Serious Senator Jeff Flake Begs Donald Trump To Please Not Make Congress Impeach Him
Also 'Mr. Profiles in Courage'
Arizona's junior US Senator, Jeff Flake, took a firm stand Tuesday against the prospect that Donald Trump might fire Central Scrutinizer Robert Mueller, giving an interview to the Washington Post to say that he would be VERY SAD if Trump did anything rash and left Congress with no other choice but to impeach him, because that would be just awful. Flake was so very taken by his extremely firm pleading with the "president" that he later said it again in Tweet form:
We get it, he's negotiating with the madman and trying to get him to not blow up the bag full of hostages and snakes at the top of the towering inferno, so maybe some kowtowing will help the sorta-firm threat be received better? As for that "Congress cannot preempt such a firing" bit, Flake has sort of a point -- the chief executive can certainly order the Justice Department to fire Mueller, but it might have been nice if Flake had backed up his tough talk by co-sponsoring either of the two current bills -- Booker/Graham or Coons/Tillis -- designed to strengthen protections for Special Counsel Mueller. While neither bill forbids the firing of a special counsel, they both make such a firing subject to either immediate judicial review (Booker/Graham) or to strict limits on the cause of firing (Coons/Tillis).
But nahh, Flake was satisfied to sorta-kinda warn Trump against doing something he might regret, as pleadingly as he possibly could.
Yr Wonkette just hates it when someone on the interwebs comes up with the perfect joke instead of us, but we can live with it: New Republic writer Jeet Heer won the day with this hot historical take:
There's also the minor detail that Jeff Flake is very, very good at talking tough and then voting exactly how Donald Trump wants, so, sure, let's all give Flake another award for courage. Now, if maybe Congress would show a little bit of spine and pass something, by a veto-proof margin, to actually protect Mueller, that really might send a message Trump might pay attention to. But first, they could try more begging.
[ WaPo / Jeff Flake on Twitter / Jeet Heer on Twitter]
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being a Republican who's talking tough before rolling over is an Arizona tradition.
To your second question: I don't know for sure, but I'll warrant Faux News had something to do with it. And to the first - yes. Every last one of them.