Over the course of the last couple of years, Donald Trump has, from time to time, shared a few unkind words about special counsel Jack Smith. The former president has, for example, referred to the prosecutor as a “thug” in a “mental state of derangement.”
The Republican has also condemned the special counsel as a “mad dog psycho.” He’s also accused Smith of being an “animal,” a “lunatic,” and “a dumb son of a b—-.” At one point, Trump suggested the special counsel’s investigation was “treasonous” and deserving of “sanctions.”
And did I mention that the former president also wants to see Smith “arrested”? Because he said that, too.
With this in mind, perhaps it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that Trump is eager, if not desperate, to fire the prosecutor. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that, if elected to a second term in November, he would immediately fire special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two federal indictments against Trump. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump if he plans to pardon himself or fire Smith on the day he would take the oath of office.
“It’s so easy — I would fire him within two seconds,” Trump responded, adding that he’s confident it wouldn’t lead to his impeachment in the event that Democrats retake the House majority.
Time will tell — I have a hunch more than a few Democrats would offer a different perspective on this — though it was of interest to see the Republican reference the possibility of getting impeached for firing a special counsel who’s investigating him.
In fact, we’ve been down this road before.
During Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s Russia scandal, the then-president was so terrified of the probe that he ordered the firing of the then-special counsel. The Republican ended up backing off, not because he realized this was ridiculous, but because his White House counsel threatened to resign.
This behind-the-scenes drama was not widely known while it was happening, though the possibility of Trump firing Mueller did not go unnoticed on Capitol Hill. In 2017, for example, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters that if the then-president fired the then-special counsel, it “could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency.”
The South Carolinian added that the system needed “a check and balance here,” and the senator even endorsed legislation that would prevent a president from acting unilaterally to remove a special counsel.
Months later, Graham also said that it would be “corrupt“ for Trump to fire a special counsel investigating him, adding that a president stopping an investigation without cause “would be a constitutional crisis.”
Around the same time, then-Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said in a written statement, “We are begging the president not to fire the special counsel. Don’t create a constitutional crisis. … Congress cannot preempt such a firing. Our only constitutional remedy is after the fact, through impeachment.”
The question isn’t whether he’d fire a special counsel. We already know that he tried to fire Mueller, and he’s apparently eager to fire Smith. The better question is whether Republicans would simply let him get away with it.
Six years ago, some leading GOP voices said the answer was no. The Republican Party is almost certainly worse than it was six years ago.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
