White House: Trump ‘Certainly Believes He Has The Power’ To Fire Mueller

US President Donald Trump speaks about the spending bill during a press conference in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House on March 23, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read ... US President Donald Trump speaks about the spending bill during a press conference in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House on March 23, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Nicholas Kamm (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS

The White House on Tuesday confirmed its stance that President Donald Trump has the authority to fire special counsel Robert Mueller.

When asked outright if Trump “believe(s) he has the power to fire” Mueller, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said “certainly.”

“Certainly he believes he has the power to do so,” she said, after deflecting questions about whether the Mueller-directed raid of Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen’s house, hotel and office was actually an “attack on this country,” as Trump said it was.

“I think the President has been clear that he thinks that this has gone too far,” she said.

In the past, Trump has attempted to tip-toe around his apparent desire to fire the special counsel, but has in recent been a bit more explicit. In March, Trump slammed former FBI Director James Comey in a tweet and specifically called out Mueller for the first time, saying his probe should “never have been started.”

After news of the Cohen raid broke on Monday, Trump said that people have told him he should fire Mueller, but stopped short of confirming his reported interest in doing so.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said Monday.

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  1. Maybe he has the power. Let’s see if he has the balls.

  2. Why, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!
    – The White Queen, Through the Looking Glass.

    Fortunately for us, Preshitdent Two-scoops, what you believe matters much less than what the law actually is.

  3. M’kay.

    And Dorothy certainly believed that she could return to Kansas if she clicked her heels three times but it turned out that Oz had been a dream resulting from the severe head injury she sustained.

    I still love that April Ryan asked Ma Hamhock if Fat Nixon has considered resigning in the past week because of all the chaos. I’m willing to take a hard hit to the head if I can wake up and find that the past 17 months has all been one horrid nightmare!

  4. She implied that he had the legal authority to fire Mueller based on legal opinions within the WH and DOJ. At least that is what I heard. She was directly challenged by the reporter who said no Mueller could only be dismissed by Rosenstein. SHS repeated what she’d previously stated.

  5. Of course the WH thinks Trump can do whatever he wants; our democracy is long gone under this petty tyrant. Who cares what the statute or DOJ rules say?

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