Democrats are ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice should President Donald Trump make a decisive move to end Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, according to a Wednesday NBC report.
The national mobilization would be triggered by Trump firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or pardoning witnesses in the investigation.
Contingency actions include protecting Mueller’s documents from destruction and team from disbanding, Democrats in both chambers of Congress immediately demanding legislation to retroactively protect Mueller’s work and hundreds of rallies drawing hundreds of thousands of people breaking out across the country.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told NBC that Democratic lawmakers have quietly been collecting a list of sympathetic Republicans who would come to their aide if Trump crossed the Rubicon.
Plans have reportedly also been made in the case of a Saturday Night Massacre-type situation, where Trump has to go through multiple officials before he lands on one willing to fire Mueller. In another Watergate parallel, Democrats plan to hold obstruction of justice hearings and appoint a special investigatory committee if Mueller is fired.
These plans, though prepped for months as Trump’s threatening of the probe has vacillated from intense to mild, are taking on immediacy now as the noose of criminality tightens around Trump’s associates.
On Tuesday, after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen entered a guilty plea and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer intoned: “He better not talk about pardons for Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort, tonight or any time in the future.”
Per NBC, Democrats have also revisited their plans in recent days due to Trump’s apparent glee when he stripped former CIA Director John Brennan of his security clearance, worrying that Trump is feeling emboldened to punish officials he feels are out of line.
