It sounds like Robert Mueller might be ready to indict some folks, because Donald Trump woke up angry on Thursday.
“The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess”, the President mused in an especially aggravated series of tweets, before suggesting that the special counsel and his team “have gone absolutely nuts.”
Trump went on to imagine that “they” (Mueller and his team) are “screaming and shouting at people and horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.”
In other words, Trump imagines that the Mueller investigation is conducted the same way the President handles things at 1600 Penn.
He went on to accuse Mueller of being one of several “Angry People” and claimed, inaccurately, that the special counsel “worked for Obama for 8 years.”
As ABC’s Jonathan Karl reminds you, Mueller did not work for Obama for eight years. Rather, “he ran the FBI under George W. Bush for nearly eight years and remained FBI Director under Obama for 4 years, confirmed to extend his 10-year term by a Senate vote of 100-0.”
Trump’s Thursday morning broadside comes amid rumors that Mueller is working on “several ongoing investigations”, some of which are being conducted with the help of former Paul Manafort confidant Rick Gates.
On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell refused to allow a floor vote on legislation to shield the Mueller probe, prompting outgoing Senator Jeff Flake to threaten to vote against all of Trump’s judicial nominees both in committee and on the floor.
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Pressure is mounting on Matthew Whitaker to recuse himself from the probe just a week after taking over for Jeff Sessions, who was forced out by Trump a day after the midterms.
Whitaker has publicly (and loudly) decried the Mueller probe, a position critics say makes him unfit to preside over the investigation. Whitaker has also suggested publicly that he would indict Hillary Clinton and is said to have counseled the White House on how to go about compelling the Justice Department to investigate the President’s political rivals.
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The President is still stinging from the GOP’s failure to hold the House and the rumor mill is alive with chatter about looming shakeups in the administration. Trump tried to play down that chatter on Thursday, insisting that “the White House is running very smoothly.”
He went on to claim that America, under his leadership, is “the envy of the world”, a patently ridiculous contention the inherent absurdity of which was put on full display last weekend when Emmanuel Macron denounced nationalism in a speech commemorating Armistice Day.
“Anytime I even think about making changes, the FAKE NEWS MEDIA goes crazy, always seeking to make us look as bad as possible!”, Trump whined on Thursday, bristling at coverage of the Kirstjen Nielsen debacle and likely furious at rumors that Melania is now effectively making staff decisions.
As a reminder, anytime Trump takes aim publicly at Mueller, it usually means he believes bad news is coming and in this case, that would be consistent with reports that the special counsel is indeed on the verge of moving ahead with something, although thanks to the tight ship he runs, it’s not clear exactly what.
Trump concluded his morning rant with this:
They won’t even look at all of the bad acts and crimes on the other side. A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!
What an asshole! The world is laughing at America…nervous laughter, but laughter none-the-less.
I think of it as the world is laughing along with us — they know he is only temporary and soon enough we will fix the mess he leaves behind. 🙃
Unfortunately, the destruction of the institutions that have been built up over the course of 200-years is no laughing matter.