President Mr . trump is “engaged in desperate and reckless conduct” against the law enforcement entities investigating his 2016 campaign, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday morning, actions that should push Congress for taking steps in order to safeguard the workplace of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Trump lashed out earlier Sunday against Mueller, accusing the lifelong Republican of filling his office with Democrats pursing a partisan agenda under the guise of the investigation into allegations how the president’s campaign colluded with Russian efforts to interfere from the 2016 election. The president’s attacks have again stirred speculation they might seek to fire Mueller and end his investigation, which Trump has long labeled a “witch hunt.”
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“If the president reaches out and stops this investigation, that is the constitutional crisis on this country. That has been said by Democrats and Republicans alike,” Durbin (D-Ill.) told “Fox News Sunday.”
“What it implies is: It may be incumbent on Congress with a bipartisan basis to work with the equipment at its disposal.”
Further fueling talk that Trump might move against Mueller were Saturday remarks from John Dowd, associated with the president’s outside legal team. Within a email for the Daily Beast, Dowd praised Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to fireside Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and said: “I pray that acting Attorney General Rosenstein follows the brilliant and courageous illustration of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and produce a finish to alleged Russia Collusion investigation manufactured by McCabe’s boss James Comey considering a dishonest and corrupt Dossier.”
Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and oversees his investigation because Sessions has recused himself from investigations related to the 2016 campaign, said a couple weeks ago that he or she would not believe “there is any justification at this point for terminating the special counsel.”
Still, Durbin, who sits within the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday that Congress must take steps to guard Mueller.
“You take into account the obvious, there’s two main bills prior to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was absent without leave with this issue, two bills prior to a committee, bipartisan bills to cover the special counsel. We have to pass those bills now,” Durbin said. “This president is engaged in desperate and reckless conduct to intimidate this law enforcement agencies of your country also to seek to steer clear of the special counsel. That’s unacceptable within a democracy.”
