Raiding the office of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen yesterday, the Justice Department under Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s direction created the latest media frenzy over whether or not Trump would fire Mueller. Trump never said he’d fire the Special Counsel, only the investigation into Russian collusion has morphed into an anything goes witch-hunt. Peppered with questions by press over whether he’d fire Mueller, Trump said coyly, “We’ll see.” For almost a year, the media’s been asking the same question of whether the president would fire the Special Counsel. Each time the media raises the issue, they get the predictable response: It would be suicide for Trump to do so. “I have confidence in Mueller. The president ought to have confidence in Mueller,” said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Asking the same question for the last 11 months since Mueller was appointed Special Counsel May 17, 2017, the anti-Trump media continues to whip up the fantasy that Trump’s going to fire the Special Counsel. “It would be suicide,” said Grassley, regarding the political fallout from firing Mueller. Raising the firing issue galvanizes the anti-Trump media, prompting calls of a constitutional crisis. “I think the less the president says about the whole thing, the better off he would be,” said Grassley, warning Trump not to fire Mueller. When the FBI raided Cohen’s offices Monday, Trump responded. “So I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys, a good man, and it’s a disgraceful situation,” Trump said. “It’s a total witch hunt. I’ve been saying it for a long time,” referring to the Special Counsel’s Russian collusion investigation.
Picking up on Trump’s reaction, the media stretches his words to the breaking point, implying that he’s ready to fire the Special Counsel. Trump’s concerned that Mueller’s no longer investigating Russian collusion but now moving to other areas, including whether Cohen paid hush money to his alleged mistress 12 years ago named Stormy Daniels. Trump said recently he didn’t know about Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stormy only weeks before the 2016 presidential election. “It’s an attack on our country, in the true sense. It’s an attack on what we all stand for,” Trump said, calling the FBI’s raid on Cohen’s office “a whole new level of unfairness.” When Grassley advises Trump to zip it, he’s talking about accepting the investigation, wherever it takes the Special Counsel. Trump’s been advised by several GOP senators to accept the investigation without complaining.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s biggest GOP critics, urged Trump to let Mueller do his job without interference. “I know the president’s frustrated. He’s told me over and over he did nothing to collude with the Russians . . “ advising Trump to let Mueller do his job because it’s the shortest route to getting cleared. “Mueller needs to continue to do his job without political interference, and I think most member of Congress view it that way,” Graham said.. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) agreed with Trump that Mueller’s gone too far going after Trump’s personal attorney. When Mueller handed down indictments to Trump former Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort Oct. 30, 2017 adding new charges Feb. 22, it had nothing to do with the Russian collusion probe, only about past consulting in the Ukraine. When the media reports on Manafort’s indictment, it offers it as proof of Russian collusion.
When Trump calls Mueller’s probe a witch hunt he’s talking about deviating from his original mandate to investigate Russian meddling and alleged Trump Russian collusion. “Going after someone’s personal attorney is a grave overstep, I think, in the authority of the prosecutor,” Paul told Fox News. “The president’s right. It’s a witch hunt,” said Paul, showing diverging opinions on the Special Counsel. When the media hypes the prospects of Trump firing the Special Counsel, it becomes headline news, not because there’s any truth to it but because it gives 24/7 cable news something to talk about. Trump keeps getting asked why he doesn’t fire Mueller for overstepping his authority in the Russian probe. “ Well, It think it’s a disgrace what’s going on. We’ll see what happens . . “ said Trump, prompting more speculation in the media about Mueller’s imminent firing.
Using the airwaves to stir the pot, the media continues to run with the story that Trump’s going to fire Special Counsel Mueller. While there’s zero truth to the rumor, it’s clear the media likes the headlines. Grassley said it right that firing Mueller would be suicide for Trump, repeating what happened when President Richard Nixon fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox back in the Watergate days. Repeating the same nonsense in the press continues to keep Trump firing Mueller in the headlines. Trump’s not stupid enough to write his own obituary. At the same time, the president likes to stir the pot by Tweeting-out his complaints that don’t make news in the mainstream media. Whatever Mueller finds in Cohen’s papers, it’s not likely to shed any light on Russian collusion only raise more speculation about what happened with porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
