Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) responded to President Donald Trump’s bizarre Friday statement that appeared to confirm he’s the subject of an obstructive of justice investigation, urging Congress to take precautions against any presidential interference.
“It has become clear that President Trump believes that he has the power to fire anyone in government he chooses and for any reason, including Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Schiff wrote Friday. “That is not how the rule of law works, and Congress will not allow the President to so egregiously overstep his authority.”
“If President Trump were to try to replicate Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre by firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in addition to Mueller, Congress must unite to stop him – without respect to party, and for the sake of the nation,” he continued.
Trump wrote on Twitter Friday that “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director.” He has posted frequently this week about his displeasure with the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2017
Speaking to reporters in an off-camera briefing Thursday, deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump “has the right to” fire Mueller as special counsel but “has no intention to do so.”
Schiff on Friday urged his colleagues to “defend our system of checks and balances by passing an independent counsel law that empowers an independent prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation and anything that arises from it.”
“Such a law should allow for the reappointment of Bob Mueller, someone who has served Presidents of both parties and whom Democrats and Republicans have come to admire,” he wrote. “We cannot allow the President to choose who will conduct this investigation or to interfere with its progress in any way.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) also came out strongly against Trump firing either Rosenstein or Mueller Friday, writing that “[t]he message the president is sending through his tweets is that he believes the rule of law doesn’t apply to him and that anyone who thinks otherwise will be fired. That’s undemocratic on its face and a blatant violation of the president’s oath of office.
Trump likes causing chaos. It’s entertainment.
Plus, there’s too much at stake now.
We are moving ever closer to a grave constitutional crisis with both Rosenstein and Mueller fired. In that event, since Republicans have shown themselves to be either accomplices of Trump or feckless in the face of his transgressions, we will have to depend upon the military, sworn to defend our constitution, to step in, arrest Trump, and restore the rule of enlightened law. If he would so blatantly choose the route of totalitarianism, apparently legally, we could not wait until 2018 for relief. With all the power in his hands, along with the help of Russian buddies and his faithful deplorables, the outcomes of those elections would be uncertain. Hitler rose to power legally in Germany. All because of conscienceless Republican leaders, perhaps themselves part of the rabbit warren of connections to Russian money, our military may be our only hope to limit the flow of blood and preserve our democracy. I would never have thought this possible until now. God and good sense help us.
Trump immediately responded by threatening to fire Schiff.
If this isn’t enough to cause the entire staff to line up and flip on Trump to the FBI, then watch him because he’ll do something that does cause that very soon.
So, Scalise might be the only literal bullet…
Metaphoric? You may fire when ready, Gridley.