Could Trump get away with firing Muller?

[pbrower2a]

He could do it -- but he would find a restive populace that does not trust him at all.  His image will appear with mustaches like those of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, or Saddam Hussein.  Or in a ghoulish version as "Count Trumpula". Or with knobs on his neck as the "Trumpenstein Monster".

Do you know contract bridge? The opening bid is four hearts, and you are "SOUTH". "WEST" plays a 4 of clubs. Your partner, "NORTH" plays a jack of clubs. "EAST" plays an ace of clubs. You are out of clubs. You have hearts to play, and you play a four of hearts. You and "NORTH" win that round with a bump, chump, clump, dump, hump, jump, lump, pump, sump, stump, or thump.  You no longer call it a trump because you are a liberal.  

[Frodo]

Of course he can -this Republican Congress hasn't passed any laws to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller from political interference despite talk of them doing so earlier this year.  Nor will they.  They are in such terror of Trump's base (if not the scumbag himself) that they won't dare open impeachment hearings against him if he were to do so.  In fact, even if Mueller were to lay out clear evidence of Trump's complicity before them later next year, they still wouldn't.  

Which makes it all the more crucial that Democrats win control of Congress next year.  

[IceSpear]

Yes. The GOP will cover his ass no matter what, and the voters with their goldfish attention spans will forget long before November 2018, much less November 2020.

[Frodo]

Yes. The GOP will cover his ass no matter what, and the voters with their goldfish attention spans will forget long before November 2018, much less November 2020.

Not if someone keeps reminding them of it. 

[IceSpear]

Yes. The GOP will cover his ass no matter what, and the voters with their goldfish attention spans will forget long before November 2018, much less November 2020.

Not if someone keeps reminding them of it. 

They'll be too distracted by whatever the new shiny object of the week is (egged on by the media of course) and not care about "old news." Remember Trump's dozens of "campaign ending scandals" in 2016? Remember how Access Hollywood, which was a month before the election, assured Hillary's victory? The Comey letter, due to its close proximity to the election, made it all moot. Politics is far more about lucky timing than most here think.

[Silent Hunter]

There is nothing stopping an indictment against Trump going ahead when he leaves office.

[Crumpets]

Yes. The GOP will cover his ass no matter what, and the voters with their goldfish attention spans will forget long before November 2018, much less November 2020.

Not if someone keeps reminding them of it. 

They'll be too distracted by whatever the new shiny object of the week is (egged on by the media of course) and not care about "old news." Remember Trump's dozens of "campaign ending scandals" in 2016? Remember how Access Hollywood, which was a month before the election, assured Hillary's victory? The Comey letter, due to its close proximity to the election, made it all moot. Politics is far more about lucky timing than most here think.

Someone reminded me of Trump's tweets against Morning Joe recently. I had totally forgot about that - and that was just 5 months ago.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

And he's still not going to fire Mueller

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/30/politics/president-donald-trump-robert-mueller/index.html?CNNPolitics=Tw

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Well obviously the optics would look terrible if he fired him now

Yeah I'm gonna say probably not anymore

[GeorgiaModerate]

I doubt that Trump cares much about what happens to Manafort et al.  If the investigation starts to touch himself or his family, then there would be a real danger of him firing Mueller.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I doubt that Trump cares much about what happens to Manafort et al.  If the investigation starts to touch himself or his family, then there would be a real danger of him firing Mueller.

Agreed but at that point I still don't think he could do it and get away with it.

[ProudModerate2]

I think he could, yes. 

I personally believe that there is little support for the Mueller Investigation, outside of the politically motivated (in both the Republican and Democratic Parties, to be sure).

I wonder what tune our FuzzyBear is whistling today ?

[fluffypanther19]

Yes. The GOP will cover his ass no matter what, and the voters with their goldfish attention spans will forget long before November 2018, much less November 2020.

Not if someone keeps reminding them of it. 

They'll be too distracted by whatever the new shiny object of the week is (egged on by the media of course) and not care about "old news." Remember Trump's dozens of "campaign ending scandals" in 2016? Remember how Access Hollywood, which was a month before the election, assured Hillary's victory? The Comey letter, due to its close proximity to the election, made it all moot. Politics is far more about lucky timing than most here think.

seriously, trump just needs good publicity before the election and that could narrow the gap, if not close it for him. the average voter is really f**king stupid, to be completely honest, including republicans, democrats, and everyone in between.

[Virginiá]

I think you guys are underrating or perhaps not even consider the idea that in 2020 Trump will not be some shiny new outsider candidate. He'll have to own up to 4 years of crap and inaction, and probably a recession at some point to boot.  Maybe his core supporters won't flip support en masse but they could just as easily be less enthusiastic and many may not even end up voting. And this doesn't even factor in all those "reluctant" Trump voters who don't even like him, and mostly did it because Clinton was unacceptable to them (at least on election day, anyway). And I'm not sure exactly what Trump has done to endear himself to those millions of 3rd party voters either, who are not guaranteed to vote 3rd party next time. In fact, if the Democrat is palatable, that candidate might be favored to sweep these voters.

Say what you will about voters with goldfish-like memories and the media's endless shortcomings, but I don't see any real reason to think Trump / Republicans shouldn't be worried, seeing as how things are going so far. His presidency so far has been an unmitigated disaster for his reelection prospects and Republicans in 2018 and 2020.

[Cactus Jack]

I think you guys are underrating or perhaps not even consider the idea that in 2020 Trump will not be some shiny new outsider candidate. He'll have to own up to 4 years of crap and inaction, and probably a recession at some point to boot.  Maybe his core supporters won't flip support en masse but they could just as easily be less enthusiastic and many may not even end up voting. And this doesn't even factor in all those "reluctant" Trump voters who don't even like him, and mostly did it because Clinton was unacceptable to them (at least on election day, anyway). And I'm not sure exactly what Trump has done to endear himself to those millions of 3rd party voters either, who are not guaranteed to vote 3rd party next time. In fact, if the Democrat is palatable, that candidate might be favored to sweep these voters.

Say what you will about voters with goldfish-like memories and the media's endless shortcomings, but I don't see any real reason to think Trump / Republicans shouldn't be worried, seeing as how things are going so far. His presidency so far has been an unmitigated disaster for his reelection prospects and Republicans in 2018 and 2020.

All you Eeyores ought to listen to your Forum Mom.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

I think you guys are underrating or perhaps not even consider the idea that in 2020 Trump will not be some shiny new outsider candidate. He'll have to own up to 4 years of crap and inaction, and probably a recession at some point to boot.  Maybe his core supporters won't flip support en masse but they could just as easily be less enthusiastic and many may not even end up voting. And this doesn't even factor in all those "reluctant" Trump voters who don't even like him, and mostly did it because Clinton was unacceptable to them (at least on election day, anyway). And I'm not sure exactly what Trump has done to endear himself to those millions of 3rd party voters either, who are not guaranteed to vote 3rd party next time. In fact, if the Democrat is palatable, that candidate might be favored to sweep these voters.

Say what you will about voters with goldfish-like memories and the media's endless shortcomings, but I don't see any real reason to think Trump / Republicans shouldn't be worried, seeing as how things are going so far. His presidency so far has been an unmitigated disaster for his reelection prospects and Republicans in 2018 and 2020.

Hang on, these are two different things. My speculation in OP was that if Trump thought the Mueller investigation had a high chance of uncovering collusion/obstruction of justice/unrelated financial crimes by his person, then his best move was to can the investigation regardless of how badly it would damage his re-election chances so long as he judged that Congress wouldn't impeach and would allow him to serve out his term. "Get away" means prevented from being prosecuted, not necessarily winning in 2020.

[Virginiá]

Yea I know I was mostly just referring to the scattered discussion of Trump/Republican prospects in 2018 and/or 2020. I strong dislike/disagree with the idea that everything that has happened so far and what will probably happen over the next few years won't matter come election time, and I can't help myself from pounding out rambling screeds about it

[GeorgiaModerate]

Yea I know I was mostly just referring to the scattered discussion of Trump/Republican prospects in 2018 and/or 2020. I strong dislike/disagree with the idea that everything that has happened so far and what will probably happen over the next few years won't matter come election time, and I can't help myself from pounding out rambling screeds about it

It didn't ramble.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Yea I know I was mostly just referring to the scattered discussion of Trump/Republican prospects in 2018 and/or 2020. I strong dislike/disagree with the idea that everything that has happened so far and what will probably happen over the next few years won't matter come election time, and I can't help myself from pounding out rambling screeds about it

Fair enough.

[pbrower2a]

Not anymore.

 

[BlueSwan]

You can fool some people some of the time...

He would "get away with it" in the sense that there wouldn't be an impeachment. The conservative media would all get on the same page blaming democrats and Hillary, etc. So nothing much would change, but it would further derode the Trump presidency amongst halfway decent people (the decent ones are already against him) and he wouldn probably be easily booted in 2020.

[Lachi]

Now that the indictments are starting, any slim possibility he would have had of getting away with it has been completely evaporated away. He, and his administration must face the music, and if he fires him at this point, especially if someone like Kushner, or D.T Jr are hit, he's done for.

[Wakie77]

I think he will try before the 2018 election cycle.

[Frodo]

White House signals Trump will stay out of Mueller's way

But there's a catch:

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[Virginiá]

"Quick, let's investigate Hillary Clinton for no reason other than to take attention off our own corrupt president!"

Real law and order there.