investigators still have all this stuff on Trump; the FBI still has all the info they’ve collected in their investigation. The Deep State will start leaking like a goddamn sieve to provoke Congressional investigations and/or impeachment proceedings and Trump will wish the consummately tight-lipped Mueller were still just silently puttering away.

Actually this is exactly why I don’t talk to some of my co-workers at lunch. When confronted with Trump’s many criminal faults they start yammering Uranium One and Benghazi as though either is a defense. Fox News viewers remind me of little kids who cry “Mommy, Hillary and Barack did it too.” We don’t let kids get away with that sort of argument when acting as a parent, why do we allow Fox to get away with it when we are talking about criminal activity by the sitting President and his family?

I pointed out yesterday to my co-workers that Jeff Sessions has been AG for over a year. If there was any actionable evidence against Hillary or Obama they should have brought cases by now. Of course, there isn’t real evidence, but Fox sure keeps the past alive.

Well, Fox keeps a past alive, anyway. It’s not a past that you or I would recognize as the real past. In Foxworld, the mutability of the past is the brand and the product.