The Mueller Firing Speech

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

Following is the text, drafted by The New York Sun, of remarks it would like to see President Trump deliver:

Good evening: A year ago next month I took the Constitutional Oath that has been sworn by every president since George Washington. It binds me to do two things: To faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It’s an oath I swore before God.

Now I have concluded that, to redeem those two vows, I must dismiss the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, and the officers he has assembled, ostensibly to look into allegations that there may have been collusion between my campaign and the Russian camarilla. I have this morning placed the prosecutors’ premises under federal seal, pending a decision by House Judiciary Committee.

From the beginning, I never believed the appointment of such a prosecutor was necessary, or even justified. It was always perfectly within the authority and competence of the Justice Department to investigate and, if due cause were found, prosecute any wrongdoing by any member of my administration — including my daughter and son-in-law.

I acquiesced in the initial work of Mr. Mueller’s office because I believed that I was not a target of the investigation. As Mr. Mueller’s work has unfolded, however, suggestions have been made that his office may be investigating my own conduct. Given that possibility, I believe that the investigation must be halted, and, if it is to be resumed in respect of my own conduct, may be recommenced only by the House.

That is a constitutional bright line. My opponent in the recent campaign brought before her nominating convention the Gold Star father Khizr Khan to ask whether I had even read the Constitution. The answer is yes. I would not hold myself out as a constitutional scholar. I know, though, that it is only the House of Representatives that can investigate a sitting president for crimes and misdemeanors.

That is a provision of the same Constitution that I have sworn an oath to preserve protect and defend. That oath, incidentally, is different from the requirement of the members of Congress and the Justices of the Supreme Court. The Constitution requires them to swear only to support the Constitution. Only the president is required by the Constitution to swear to preserve, protect, and defend our national parchment.

I had barely sworn that oath when it became apparent to me that the Constitution needs protecting — and not just from our external foes but also from those who would seek to subvert it by refusing to accept the results of the election that Vice President Pence and I won. This quickly became apparent to me after the vote by a campaign of leaks of the most sensitive conversations I was conducting.

And by the emergence of what its adherents are fain to call a “resistance” against the decision of the voters. We have just learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Special Counsel’s office itself have been infected by political sentiments and colluded to keep from the Congress knowledge of the political sentiments against me being expressed by a senior FBI figure in the investigation.

This is a shocking development. It was exposed not by the Republican press but by the Washington Post and the New York Times. They reported over the weekend that the special prosecutor had kept from House investigators the discovery that a senior investigator in the special prosecutor’s office was demoted for sending anti-Trump messages to a mistress.

I commend to you the editorial in the nation’s most trusted newspaper. Not only did the special prosecutor withhold evidence of that from Congress but he did so despite a subpoena that could have led to the disclosure of this perfidy. That is obstruction of Congress, a prosecutable offense. So I have decided to uphold my oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Effective immediately, the special prosecutor and his subordinates are relieved of their duties and trusts under the United States. I have instructed federal officers to secure their premises pending any subpoena from the House, which is the body that is constitutionally authorized to investigate — and decide whether to impeach — the president. This administration will play no games with the House.

Preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States requires, inter alia, preserving, and protecting each branch of its government, including the presidency. I have learned much in the past year, but nothing more clearly than how important it is to protect the office I hold. This means — under what the courts call the “rule of necessity” — that I have a responsibility to act even when it is awkward.

Our country is on the brink of war in Korea, and being maneuvered against by determined enemies on every continent. These challenges may be no more pressing than the workaday assignment to rebuild our economy. All, though, are pressing. Which is why our Founding Fathers decided against dividing the executive powers among a committee or splitting them with a special counsel. They chose instead to vest them in a single president — a principle that, to the best of my ability, I am preserving, protecting, and defending today to make America and its Constitution great again.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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