Frankly, I don’t understand the logic behind the media continuing to ask: “Why doesn’t the president fire Robert Mueller, given his heightened attack on the special counsel and anger toward him in the last few days?”
Media pundits scratch their heads and speculate that it is because people around Trump warn him not to do so. That makes little sense, in my opinion. President Trump wants to have his cake and eat it too. He doesn’t want to suffer the obvious political consequences of firing Mueller.
At the same time, Trump wishes to persist in his ongoing efforts to undermine Mueller and the eventual report of the special counsel.
As I have noted for the past year or more, Trump has made a calculated — and perhaps rhetorically effective — decision to render the charges of collusion a political rather than legal matter. And let’s also not forget that on Sunday, Alan Dershowitz suggested that Trump and his team currently are preparing their response to Mueller’s report — a report that many suspect will be released and accompanied with Trump’s rebuttal. Whether the president’s gamble turns out to be a successful strategy remains to be seen.
Richard Cherwitz, Austin, Texas
