President Trump’s firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting AG with direct authority over special counsel Robert Mueller has the left going nuts. Relax, folks.
The fear is that this is a prelude to somehow shutting down Mueller’s investigation and possibly burying all its work. Won’t happen: The incoming Democratic House of Representatives will have full subpoena power, and Mueller and his minions would surely cooperate rather than be silenced.
Trump would be begging for impeachment — and risking conviction even in a Republican Senate. He’d also pretty much guarantee defeat in 2020.
This is about the president’s longtime ire at Sessions, on the grounds that he never should’ve taken the job if he was going to recuse himself from this probe. Right or wrong, the issue poisoned their relationship permanently.
Whitaker may limit Mueller a bit more than did Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, but there’s not much left to limit. The investigation’s plainly in its last stages, delayed mainly by the need to wait out Tuesday’s elections.
There’s no coup or constitutional crisis here, just another episode of “White House Survivor.”