Trump Continues To Float Idea Of Replacing Sessions In Order To Fire Mueller

With another day of Trump berating Jeff Sessions, it is now clear that Trump is laying the groundwork for firing the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Beyond demanding that his Attorney General investigate his general election opponent, Trump's tweets put even more pressure on Jeff Sessions to go quietly into the night.

Sessions, of course, will not go quietly. He has his own agenda in rounding up undocumented immigrants, expanding the incarceration state, further attacking voting rights, and going after legal marijuana rather than simply protecting the President from the Russian investigation. Besides, if he does leave the job, he will have gone from Senator to nobody in less than a year. If Trump wants him to go, he will have to fire him.

Last night, the Washington Post reported that Trump advisers are admitting that removing Sessions is a first step in removing Robert Mueller and are floating potential successors such as Rudy Giuliani or Ted Cruz. More disturbing is the prospect that Trump would fire Sessions and make a new appointment during Congress' August recess, which means that a confirmation vote would not be immediately required. Once that new AG is appointed, he would fire Mueller.

It is clear that Mueller is getting far to close to Trump's apparently illegal activity. Trump has reverted back to constantly rehashing his election victory and claiming that the Russian hacking is fake news but also had no effect on the election outcome even if it occurred. The frustration and anger with Mueller's probe is reportedly obsessing the President.

Obviously, these plans are probably just taking shape and this story is designed to test the reaction of the Republicans in Congress who are the only check on Trump at this point. Those Republicans are far more focused on the budget, taxes, and health care right now but so far their reaction to the possibility of Mueller's firing has been remarkably mute. Don't expect that to change any time soon. As I wrote earlier this spring,  Congressional Republicans are in a race to see whether they can push through their radical agenda before it becomes necessary to impeach Trump. The longer it takes them to move that agenda along, the more tolerance they will have for Trump's abuses of power.