In a Thursday interview, Sarah Huckabee Sanders once again brushed off the idea that Donald Trump was about to take action against the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
"We have no intentions of firing Bob Mueller. We are continuing to work closely and cooperate with him," Sanders said on Fox News.
If that sounds reassuring, just give Sanders one more sentence.
"We look forward to seeing this hoax wrap up very soon."
Hoax may be the nicest thing Republicans have called the investigation in weeks. A coup d’état. A criminal cabal. A crime family. Those are just some of the things Republicans have said this week about the people responsible for seeking justice in our government. Jeff Sessions has launched a fourth investigation into the Uranium One deal. Fox News is calling for Mueller’s dismissal daily. And all of it is coming between multiple demands for political prisons and a partisan purge.
Devin Nunes has been caught in his not-so-secret investigation of potential conflicts of interest in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller … where he’s one of the targets. But the Uber-jumper’s cloak and dagger act may be the least crazy thing that Republicans are saying about Mueller, the FBI, and the entire Department of Justice.
Rep. Jim Jordan is just one of several Republicans who have trotted out the “c” word … or c-words, claiming that the FBI either colluded to keep Donald Trump out of office, or is attempting a coup to remove him now. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been coup-coup for months, ever since he, Louie Gohmert, and Andy Biggs introduced a bill demanding that Mueller be fired. Kellyanne Conway didn’t actually say “coup.” Instead, she let the people on Fox do it for her, and stood behind the chyron while explaining that the “fix was in” to keep Trump out of office.
Meanwhile Republicans are calling for investigations of the FBI, the Justice Department, and the entire Obama administration—especially Hillary Clinton. All of which makes the Republican theme for 2018 clear: They mean to lock her up. And him. And him, too.
Republicans aren’t talking about whether or not some Democrat may have violated a regulation, or rubbed the edges off the Hatch Act. They’re not talking about laws at all. When Jeanine Pirro calls for a “cleansing” of the FBI, the DOJ, Mueller’s investigation, and probably your neighborhood donut shop, she’s not talking about taking people “out in cuffs” because they’ve broken a law. It’s because they’ve done something much worse—they’ve failed in words, deeds, or text messages to be 110 percent behind Donald Trump.
All of the coup and collusion accusations that Republicans are using to justify taking swings at the FBI, DOJ, and unnamed “Obama officials” (which means Susan Rice. Because it’s always Susan Rice … for some reason) don’t come with the slightest mention of an actual law. Instead, they come with statements like this one from Donald Trump Jr.
"There is, and there are, people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America," Trump Jr. told a group of young conservatives in Florida.
More Americans say they approve of how special counsel Robert Mueller is handling the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election than say they disapprove, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS has found, while most Americans say President Donald Trump's public statements on the probe have not been truthful.
But Republicans are well down the road to demonizing everything about the investigation and the investigators. Which will make it much easier for them to ignore any charges that are produced.
They’ve already used all the words starting with ‘C.’ The next phase of the story will be sponsored by the letter ‘T.’
