WASHINGTON — President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with a loyalist who has echoed the president’s complaints about the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and will now take charge of the inquiry.
Mr. Sessions delivered his resignation letter to the White House at the request of the president, who tapped Matthew G. Whitaker, Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff, as acting attorney general, raising questions about the future of the inquiry led by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.
Mr. Whitaker, a former college football tight end and United States attorney in Iowa, and a onetime Senate candidate in that state, has previously questioned the scope of the investigation. In a column for CNN last year, he wrote that Mr. Mueller would be going too far if he examined the Trump family’s finances. “This would raise serious concerns that the special counsel’s investigation was a mere witch hunt,” Mr. Whitaker wrote, echoing the president’s derisive description of the investigation. Mr. Mueller has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents related to Russia.
EMBRACE THE CORRUPTION
https://claytoonz.com/2018/11/08/embrace-the-corruption/
For Donald Trump, the best way to end a probe into corruption is to engage in more corruption.
I published a cartoon September 25, predicting that Sessions would be fired right after the midterms. I re-shared it on social media to boast about my amazing abilities to predict the political future, and a lot of my readers complimented me on it too. But to be honest, it didn’t take the Amazing Kreskin or Miss Cleo to see this one coming. I was only half-right as Rod Rosenstein wasn’t fired, at least not yet. I was also off in believing Andrew Gillum had Florida, so I won’t be off to Vegas for a career in making wagers.
Trump didn’t have to fire Rosenstein as he put in a lackey to temporarily run the Justice Department. Typically, the Deputy Attorney General would be the interim director, but Trump made Sessions’ chief-of-staff, Matt Whitaker, the new head which directly puts him in charge of the Special Counsel’s investigation into the Russian investigation and Trump’s obstruction of justice.
As we have all come to know too well, Trump likes lackeys. He’s been upset with Sessions ever since he recused himself from the Russia investigation, despite it being the right thing to do. Trump said more than once that Sessions should have told him beforehand that he’d recuse himself so Trump could have hired someone else. That’s Trump admitting that any Attorney General should have seen he would come under investigation. That’s another thing you didn’t have to be Miss Cleo to see coming.
Trump wants someone in charge at Justice who will kiss his ring, pay homage, join the cult, and want the embrace. Trump gave a press conference yesterday blaming Republicans who lost their races on their refusal to embrace him. He even called them out by name, refusing to realize that each of the losses were his fault.
Whitaker wants the embrace. He’s written more than once, and spoken on cable news about obstructing Robert Mueller’s investigation. He’s speculated about cutting Mueller’s funding and even accused him of “crossing a red line,” despite him not know where any lines are. The White House considered Whitaker their “eyes and ears” of the Justice Department, an agency they consider hostile toward Trump. Whitaker has referred to the investigation as a “lynch mob.”
Whitaker was also the campaign manager for Sam Clovis’ campaign for Iowa State Treasurer, who went on to work on the Trump campaign which made him a witness in the Russia investigation. Now, Whitaker is overseeing the Russia investigation where he can also inform Trump what Mueller is doing. Whitaker has conflicts of interest and needs to recuse himself. This is how you build an oligarchy.
Thankfully, the House will be lead by Democrats who can issue subpoeans into Trump’s obstruction, collusion, corruption, and every thing else shady he’s been doing. The House will now do the job the Republicans should have been doing. Trump lost Devin Nunes leading the Intelligence Committee, who would run to the White House to share committee information with Trump, and leak memos to the press. But, Trump has a new Nunes to temporarily lead the Justice Department.
I wouldn’t trust Whitaker to manage a Taco Bell less enough the Justice Department. The integrity of Mueller’s investigation must remain intact, but we know Trump and his sycophants don’t do integrity.
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