I’ve spoken to many U.S. senators about the president’s extraordinary claims on pardons, his legal team’s arguments on obstruction, and the constitutionality of the Mueller probe. 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
What I didn’t find: Any senators defending claim of Trump’s lawyers that a president can’t be guilty of obstruction for stopping an investigation or pardoning people because he’s the chief law enforcement officer.
Senators who voted to convict Clinton for obstruction of justice, like Moran and Shelby, don’t buy idea that a president can’t obstruct an investigation. Moran said obstruction’s an impeachable offense. So did Lindsey Graham, who helped lead the impeachment of Clinton.
Grassley vowed no one is above the law - I heard that a lot. Grassley dismisses the idea of self pardons and Trump’s tweeting that the special counsel appointment was “UNCONSTITUTIONAL” too.
Lindsey Graham noted that impeachment article drafted against Nixon cited abuse of the pardon power and said the question is abuse of the office.
Susan Collins told me a self-pardon would be “catastrophic” but wouldn’t say whether that, or obstruction, would be impeachable. She disagrees with Trump’s contention that special counsel is unconstitutional.
Democrats want McConnell to move on the Mueller protection bill but McConnell hasn’t budged on his decision to stick it deep in a drawer.
Other GOP leaders went to great lengths to avoid commenting on merits of Trump’s claims to sweeping authority to squelch investigations into himself. Barrasso told reporter he hadn’t seen Trump’s tweet claiming right to pardon himself, then wouldn’t answer after it was explained.
Blunt, told by colleague @LauraLitvan he had voted to impeach Clinton on obstruction, said the perjury count was a bigger issue (Jeff Sessions said the opposite in 1999 fwiw).
Cornyn deflected, saying a self pardon is a moot point because Trump hasn’t done anything wrong. Does wish Trump hadn’t tweeted it.
Thune said he didn’t know if a president could obstruct justice or pardon himself. (Like Blunt, he voted to impeach Clinton for obstruction).
McConnell initially told reporters he wouldn’t comment on Trump’s claims he could pardon himself, but later said Trump doesn’t need advice because Trump knows he wouldn’t and shouldn’t though it is an open legal question.
Then there’s the now-famous 18-second pause before Ted Cruz gave us a non-answer on the question of his opinion on self-pardons.
Ted Cruz later tweeted out outrage that reporters noted his 18-second delay in a tweetstorm hours later in which he still didn’t have a position and said he had no plans to spend more time investigating the issue.
Lindsey Graham also warned of political disaster if Trump were to pardon himself. (But maybe take Lindsey’s political prognostications with grain of salt given his 2016 track record?)
Here’s an interesting one: Richard Burr. Voted to impeach Clinton for obstruction of justice. Said he’d vote the same way if confronted with the same facts. Then got into his Chevy Silverado and drove off.
Shelby said Trump probably could pardon himself but he wouldn’t advise it. Said governors can appoint themselves senators too but it tends not to work out too well.
Shelby said no one is above or below the law. Portman, who also voted to impeach over obstruction was a little squishy in his answers but also said no one is above the law. Moran said he doesn’t believe POTUS has carte blanche to pardon.
Corker said he wouldn’t be talking about these things if he were president.
I also haven’t heard a single senator agree special counsel appointment is unconstitutional. Indeed several have called for a second special counsel!
We are still at ZERO U.S. senators who think Trump should fire Mueller, though a bunch of Rs want him to “wrap it up” soon.
We are still at ZERO U.S. senators who think Trump should fire Mueller, though a bunch of Rs want him to “wrap it up” soon.
