As of this writing, the Democrats have gained 30 seats in the House, lost a couple in the Senate and await slow counts, recounts and closure on several more. Yet the President remains a reliable source of business as usual in an otherwise changing world.
He appeared to take questions from the press and promptly berated them, called one racist and took away the press credentials of another. He also announced that the Republican loss was a win for him, and had John Kelly fire Jeff Sessions who had failed to prevent the Russia inquiry.
To replace Sessions, Trump will appoint as Acting Attorney General, Matt Whitaker. But there are a few little problems with that plan. First, Whitaker is clearly unqualified for the job. Though he was briefly a U.S.Attorney in Iowa, most of his career has been spent as an unsuccessful candidate for Senate, with a Republican propaganda mill, and as a thuggish board member and attorney for a company that promised to help inventors to make their ideas profitable, The FTC found it to be as big a con as Trump University and lawsuits were settled with aggrieved customers that Whitaker had earlier threatened.
Clearly, he is Trump’s kind of guy, but he became the Chief of Staff for Sessions by an even more endearing series of TV appearances and op-eds in which he argued the Mueller investigation was going too far and should be shut down. That presumably is why he is being offered a new job. How could Trump not like him? Maybe he has finally found another Roy Cohn
However, he may not get what he wants, as he ought to know since he illegally uses the Rolling Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” to warn campaign crowds not to trust him. Legal experts, including a former acting Solicitor General, Neal Katyal, and George Conway, Kellyanne’s dissenting husband, say Whitaker’s appointment would be unconstitutional.
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, the so-called appointment clause, requires that all principal officers of the government, that is those who report directly to the president, must be approved by the Senate. That includes an Attorney General, acting or not.
Given Whitaker’s conflicts of interest, obvious bias in the case of the Mueller probe, and dubious qualifications, he might find even the most slavish Senate unwilling to approve him. Two Republican Senators are already on record saying nothing must be done to interfere with Mueller — Mitt Romney and Lamar Alexander. And no less a conservative light than Justice Clarence Thomas has strongly supported the inviolability of the Appointments Clause in a recent Supreme Court decision.
And even if Whitaker could gain Senate approval to act as Attorney General, he would have to recuse himself regarding the Special Counsel, just as Sessions did, due to his on the record remarks indicating bias and his close relationship with fellow Iowan Sam Clovis who is entangled with Trump and George Papadopoulus and has testified before the Mueller grand jury.
Instead of solving Trump’s Mueller problem, his hasty firing of Sessions and ill-considered choice for replacement may simply add to the obstruction of justice case many believe Mueller is preparing.
Some have suggested Trump acted in haste because he thinks Don Jr. may soon be indicted by Mueller. Junior is quoted by friends as thinking the axe is about to fall. Presumably because of his part in the notorious meeting with the Russians over “dirt” on Hillary. If Don Jr. is indicted, can Jared Kushner be far behind. And can the president be sure they would take a bullet for him?
Failing a quick fix to the Mueller threat, can some more of Trump’s dubious pardons be ruled out? No, though state prosecutions for which his pardon power doesn’t apply might also threaten his family. And the biggest irony of his ridding himself of Sessions without considering the consequences is the fact that he may cause Mueller to act before he can be stopped, thus accelerating the day of reckoning rather than forestalling it.
Finally, though Trump only gets his news from Fox, there is this cautionary tale from an inside page of the “Washington Post.” The fate of former Texas Republican congressman Steve Stockman may suggest what lies ahead for Trump and friends.
Stockman has been convicted of 23 counts of mail and wire fraud, money laundering and other abuses for taking “charitable” money from several mega-donors on the understanding it would be used for voter education and other conservative good works. Instead, Stockman used it for personal and campaign expenses. He faces a $1 million fine and ten years in federal prison.
The investigations into the crimes of the Trump Foundation and Trump businesses underway in New York, and all those likely to come out of the Mueller probe and from under the rocks the Democrats can now turn over with subpoena power, including tax evasion, could mean Stockman will be getting some new cellmates from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by and by.
All that, and it is only three days since the midterms.