Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the unwillingness displayed by President Trump’s administration to go along with multiplying congressional investigations could undercut Trump’s quest to retake the White House next year.
“Well, of course at this point, the question is the accountability of this president or any president under our constitution,” Durbin said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “So by what standard is this president … accountable to anyone? And that really is the bottom line question which I’m afraid has to be resolved by the courts.”
Various congressional committees, led by Democrats, have seized on 10 detailed episodes laid out by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report during which Trump engages in what they perceive as unethical or abusive behavior.
The House Judiciary Committee has filed a subpoena for the full unredacted Mueller report while other house committees have filed their own court orders for documents detailing Trump’s private finances, business dealings, and other aspects of his life.
Trump has exercised executive privilege over the entire Mueller report and said he intends to comply with none of the subpoenas levied by Democrats in recent weeks.
“These are not, like, impartial people,” Trump has said of the Democrats scrutinizing him.
On Wednesday, the White House counsel sent a letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., admonishing him for attempting to get a “do-over” on the Mueller report.
Mueller found the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia and did not make a determination on the question of whether Trump sought to obstruct his probe.
Trump as routinely labeled his Democratic opponents as “obstructionists” and “angry” at the result of the 2016 election.
He has said he is the most transparent president in American history.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have meanwhile pleaded with Democrats to move on from the Russia investigation, continually suggesting that “real Americans” don’t care about Russia or Mueller.
But Durbin said his party is banking on Trump’s indignation sitting poorly with voters in the run up to the 2020 election.
“I think the American people can draw the obvious conclusions,” Durbin said. “When this president goes to these extraordinary lengths not to disclose his income tax returns —something done by previous candidates of both political parties, the inference is obvious. There’s something in there that is troubling to this president and he thinks will be troubling to the American people. They certainly are going to take that into consideration in 2020.”
