President Trump’s showdown with Robert Mueller headed toward a crisis point on Tuesday, with the White House saying Trump has legal authority to fire the special counsel.
Republicans unnerved by the president’s anger in public and private sought to talk him down, fearing a “Saturday night massacre”-style series of firings harking back to the Nixon era was growing more likely.
GOP lawmakers fear presidential firings of Mueller, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would cause chaos in Washington and dim Republican hopes of holding their congressional majorities.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) declared in a CNN interview Tuesday that “it would be suicide for the president to fire him.”
“I have made my views public, and I hope he’s listening to those of us who say it would be a mistake,” said Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn (Texas).
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisted legislation to protect Mueller was unnecessary because cooler heads would prevail.
“I haven’t seen a clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed because I don’t think that’s going to happen, and that remains my view,” McConnell told reporters. “It’s still my view that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I think that’s the view of most people in Congress.”
Trump’s fury at the FBI’s raid on Monday on Michael Cohen, his personal lawyer, has triggered the latest crisis surrounding the Mueller probe.
Federal prosecutors were reportedly seeking information on payments made to two women, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who both claim to have had affairs with Trump years ago.
The personal nature of the probe has clearly angered the president, who decried an unfair witch hunt of his presidency in a Tuesday morning tweet.
