Mark Warner Warns Trump Against Firing Mueller: Would Be ‘Gross Abuse of Power’

Senate Intel Committee ranking Democrat Mark Warner took to the Senate floor today to warn President Trump against firing Robert Mueller.

Rumors have been flying around for weeks that Mueller might face the same fate of James Comey earlier this year. Even Fox News, Trump’s favorite channel, has been ginning up fervor against the special counsel.

The Virginia Senator said, “At first these calls came from the fringes of political discourse, those who would refuse to put or country and our security before base political instincts. Earlier this year, Many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle were right to push back on these misdirected calls and urge that special counsel be allowed to do his job with out interference.”

Warner even called out Fox News for their recent smear campaign against the FBI. “However in recent weeks, those voices seemed to be growing in stridency and in volume. Just this weekend one major news organization suggested that special council Mueller could be involved in ‘coup’ against the president,” The Senator said, even using air quotes referencing the “coup.”

Without mincing words, Warner went on to deliver a bold statement.

“Any attempt by this president,” he said, “to remove special counsel Mueller from his position, or to pardon key witnesses, in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a fragrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities.”

Warner ended his speech, saying he never wanted to make a statement on this in the first place, but that there are too many “troubling signs.”

Watch above, via CNN.

[image via screengrab]

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