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Trump defiant as pressure grows
| CNN | - |
Washington
(CNN) America is edging ever closer to a new long, national nightmare,
given President Donald Trump's explosive response to signs that
special ...
Trump defiant as pressure grows
Story highlights
- The higher the pressure, the more defiant the President becomes
- Trump continues to call the Russia probe a 'witch hunt'
Washington (CNN)America
is edging ever closer to a new long, national nightmare, given
President Donald Trump's explosive response to signs that special
counsel Robert Mueller is approaching the epicenter of White House
power.
The
investigation has taken a serious turn in recent days, raising the clear
possibility that whether Mueller finds wrongdoing or not, a period of
political stress and upheaval is inevitable.
Trump
appears willing to test the bounds of convention and his own powers
against a legal and political establishment that he believes is
conspiring against him. The higher the pressure, the more defiant the
President becomes -- even if it puts him at odds with his legal team.
Trump has decided that "this is a political fight and he's going to fight it," a White House official told CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
But
the sense of chaos around the White House is deepening. The President
again called the Russia probe a "witch hunt" over the weekend while a
legal adviser tried to walk back Trump's admission Friday that he is
under investigation.
"The MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN agenda is doing very well despite the distraction of the Witch Hunt," Trump tweeted on Sunday.
The political stakes rose
significantly in recent days amid signs the probe on Russian election
hacking could eventually expand to consider Trump's actions.
The
President and his allies have declared open season on Mueller and
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe.
"You
are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political
history - led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA." Trump
said in a tweet last week that signified an attempt to undermine both
men.
Why journalists like Trump's Twitter habit 05:59
The
tweet sparked speculation that Trump may pull a nuclear option by
firing Mueller and Rosenstein, a move senior aides have fervently
advised against -- given that it could provoke a constitutional crisis.
"It
looks like we have got a simmering tea kettle here, and the President
seems to be testing the waters about whether he ought to go ahead and
fire Robert Mueller," said Richard Ben-Veniste, a former Watergate
prosecutor who is now a CNN legal analyst.
"You
don't mess with the criminal justice system in this way ... the
President is on very tenuous ground here," Ben-Veniste told CNN's Don
Lemon Friday.
The scorched-earth approach may have grave political consequences.
Trump
and his aides may well end up in the clear, but months of
recriminations ahead will further polarize the capital and cast a shadow
over his administration, which is already struggling for traction after
a tumultuous first five months.
If
Mueller decides there is a case to answer for either the President or
his aides in the issue of alleged collusion with Russia or over a
potential cover-up, the political uproar will be incalculable.
At
best, it could further complicate Trump's efforts to pass a meaningful
legislative agenda and ultimately his hopes of a successful presidency.
At
worst, it could force the nation to confront a third debate on whether
to remove an elected President in just 45 years. The lessons of history
suggest such traumas raise questions of political legitimacy and
constitutional process that have the potential to sour life in
Washington for years in the future.
Trump's in 'a political fight and he's going to fight it'
Back in the present, the President's mood is fueling the sense of crisis.
"One
thing we've learned I think from the testimony of multiple people now
is the President's pretty fired up about this, OK?" Republican Sen.
Marco Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday.
"He,
from every pronouncement we have seen, feels very strongly that he did
nothing wrong, and he wants people to say that, because he feels very
strongly about it," Rubio said. "I don't think that's a mystery. And
he's expressing himself in that way."
But the more frustrated that Trump gets, the more he often hurts himself politically.
A
case in point is the firing of Comey and Trump's subsequent admission
that he had Russia on his mind when he dismissed the FBI director, an
admission that could provide a rationale for an obstruction of justice
probe.
"Trump has a compulsion to
counter-attack and is very pugnacious. I don't think it serves him
well," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter, on ABC's
"This Week," adding that the President was right to be infuriated by
"this whole Russia baloney."
Rubio: Trump talked Russia probe in private 01:05
Legal team contradicts the client
In
another sign of the gravity of the situation, Trump's legal team
blitzed Sunday talk shows to contradict the President's tweet Friday
where he said he is already under investigation.
"The
President is not a subject or target of an investigation. That tweet
was in response to a Washington Post story that ran with five unnamed
sources, without identifying the agencies they represented, saying that
the special counsel had broadened out his investigation to include the
president," said Jay Sekulow, a Trump legal adviser on CNN's "State of
the Union."
Sekulow also opened a
conflict between the President's political team and his legal one,
hinting that the President's tweets should be discounted even though the
White House said they are an authentic expression of his views.
"It was 141 characters. There's a limitation on Twitter, as we all know," Sekulow said.
Then,
in a subsequent interview on "Fox News Sunday," Sekulow sowed further
confusion by saying Trump was under investigation -- then denied he said
anything of the sort.
Special counsel moving forward
Law
enforcement sources have told CNN that the special counsel is gathering
information and considering whether there is evidence to launch a full
scale obstruction investigation.
Mueller's
investigators have asked for information and will talk to Director of
National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director
Adm. Mike Rogers, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Investigators
have also sought information from recently retired NSA Deputy Richard
Ledgett, according to the source. Ledgett wrote a memo, according to the
source, documenting a conversation in which the president allegedly
urged Rogers to help get the FBI to lift the cloud of the Russia
investigation.
Any confirmation
that Mueller has expanded the investigation to consider whether the
President obstructed justice with the Comey firing would carry no
guarantee of a guilty finding.
But
it would deal a political blow to the White House in the battle of
perception, since the idea that Trump is not under investigation has
been at the centerpiece of his administration's defense strategy.
Trump heads west to POTUS-friendly Iowa 04:17
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