Friday on “CBS This Morning,” while discussing a The New York Times report that President Donald Trump considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said it showed Trump’s “tendencies” to do things in “an authoritarian and anti-democratic manner.”
Booker said, “Well it’s a big deal because that effort or that thought about doing so would really plunge our country into a constitutional crisis. To fire the special prosecutor, especially after the fact pattern we’re seeing about the firing of the FBI director, really presents a problem for our nation as a whole, to have an unaccountable president undermining—actively undermining—an ongoing investigation into his administration and his campaign, where a number of close allies and associates have already faced indictment, have already faced serious levels of investigation,”
When asked about legislation to protect the special counsel, he continued, “We’ve been persistent on our efforts, and we have a lot of bipartisan support for it, even the fact that Chuck Grassley would hold a hearing on this legislation. The reality is we are in a position right now, should the president order the firing of the special prosecutor, we really have no check or balance on his power. This is something that is clearly needed right now and frankly something that I think would be needed in future generations so that there would be an independent overview of the president’s power to remove a special prosecutor. You have to understand, right now, there is no check, there is no presidential accountability, and we believe that should lie with the judiciary. So we have a president who has shown his tendencies to do things in what I believe are an authoritarian and anti-democratic manner. And we need to make sure we ensure what the founders of our nation really designed, a series of checks and balances so that the power of the presidency doesn’t really undermine the sanctity, in many ways, of the republic, and that the president himself is not above the law. ”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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