Will the Republican Party Be Accessories After the Fact? (SPOILER: Almost Certainly)
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We shouldn’t forget this in light of the Manafort indictment:
A professor with close ties to the Russian government told an adviser to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in April 2016 that Moscow had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” according to court documents unsealed Monday.
The adviser, George Papadopoulos, has pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about that conversation. The plea represents the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government’s meddling in last year’s election.
“They have dirt on her,” the professor told him, according to the documents. “They have thousands of emails.”
At some point, and likely sooner than later, Trump will almost certainly fire Mueller and/or issue blanket pardons. What will the Republican Congress do about it? I alas think this is right:
Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, was indicted Monday morning, but the most important story of the weekend was a Brooke Singman Fox News piece titled “Mueller facing new Republican pressure to resign in Russia probe.”
The journalism in the story is laughable, but the message is clear and important: When Trump decides to fire Mueller (and possibly pardon the targets of his investigation) to spare himself and his family from accusations of serious wrongdoing, America’s premier propaganda broadcaster will have his back.
That means that, inevitably, the vast majority of rank-and-file congressional Republicans will also have his back. Which means that, inevitably, the GOP congressional leadership will have his back. Republicans who attempt to stand up for the rule of law will be putting their careers at risk, which presumably is why virtually all of them have been willing to overlook so many subventions of the rule of law already.
The fate of the investigation — and of the integrity of the American political process — will thus rest on the often-frail shoulders of the handful of congressional Republicans who’ve made it clear that they understand the threat Trump poses to the country but have never yet managed to conduct effective, coordinated political action to counter the threat. If they want to forestall disaster, that needs to change. And it needs to happen fast, before Trump plunges us into a new round of crisis.
…the follow-up is also worth reading:
House Speaker Paul Ryan was a guest this morning on WTAQ, a local Wisconsin right-wing talk radio station (it airs Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, and Sean Hannity, but Ryan was appearing on a local host’s morning show), and declined to offer any substantive commentary on the indictments. Instead, he said that “nothing is going to derail what we’re doing in Congress.” As far as he’s concerned, small matters like the integrity of the American political process and the rule of law are unimportant compared to the greater good of tax cuts for rich people and large corporations.
[…]
Ryan would be happy to see Trump impeached and thrown in jail if that would make it easier to pass a giant tax cut. And he’d be happy to see Trump fire Mueller, shred the rule of law, and finally carry out his threats to jail Hillary Clinton if that would make it easier to pass a giant tax cut. If a handful of Senate Republicans say now that firing Mueller would lead them to hold up tax cuts, then Ryan will pressure the White House to let Mueller do his job rather than derail the tax cut express. But if Trump fires Mueller tomorrow, Ryan will pressure Republicans to get in line and focus on cutting taxes.
Enormous responsibility is resting on the shoulders of the Jeff Flakes and Bob Corkers of the world. So far, we haven’t really heard from them.
Inter alia, this will be a good indication of whether Flake and Corker are complete frauds. I know how I’m betting.