December 18, 2017

After discussing some anti-Trump texts from two FBI agents no longer with the Mueller investigation, Kellyanne Conway told Fox News Saturday evening that "the fix was in from the beginning" against Trump.

As a supposed cable news network, the Fox News chyron blares "A Coup In America?"

Even though the large percentage of law enforcement vote Republican, Fox News host Jesse Watters wondered, "is the FBI part of the Resistance?"

As I wrote on Sunday, "As Fox News intensifies its defense of Trump with more vicious attacks to try and deligitimize Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation into Trump and Russia, they've now switched into coup d'état mode.

This is the illustration of the kind of state-sponsored propaganda that Mussolini would have loved.

Trump and some from his administration have said there's no discussion that Trump will fire Mueller, there's certainly a lot of chatter about firing Rosenstein.

Even though Rosenstein is a Republican, The Washington Post reports that "Trump has ranted about Rosenstein as “a Democrat,” one of these advisers said, and characterized him as a threat to his presidency."

Last week Trump told the world right before he was set to address young graduates at the FBI that it's a "shame" and the entire Bureau is a "disgrace."

This was a first strike to lubricate his supporters so when there's another leaked text message or email that shows somebody thinks Trump is a moron, like Rex Tillerson, he'll be forced, forced I tell you, to change his mind and fire Mueller and then rebuild the FBI from the ground up because only he can do it.

This morning, Greg Sargent evaluates the special counsel investigations between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump with a caveat, their media supporters.

He writes, "In battle with Mueller, Trump has a big advantage that Nixon did not"

That big advantage is the presence of right wing media in America. We've been writing about this issue since Fox News turned most of its programs into state sponsored TV supporting the Trump administration.

Greg writes:

"Trump is heading into a period of some sort of sustained confrontation with the special counsel and with law enforcement that is similar to the one Richard Nixon entered into just over four decades ago.

Yet Trump will be benefiting from a very powerful and far-reaching network of media propaganda on his behalf — one that casts all these ongoing efforts to subject Trump to basic accountability as fundamentally illegitimate — that is nothing like anything Nixon had at his disposal. And the ramifications of that for our country are, at present, a big unknown."

This is correct. But the break-in of the DNC by Nixon's plumbers doesn't come close to what the Russians did to our 2016 presidential campaign and these investigations are paramount to defend us against further attacks on our election process and the role that any foreign power might have to influence a U.S. presidential candidate.

However, we do know one thing for certain. The full-on propaganda effort by the right has not helped Trump's approval ratings. Is that an indication of where we'll stand if he fires Robert Mueller?

I wonder if since his polling is so low he doesn't care what he fall out would be. I doubt he's that savvy.

But the next question is what will happen in our country if Trump, more of his people or family members are indicted by the special counsel.

At least Richard Nixon respected, for the most part the laws and institutions that make up the U.S. government. Trump only cares about vainglory for vainglory only and has already mocked the standards and norms of a person taking over the presidency by refusing to release his tax returns and continuing to do business out of the White House.

Digby discussed what happened when Nixon fired Archibald Cox.

Looking back at the Saturday Night Massacre in the fall of 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon was furious that special prosecutor Archibald Cox had gone beyond what Nixon thought should be his mandate. When the president found out that Cox was looking into the financing of his West Coast White House in San Clemente, California, he went ballistic. Nixon probably had a lot less to hide in this regard than Donald Trump does.

Trump has said the red line is if Mueller looks into his private business affairs.

I doubt Mueller lasts through January.

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