Democrats are threatening to use every trick in the book to push Republicans to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate President Trump’s ties to Russia, after Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey.
On Wednesday, Democrats worked to stall work in several committees in protest of Comey’s firing. And while they can’t do much to stop an eventual nominee from moving in the Senate, they made it clear they were ready to wage guerrilla warfare to make it as painful as possible for the GOP until an independent person is picked to head up the Russia probe.
On the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made an initial list of demands. Chief among them was making sure that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein does not pick a special counsel — Rosenstein’s memo was the justification for firing Comey.
Schumer also said Democrats want Comey, Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to brief Congress on Tuesday’s decision.
But Schumer said Democrats would be rolling out additional steps to increase the pressure.
“We will be pursuing several things in the coming days and weeks that we decided in our caucus, and we will have more to say about those next steps in the days ahead,” he said on the floor.
So far, Republicans seemed unfazed, and under no pressure to appoint an independent counsel to deal with Democratic allegations that Trump and Russia conspired to deliver him a victory over Hillary Clinton, or at least, the details of how Russia tried to influence the election.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders dismissed the idea immediately as unnecessary.
“We don’t think it’s necessary,” she said. “You’ve got a House committee, a Senate committee, and the Department of Justice all working on this. I don’t think that there’s a necessary need at this point to add that.”
She also said Rosenstein is someone else who can help with the investigation, despite Democratic outrage at what they said is his clear loyalty to Trump.
“You’ve got the deputy attorney general, who I would say is about as independent as it comes due to the fact that he has such bipartisan support,” she said.
Republicans in Congress have about the same view. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday night that an independent prosecutor is not a “good idea.”
“We have three investigations going on right now,” he said on Fox News. “House investigation by our intelligence committee, which is the appropriate committee to do that, I believe, and we have a Senate Intelligence Committee … and have the FBI investigating all things Russia.”
But those are essentially opening bids in what could become an extended fight that wears the GOP down over time. Democrats started their harassment campaign on Wednesday by boycotting some hearings, which forced their cancellation.
Republicans in the Senate are trying to pass an Obamacare repeal bill, and some Republicans were already admitting that Comey’s firing could easily become a distraction that could add days and weeks to that effort.
Under the rules imposed by Democrats in 2013, Republicans could conceivably confirm a replacement for Comey by a simple majority, without a single Democratic vote.
But Democrats showed they can dramatically slow down work in the Senate, and can also use the House as a megaphone for their demands once the lower chamber returns to work. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday that an “independent, bipartisan commission” is needed after Comey’s departure, and said Democrats would try to move a discharge petition forcing a vote on the issue.
A third problem for Republicans is the optics already being created in their home districts. On Wednesday, liberals invaded a town hall meeting held by Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., to protest Comey’s firing, as well as GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare.
These problems are being piled on top of the problems the GOP faced by voting to partially repeal and replace Obamacare. A new poll out Wednesday gave a boost to Democrats over Republicans in the wake of the House’s vote to partially repeal and replace Obamacare.
That launched the predictable early talk that Democrats might somehow have a chance at retaking the House, and those numbers were generated before the controversy surrounding Comey.
That could make it difficult for the GOP to keep up the brave face that Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley displayed on Wednesday. When asked to react to outrage over Comey’s firing, the Iowa Republican said people need to “suck it up and move on.”
