June 13, 2017

On Morning Joe, Scarborough asked legal expert Ari Melber about how Trump could fire special counsel Bob Muller.

"At this point, we're in Saturday night massacre," Scarborough said.

"It would be Saturday afternoon if we were getting close to them even considering doing something like this," Melber replied.

"The first rule of constitutional and federal law that the president should learn is he doesn't have this personal unitary power. Unlike, say, dropping a bomb, which the president can pretty much do exclusively alone, the current federal rules bar this. None other than (acting FBI director) Rod Rosenstein explained this under oath, saying the president himself can't fire Bob Mueller."

"So, Rod is saying the president cannot, is that correct?" Scarborough said.

"Bingo. Rod is saying the president cannot do this. Unlike labor secretary, defense secretary, president may be brainstorming what he can do --"

"This is all irrelevant because Rod Rosenstein is not going to fire Bob Mueller," Scarborough said.

"That's a prediction or possibility," Melber cautioned.

"This is how I would put it. The president can call up Newsmax or not call up Newsmax, but the president can brainstorm with someone, 'Maybe I should start levitating and that would be useful and I would have zero-gravity abilities,' and an adviser or someone will tell the president, 'You don't have that power. What could happen, the other part of your question, Joe?

"It's always possible a White House tries to change the rules, so they would take the federal rules that currently put this power only in the hands of the acting DoJ official, in this case Rosenstein, and try to take it back to the White House, cancel those rules or ask Rosenstein to do it. If he doesn't do it, he can fire him --"

"That's where we get into the Saturday night massacre territory," Scarborough said. "Where he tells Rod Rosenstein to fire Bob Mueller and Rosenstein says, hell no. Then he would fire Rosenstein and do the most Nixonian thing, find somebody to fire Bob Mueller.

"I cannot imagine the political earthquake that would cause, with a fault line right under the president's president's oval office desk."

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