Plan B Forum

I was Republican when Republican wasn't cool...

Lord Jim wrote:If Trump really has the arrogance and temerity to fire Mueller...

And the Congressional Republicans at that point lack the testicular fortitude to Stand Up and begin a proper Impeachment Inquiry...

Then I will be ashamed to call myself a "Republican"; but I will continue to do so...

I was Republican when Republican wasn't cool...

What would it take to condemn your party, then?

rubato wrote:The scumbag former House Republican majority leader shows his true colors once again.

So nice to hear from you "Newtie".


yrs,
rubato

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Washington (CNN)Newsmax CEO -- and FOT "Friend of Trump" -- Chris Ruddy went to the White House on Monday. Soon after he left, he did an interview with PBS "NewsHour" anchor Judy Woodruff in which he said this of the President:

"I think he's considering perhaps terminating the special counsel. I think he's weighing that option."
The White House made clear -- albeit not all that quickly -- that Ruddy never met with President Trump on Monday and is, essentially, freelancing.

"Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the President regarding this issue," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said late Monday. "With respect to this subject, only the President or his attorneys are authorized to comment."

Ruddy hit back Tuesday morning in a statement via Politico's Playbook:

"Spicer issued a bizarre late night press release that a) doesn't deny my claim the President is considering firing Mueller and b) says I didn't speak to the President about the matter -- when I never claimed to have done so. Memo to Sean: focus your efforts on exposing the flim-flam Russian allegations against POTUS and highlighting his remarkable achievements! Don't waste time trying to undermine one of your few allies."

Ruddy later added to that broadside against Spicer on CNN's "New Day."

"I wouldn't say I was fighting with Sean Spicer," Ruddy said. "I think that Sean is doing something unusual and different, which is making a news story where one doesn't exist."

Sniping aside, consider what we know of the timeline:

1. Ruddy goes to White House Monday.

2. He meets with people -- but not Trump. (Ruddy told CNN this morning that he "met with other White House officials yesterday.")

3. He says immediately afterward in an interview that Trump is considering firing Mueller and that such a move "would be a very significant mistake."
Remember, too, that Ruddy knows Trump well. If Trump can be said to have close friends -- and I am not sure that he is truly close to anyone outside of his immediate family -- then Ruddy is a close friend.

"I always speak for myself and not the president. He has his own spokesman. Although I think they are in need of help from time to time," Ruddy said on CNN.

So, what is Ruddy up to here?

My (educated) guess is that during his visit to the White House on Monday, Ruddy heard that Trump was considering firing Mueller. Ruddy thought, rightly, that doing so would be an absolutely terrible political move. Rather than calling the President to tell him that, Ruddy took to a medium where he knew Trump would listen: TV.

We know from the 2016 campaign that Trump's advisers and friends would use cable television appearances to send messages to Trump that he was simply not hearing in private conversations. For Trump, seeing things on TV somehow validated them, gave them an added level of importance that one-on-one communications lacked.

Yes, this is strange, unorthodox and unlike any past president. But, so is almost everything Trump has said and done since he became a candidate for president almost exactly two years ago today.

Those who successfully influence Trump meet him on his terms, not their own. That's what Ruddy is doing here. Telling Trump his opinions through the TV filter. Because he knows that's the only way to ensure Trump will hear it.

Republicans to Trump: Hands off Mueller

Republican lawmakers have a warning for President Donald Trump: Don’t mess with Robert Mueller.

Some Trump allies have begun agitating for Trump to fire the man appointed just last month as a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Late Monday, PBS’ Judy Woodruff reported that, per a close friend, Chris Ruddy, Trump himself is weighing the prospect of pulling the plug on Mueller’s probe. And one of the president’s lawyers said Sunday that Trump hadn’t taken that option off the table.

But that would be a huge mistake, Republican lawmakers said Monday.

“It would be a disaster,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) “There's no reason to fire Mueller. What's he done to be fired?”

Mueller’s investigation is widely considered the most threatening to Trump’s presidency. It encompasses questions about whether Trump associates colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election — and, more recently, whether Trump himself may have obstructed the FBI’s inquiry when he abruptly fired former FBI director James Comey. It is also a probe that is largely out of Trump’s control.

The White House late Monday said in a statement that Ruddy "never spoke to the President regarding this issue. With respect to this subject, only the President or his attorneys are authorized to comment."

On Capitol Hill, Mueller’s appointment seemed to calm nerves after the firing of Comey. A former FBI director who served for 12 years under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Mueller won bipartisan praise last month, when he was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to oversee the Russia probe.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said the notion firing Mueller, would “certainly be an extraordinarily unwise move.”

Collins and other Republicans said they had no indication Trump was considering firing Mueller. But lawmakers were taken by surprise last month when Trump fired Comey, who was then overseeing the Russia investigation. Comey himself poured fuel on the investigation last week when he testified that Trump repeatedly questioned him about the Russia probe — and asked him to end a related investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn — before firing him on May 9.

Comey also testified last week that shortly after Trump fired him, he steered the contents of several private memos to the press in order to prompt the creation of the special counsel probe. Comey has a long-term friendship with Mueller, who has begun filling out his prosecutorial team with experienced hands.

Even Trump’s Aides Blame Him for Obstruction Probe: ‘President Did This to Himself’

Trump ‘shot himself in the foot again with this cockamamie scheme to get Mueller to play ball.’

It’s exactly the circumstance Donald Trump tried to avoid. But Trump’s own actions have made an FBI investigation into the president himself a reality.

Firing James Comey, the FBI director, was, by Trump’s explanation, a way to stop a “witch hunt” against his team’s alleged ties to Russia. It led, within weeks, to the appointment of a special prosecutor, Comey’s FBI predecessor, Robert Mueller. And now Mueller is investigating Trump himself for possible obstruction of justice—by firing Comey, who had led the FBI inquiry.

With the crisis engulfing Trump’s young presidency intensifying, senators, Trump aides, former prosecutors, and FBI veterans are sending the White House an urgent warning: Whatever you do, don’t. Fire. Mueller.

News of the obstruction investigation, which was first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday, comes just days after Trump himself began floating the possibility of firing the new head of the investigation: Robert Mueller, the Justice Department special counsel appointed in the wake of Comey’s firing.

The obstruction investigation has raised the stakes for Mueller’s potential ouster. Firing him now, which would require that Trump personally direct DOJ leadership to do so, would create a political firestorm.

“Firing Robert Mueller right now would be a direct attack on the rule of law by Donald Trump,” Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Daily Beast. Wyden declined to directly address the Post report.

Trump reportedly floated the possibility of firing Mueller as a way to prod him toward exonerating the president and other Trump associates party to the investigation. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that aides dissuaded him from doing so.

For Ali Soufan, a retired FBI counterterrorism agent, word that Trump is now a target of Mueller’s inquiry explains the trial balloon.

“No wonder President Trump and his surrogates are getting nervous. This explains their sudden attacks on Mueller and the threats to fire him,” Soufan told The Daily Beast.

White House officials are still insisting to the president that he should leave Mueller in his post. “We are all advising him not to [get rid of] Mueller. That has not changed,” one Trump aide told The Daily Beast. “It would be an absolute nuclear explosion if he did.”

Firing Mueller would also put the president in greater legal jeopardy than he already may be in, said former United States attorney Barbara McQuade.

“If Trump were to fire Mueller and it could be shown that his purpose was to impede the investigation, it could be additional evidence of obstruction of justice,” [Ya think?] McQuade, who was appointed by President Obama, told The Daily Beast.

Gingrich: Mueller tip of 'deep state spear'

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) on Thursday went after special counsel Robert Mueller, accusing him of trying to undermine the Trump presidency.

"Muelleris now clearly the tip of the deep state spear aimed at destroying or at a minimum undermining and crippling the Trump presidency," Gingrich tweeted Thursday.

Gingrich's trashing of Mueller early Thursday morning followed a Washington Post report that the former FBI director, who is charged with leading the law enforcement investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 presidential election, was expanding his probe to include possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

In his postings, Gingrich accused Mueller of running his investigation with the intent of "destroying or at a minimum undermining and crippling the Trump presidency."

Gingrich's comments come after a report in The Washington Post late Wednesday that Mueller, the special counsel named to investigate the Russian election meddling, is now looking into whether President Trump sought to obstruct justice.

Former FBI Director James Comey's testimony last week sparked questions about whether Trump tried to obstruct justice. Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believed he was directed by Trump to end the FBI's investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Gingrich had previously offered praise for Mueller as special counsel. After his appointment, Gingrich called Mueller a "superb choice," adding that his reputation was "impeccable."

But earlier this week, Gingrich reversed course.

In an interview, he said he is wary of Mueller's team because he can't trust "somebody who can only hire Democrats," adding that they are "bad people."

“In this kind of environment, I don’t give the benefit of the doubt to somebody who can only hire Democrats, but claims that we ought to trust him,” Gingrich said during a previous interview on “CBS This Morning.”

Joe Scarborough
✔
@JoeNBC

This is grotesque and fans the flames of rage among the unbalanced. What exactly is the price of an ambassadorship these days? https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status ... 1345077248 …
5:18 AM - 15 Jun 2017

2,161 2,161 Retweets
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Joe Scarborough
✔
@JoeNBC

How dare you smear a man who served this country honorably for decades in both war and peace, winning the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status ... 2765242368 …
5:21 AM - 15 Jun 2017

Joe Scarborough
✔
@JoeNBC

Newt, whatever you think you're getting in return for obsequiously sliming an American hero, I guarantee you it's not worth it. Stop.
5:23 AM - 15 Jun 2017

4,868 4,868 Retweets
18,550

“I need loyalty, I expect loyalty,” Trump told then-FBI Director James Comey in January — even though FBI directors are supposed to be independent of a president, and Comey was only 4 years into a 10 year term.

Comey testified before the Senate that Trump tried to “create some sort of patronage relationship,” based on personal loyalty.  After Comey refused and continued to investigate possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, Trump fired him.

Preet Bharara, who had been the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Trump tried to create the same sort of patronage relationship with him that he did with Comey.

Bharara’s office had been investigating Trump’s secretary of health and human services, Tom Price, and also looking into Russian money-laundering allegations against Deutsche Bank, Trump’s principal private lender.  When Bharara didn’t play along, Trump fired him.

Bharara said Comey’s testimony “ felt a little bit like déjà vu.”

In his first and best-known book, “The Art of the Deal,” Trump distinguished between integrity and loyalty — and made clear he preferred loyalty.

Trump compared attorney Roy Cohn — Senator Joe McCarthy’s attack dog who became Trump’s mentor — to “all the hundreds of ‘respectable’ guys who make careers out of boasting about their uncompromising integrity but have absolutely no loyalty… What I liked most about Roy Cohn was that he would do just the opposite.”

As president, Trump continues to prefer loyalty over integrity.  Although most of his Cabinet still don’t have top deputies in place, the White House has installed senior aides to monitor their loyalty.  As Barry Bennett, a former Trump campaign adviser, explained to the Washington Post, “They’re functioning as the White House’s voice and ears in these departments.”

Last Monday, the White House invited reporters in to watch what was billed as a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet.  After Trump spoke, he asked each of the Cabinet members around the table to briefly comment.  Their statements were what you might expect from toadies surrounding a two-bit dictator.

“We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda,” said Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.  “Greatest privilege of my life, to serve as vice president to a president who’s keeping his word to the American people,” said Vice President Mike Pence.  “You’ve set the exact right message,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions, adding, “The response is fabulous around the country.”

When I (the 'I' in this case is Robert Reich) was sworn in as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, I took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  I didn’t pledge loyalty to Bill Clinton, and I wouldn’t have participated in such a fawning display.

That oath is a pledge of loyalty to our system of government — not to a powerful individual.  It puts integrity before personal loyalty.  It’s what it means to have a government of laws.

But Trump has filled his administration with people more loyal to him than they are to America.  His top advisers are his daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.  To run his legal defense and be his spokesman on the investigation into collusion with Russian operatives, Trump has hired Marc Kasowitz.  Kasowitz is not an expert in criminal or constitutional law.  His only apparent qualification is his utter loyal to Trump.