Sen. Jeff Flake warned President Trump against firing special counsel Robert Mueller, saying Tuesday that the “only constitutional remedy” for such a move would be impeachment.
With Trump ratcheting up his attacks this weekend on the special counsel, whose team is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, Flake, R-Ariz., implored Trump not to “go there.”
We are begging the president not to fire the special counsel. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Congress cannot preempt such a firing. Our only constitutional remedy is after the fact, through impeachment. No one wants that outcome. Mr. President, please don’t go there.
— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) March 20, 2018
“We are begging the president not to fire the special counsel. Don’t create a constitutional crisis,” Flake said in a tweet. “Congress cannot preempt such a firing. Our only constitutional remedy is after the fact, through impeachment. No one wants that outcome. Mr. President, please don’t go there.”
Flake, who is not seeking re-election in 2018 but has flirted with a 2020 run for president, joins at least one other high-profile Republican who has brought up the prospect of impeachment should Trump fire Mueller.
“Probably so, if he did it without cause, yeah,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told radio host Hugh Hewitt when asked if firing Mueller would be an impeachable offense. “Well, I think what the president will have done is stopped an investigation in whether or not his campaign colluded with the Russians, what effect the Russians had on the 2016 campaign. I can’t see it being anything other than a corrupt purpose.”
The White House has repeatedly asserted for months that there are no plans to fire Mueller, but Trump over the weekend, tweeted Mueller’s name for the first time and said the Russia inquiry “should never have been started.”
Trump’s tweet followed the firing on Friday of former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, which he celebrated as “a great day for democracy.” McCabe warned was part of an effort to “slander” him and discredit the Mueller probe.
