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You can see it first in Fox News lambasting Mueller. However, most people in the U.S. agree Mueller is the best choice to investigate Trump. So, obviously Trump is considering ending or severely compromising our democracy by firing Mueller. If Mueller is fired the next step likely is mass demonstrations and possibly a civil war here in the U.S. There might be no alternative to outright civil war if he fires Mueller at this point.
If Trump fires Mueller we will have for sure entered a Constitutional Crisis unparalelled in our countries history unless you are considering the Civil War from 1860 to 1865.
Begin quote from:
Trump rails against a 'rigged' system
Opinion: Obama is right, US democracy is fragile
Trump escalates 'rigged system' rhetoric amid Russia probe
Story highlights
- Trump lead a campaign-style rally Friday in Pensacola, Florida
- "We have a lot of sickness in some of our institutions," Trump said
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump's
escalating assault on the "rigged" and "sick" institutions of the
government that he leads may portend an ominous end game to special
counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
Trump's
blast at a campaign rally on Friday night followed a week of rising
attacks on Mueller and the FBI from pro-Trump media outlets and
personalities and prominent conservatives in Congress.
The
President did not name Mueller at the boisterous event in Pensacola,
Florida, avoiding specific attacks on the probe after a flurry of
furious tweets last weekend may have deepened his political and legal
exposure.
But
he enriched his building narrative that unnamed forces within the US
government were thwarting his administration, just days after unloading
on the FBI on Twitter, when he said the bureau's reputation was in
"tatters."
"This is a rigged
system. This is a sick system from the inside. And, you know, there is
no country like our country but we have a lot of sickness in some of our
institutions," Trump told the crowd in Florida.
Not the first time
It
is not the first time that Trump has made such arguments -- he
complained against the "rigged" system during last year's election in a
gambit seen at the time as a face-saving hedge against a possible loss
to Hillary Clinton.
But the context
has changed. Trump is now the head of the government that he is
accusing of conspiring against him politically. Therefore, his attacks
against US government institutions, including the FBI, but which have
also included the wider intelligence community and the judiciary are far
more polarizing politically and risk causing long-term damage to
already fragile trust in government.
They
could even have constitutional implications since Trump is attacking
the very system set up to constrain presidential power and to ensure
integrity at the pinnacle of US government.
The timing of the assault is unlikely to be an accident.
The new intensity in attacks against Mueller and the FBI followed the plea deal reached by fired national security adviser Michael Flynn last week, that could see him testify against key figures in the President's inner circle.
Trump
responded to the rising threat by suggesting that there was something
corrupt in a system that indicted Flynn but did not prosecute his former
election rival over her email server.
"So General Flynn lies to
the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on
that now famous FBI holiday 'interrogation' with no swearing in and no
recording, lies many times...and nothing happens to her?" Trump tweeted.
"Rigged system, or just a double standard?"
Trump's
return to the "rigged" system rhetoric reflects his consistent
political strategy of seeking enemies against which to define himself.
It also plays into the suspicions of his supporters by casting himself
as a outsider innocent of wrongdoing who is being persecuted by an elite
establishment which has gamed Washington power for itself.
But it also has serious implications for the Mueller probe.
It's
possible that the former FBI director concludes that there was no
evidence of collusion by the Trump campaign during the election, and the
President did not obstruct justice in the firing of his successor at
the bureau James Comey.
But given the Flynn plea deal, it appears clear he has bigger targets than the former national security adviser in his sights.
In
that light, attacks by Trump and the GOP on Mueller and the bureau
could be an attempt to discredit any eventual conclusions that Mueller
might deliver to Congress -- be they favorable or unfavorable to the
President.
The simultaneous
political and media campaign against Mueller, meanwhile, is raising
concerns that the President has embarked on an attempt to solidify his
political base and frame a political rationale for supporters in
Congress to oppose any eventual move toward impeachment. The idea would
be that if the system of legal accountability represented by Mueller and
the FBI is "rigged" and "sick," it cannot be trusted to deliver a fair
verdict on the President, a conceit that has staggering political
implications.
New ammunition
In recent days, Trump has had new ammunition to support his claims that the Mueller probe is prejudiced against him.
Earlier
this week, the special counsel removed Peter Strzok, an investigator
from his team, for exchanging private messages with an FBI lawyer that
could be seen as critical of Trump and supportive of Clinton.
Last
year, Strzok changed a key phrase in Comey's description of how former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handled classified information,
according to US officials familiar with the matter.
The
message from Trump supporters has been that Mueller's dismissal of
Strzok is not a sign of a prosecutor determined to outlaw any sign of a
conflict of interest, but instead evidence that the team is rotten at
the core.
Mueller's close
identification with the FBI, and the fired Comey has also enabled his
supporters to suggest that something is not on the level.
"The
vast majority of the FBI, the rank and file agents, are good people,"
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan told CNN's "New Day" on Friday.
"But
I do think there are a lot of folks at the top who have done things
that I think Americans question, members of Congress question
particularly as it relates to the entire Clinton investigation and the
Russian matter," he said.
Former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had previously praised the special
counsel, said on Laura Ingraham's show on Fox News on Wednesday that
"Mueller is corrupt. The senior FBI is corrupt. The system is corrupt."
Given
Mueller's reputation as one of the most dedicated and by the book
prosecutors of his generation, the idea that he is a latter-day J. Edgar
Hoover may be a hard sell outside Trump's core political support.
After
all, he stewarded the bureau through the traumatic post 9/11 period
after being appointed by President George W. Bush. President Barack
Obama asked him to stay on for an extra two years when he took office.
He has a reputation of unimpeachable authority and quiet dignity among
his peers.
But the idea that Trump
could fire Mueller should be taken seriously. That's despite the
possibility it could trigger turmoil and potentially resignations at the
Justice Department, severe political damage to the President himself
and potentially a constitutional crisis.
After
all, Trump dismissed Comey despite obvious implications that he could
be seen as trying to obstruct the Russia investigation. And he pardoned
former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio despite claims his ally violated the
Constitution with his hardline immigration enforcement.
Former
US attorney Preet Bharara maintained this week that it is already
clearly established that the President "does not shrink from exercising
his full constitutional authority."
"I
would worry in a real way that Donald Trump may preemptively pardon
some people, and I still worry in a real way that Donald Trump may
decide to cause the firing of Robert Mueller," Bharara said on "The Axe Files" podcast, a joint project between the Ulaniversity of Chicago and CNN.
If
that is the case, Trump's remarks on look less like an attempt to fire
up a Friday night crowd with red meat rhetoric and more like an attempt
to prepare the political battlefield for the denouement of the Russia
saga.
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