Jeff Flake Brings Up Impeachment: ‘We Are Begging the President Not to Fire’ Mueller
One of President Donald Trump’s loudest Republican critics is openly telling POTUS that if he decides to fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the next step may very well be impeachment.
In a tweet sent this afternoon, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) — who is not seeking reelection this November — wrote that “[w]e are begging the president not to fire the special counsel.”
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
As you can see in the tweet above, Flake warned the president not to “create a constitutional crisis” because Congress’s “only constitutional remedy” will be “impeachment.”
Flake also spoke with the Washington Post today, essentially telling the paper the same thing that he tweeted out.
“We’re begging him: ‘Don’t go down this road. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Don’t force the Congress to take the only remedy that Congress can take,’ ” said Flake (R-Ariz.). “To remind the president of that is the best way to keep him from going down that road. To fire Mueller without cause, I don’t know if there is any other remedy left to the legislative branch.”
The Arizona lawmaker further compared a potential firing of Mueller to the notorious Saturday Night Massacre, the President Richard Nixon’s 1973 firing of the Watergate special prosecutor. “[Nixon] left before impeachment came, but that was the remedy then and that would be the remedy now,” Flake noted.
Flake’s remarks come in the wake of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warning Trump that firing Mueller without cause would be an impeachable offense.
Flake is seen as a possible 2020 GOP primary challenger to Trump as he recently travelled to New Hampshire. The Republican senator has taken to delivering harsh critiques of the president since announcing that he wasn’t going to run for another term this year.
[image via screengrab]
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