The fact that the executive branch has working checks and balances within itself is a good thing to hear. The federal legislature has no interest in accountability, but the judiciary and media have been doing a good job so far.
I feel a little less concern or interest in politics now that Mueller has been appointed. However I’ve heard Trump can still pressure the deputy director to fire or restrict him, but we will see what happens in that case. I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump tries to pressure Sessions to fire Mueller.
Plus the news that a court is supposedly looking into Kushner for ties to Russia is good news too.
This whole Trump presidency could be an experience in the importance of checks and balances.
Even if he finds all the evidence to impeach and convict Trump, we would end up with an competent evil president who could actually get congress to do his bidding. The best we can hope for is another 1300+ days of ineffectual chaos and no wars started.
I heartily dislike Pence and his politics. But there’s nothing Pence would do that Trump wouldn’t do but there’s plenty of harm Trump would commit through incompetence or general disregard that Pence would hopefully avoid.
I am pleased that Mueller is investigating although I still support and hope for Congressional investigations to continue and expand.
I feel much better. Mueller has the political skills and personal connections to do the investigation well.
Trump could fire him, but that would make it impossible for Congress not to impeach.
I don’t worry about a President Pence. The Republican party will be in such disarray (whether or not they impeach Trump) that they won’t be able to do much.
Hatch comes next, but only if something happened to Trump, Pence, and Ryan all at once. A lot of the more fantastic wish-stories keep talking about “President Hatch” as if everything (whatever those things are) would happen on one day. (If Paul Ryan is engulfed by some unlikely scandal and has to leave office, the House just replaces him, and then there’s someone else between Pence and Hatch. And then there could also be a new vice president. Nixon’s VP was knocked out by his own separate scandal, but he was replaced.)
Mueller can do what he likes, but nothing will happen unless Congress votes to prosecute Trump. And that will make the Republican party look very bad, so it will never happen.
The current list: Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Senate President pro tem Orrin Hatch, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly. (Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao would be between Ben Carson and Rick Perry, but she gets skipped because she’s a naturalized rather than a natural-born citizen).
As already noted, though, scenarios where we wind up with President Rex Tillerson or President “Mad Dog” Mattis–let alone President Rick Perry (!) or President Ben Carson (!!!) are really more in “giant meteor hits Washington, D.C.” territory than they are in anything resembling normal political reality–or even Trump Administration political reality. If Pence does succeed to the presidency, presumably one of the first things he’d do is nominate a new Vice President (who would need approval by majorities–but not supermajorities–of both houses of Congress), who would then go to the head of the line before Paul Ryan et al.
A little better, but there are problems still. Trump can fire him, he’s not protected. There’s also some ethics rule to get past because his firm represented some of the people involved. He’ll be at odds with a GOP congress that doesn’t want to give him time to investigate properly and they may grant immunity to witnesses and suspects he needs to use to get to the bottom of it all. So it’s not like things have changed all that greatly.
While that stuff is true, it’s part of why I’m glad it’s Mueller. He seems the type to speak up if someone is jerking him around and impeding the investigation and, with his credentials, people would seem likely to believe him.
I agree. Comey shot himself in the foot last year with the Hillary investigation. It’s a tough road for anyone but Mueller has the precision needed to avoid most of the problems if the GOP doesn’t go all out trying to interfere.
