Protecting Mueller From Trump-- McConnell, Still Senate Leader

Robert Mueller: Into The Swamp by Nancy Ohanian

When people were asking me yesterday if it really makes that much of a difference who the Senate Leader is, McConnell (R-KY) or Schumer (D-NY), I was able to point to the vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance the bill to protect Mueller from the Trumpanzee depravities. All the Democrats voted yes-- and so did 4 Republicans:

• Chuck Grassley (IA)
• Lindsey Graham (SC)
• Thom Tillis (NC)
• Jeff Flake (AZ)

(Note: cowardly loudmouth Ben Sasse of Nebraska, as well as John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana both voted No.)

In any case, it passed and Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will send it to Mitch McConnell for a vote. McConnell has already announced he will not permit a vote. Now if Schumer was Senate Leader, Dianne Feinstein would have been chair and the margin of victory would have been greater and Schumer would likely already have announced the impending floor vote. That's the difference.

Republicans falling in line behind Trump on this are out of step with the public. A new Quinnipiac poll released yesterday found a majority of Americans believe former FBI Director James Comey over notorious liar Señor Trumpanzee, 54% to 35%. Voters also oppose Trumpanzee firing Mueller by an overwhelming margin-- 74% to 13%, including even 59% to 25% among Republican voters!

Even Trump's Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, sees the problem Trump has created for himself with the American people. According to a report yesterday from Reuters, he defended his decision not to appoint a second special prosecutor to investigate Republicans’ concerns about the FBI by noting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe had already taken on "a life of its own" and that he does "not think we need to willy-nilly appoint special counsels."

In an interview on Fox and Friends early Thursday, Trump hinted he might get more aggressive in trying to shake up leadership at the Justice Department, saying: "I’ve taken the position-- and I don’t have to take this position and maybe I’ll change-- that I will not be involved with the Justice Department."

Republicans frustrated by the Mueller probe have since launched investigations into other matters such as the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and whether the Justice Department committed abuses when it applied to a special court for a warrant to conduct surveillance on Carter Page, a former Trump national security campaign adviser.