March 18, 2018

Congressional Republicans Didn’t Like These Tweets From the President

Trump’s attacks on Special Counsel Mueller drew a few warnings on Sunday morning.

SMG via ZUMA Wire

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President Donald Trump kicked off Sunday morning with a series of tweets accusing former FBI director James Comey of lying under oath, criticizing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion with Russia, and doubling down on his administration’s firing of Comey’s second-in-command Andrew McCabe.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers took to the airwaves to take issue with the president’s moves, with one warning that if Trump took action against Mueller, his stint in office would be at risk. 

On NBC’s Meet the Press Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he would have handled the McCabe situation differently, arguing that McCabe “should’ve been allowed to finish through the weekend.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe two days before he was set to retire after 21 years at the FBI. “I don’t like the way it happened,” Rubio said. 

On CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s firing of McCabe was “a horrible day for democracy,” drawing a contrast with to the president’s Tweet applauding his removal as a “great day for democracy.”

“To have firings like this happening at the top, from the president and the attorney general, does not speak well for what’s going on,” Flake, who has been more willing to criticize Trump than the vast majority of his GOP colleagues, said. If the president’s escalating attacks on the Russia probe were to culminate in Mueller’s firing, “We in Congress can’t accept that,” Flake warned, adding that he hoped his Republican colleagues would warn the president about the consequences of firing Mueller in the coming days.

When asked how Republicans in Congress would respond if Trump’s tried to shut down the Russia investigation, Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News Sunday he hoped the president would let Mueller continue with the probe. “If the allegation is collusion with the Russians and there is no evidence of that, and you are innocent of that, act like it,” Gowdy said. 

In a separate interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was asked whether the president’s attacks on the Russia investigation suggested the president would go after Mueller. In response, Graham warned that “if he tried to do that, that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we are a rule of law nation.” 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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