Abbreviated pundit roundup: Trump tried to fire Mueller

We begin the roundup with analysis on the breaking news that Donald Trump wanted to fire FBI special counsel Robert Mueller back in June 2017. Here’s Derek Hawkins at The Washington Post pointing out Trump is a liar:

In August of last year, shortly after FBI agents raided the home of President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Trump was asked in a news conference whether he had considered firing Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel leading the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

“I haven’t given it any thought,” Trump said. “Well, I’ve been reading about it from you people. You say, ‘Oh, I’m going to dismiss him.’ No, I’m not dismissing anybody.”

A report from the New York Times Thursday says otherwise: Trump not only considered ousting Mueller, he actually tried to do it.

David Graham at The Nation on the Saturday Night Massacre that wasn’t:

The episode adds new intrigue to the already transfixing dance between the president and the special counsel’s probe. Mueller is working to interview Trump in the near future, and has already extracted guilty pleas from two former aides, as well as indicting two more. The episode underscores Trump’s volatile temperament and tendency to act impulsively, and it once again thrusts McGahn and his office into the spotlight. [...]

Attempting to fire a special counsel would immediately bring back memories of the October 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” in which President Richard Nixon moved to dismiss the special prosecutor investigating Watergate. He was successful, but only after the attorney general and deputy attorney general resigned rather than dismiss Archibald Cox. A judge later ruled the firing was illegal, but at that point the greatest damage had already been done in political terms, and the firing came to be seen as the beginning of the end for Nixon’s presidency. The Times reports that in addition to telling McGahn to fire Mueller, Trump weighed removing Rosenstein. If either man had gone, it could have set off a replay of the Saturday Night Massacre.

Aaron Blake explains how this underscores the coverup angle, an angle that may put the White House in the most jeopardy:

The combination of [also considering firing deputy attorney general Rod J. Rosenstein] and Mueller's attempted firing, plus everything else, looks like an attempt to install more sympathetic law enforcement officials and possibly even cover up something nefarious. At the very least, it betrays a concern about what these people might find or accuse you of. And you know what else makes all of this look rather underhanded? The fact that Trump denied even considering firing Mueller.

Here is Margaret Hartmann’s take at New York Magazine:

Legality aside, McGahn reportedly argued that firing Mueller would be catastrophic for Trump’s presidency, as it would spark more questions about obstruction of justice. A source told the Post that McGahn didn’t deliver the resignation threat directly to Trump, but he was serious. McGahn told White House officials that Trump would not follow through on ordering Muller’s firing on his own, and the president backed off.