Donald Trump took to his favorite platform, Twitter, on Sunday to attack Democrat Adam Schiff, even turning the California Democrat’s name into a thinly veiled vulgarity.
The Senate confirmed Mueller as FBI director, voting 98-0 on August 2, 2001. Rod Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to serve as the special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Schiff spoke earlier about the mounting challenge of Matthew Whitaker on ABC’s “This Week,” saying that Democrats would be pushing back on the acting Attorney General. Schiff also feels that Whitaker is a threat to the Mueller investigation into Russian interference into the 2016 election — and the likely involvement of the Trump campaign with it.
“I think the appointment is unconstitutional,” said Schiff, “but it’s also in conflict with a more specific statute. There’s a succession statute for the Justice Department, which makes it different from other departments.”
Schiff said that the President couldn’t change the succession statute.
“So it’s a flawed appointment, but the biggest flaw from my point of view is that he was chosen for the purpose of interfering with the Mueller investigation,” added Schiff. Whitaker has been critical of the investigation for some time.
President Trump, in an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” said that he was not aware of Whitaker’s views on the investigation, but said that those views would not have “any affect” on the appointment. He also feels that Whitaker is correct in these views.
“What do you do when a person’s right?” said Trump. “There is no collusion. He happened to be right. I mean, he said it. So if he said there is collusion, I’m supposed to be taking somebody that says there is? Because then I wouldn’t take him for two reasons, but the number one reason is the fact that he would have been wrong. If he said that there’s no collusion, he’s right.”
The President also said he would not stop Whitaker from restricting the Mueller investigation.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license