Democrats
yesterday sharpened their rhetoric in the clash over the investigation
into Trump campaign links to Russia, warning the president that firing
top law enforcement officials could “lead to a confrontation we do not
need in America.”
The warnings came two days after the Republican-led
House intelligence committee released a declassified memo that claims
that Democrat-funded research prompted the FBI to spy on a former Trump
campaign aide, Carter Page.
Democrats stoutly resisted the memo’s
release, saying it was misleading, and possibly intended to lay the
groundwork for President Donald Trump to fire senior officials and
subvert the Russia meddling investigation led by Robert Mueller.
Dick Durbin, the number two Senate Democrat, yesterday warned against any such move.
“The
question at that moment is whether or not the majority Republicans in
the House and the Senate will stand up for the rule of law and the
Constitution if the president takes that extreme position,” Durbin said
on CNN’s State of the Union.
“If the president takes this extreme action, I’m afraid that it could lead to a confrontation we do not need in America.”
Both
he and the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee,
Representative Adam Schiff, contested the suggestion that the FBI’s
request to a special court for authority to surveil Page failed to note
that it was based in part on a dossier paid for by Democrats.
“The court was notified there was a political actor involved,” Schiff said.
“The
goal here is to undermine the FBI, discredit the FBI, discredit the
Mueller investigation, do the president’s bidding,” he said on ABC’s
This Week.
He said it was “very possible” committee Republicans had “co-ordinated the whole effort with the White House.”
Trump tweeted on Saturday that the memo “vindicated” his insistence that there was “no collusion and there was no obstruction.”
But
some Republicans, while supporting the gist of the memo, took pains to
show support for Mueller, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and FBI
chief Christopher Wray at a time the FBI and Justice Department are
facing almost unprecedented criticism from the president.
“I’ve had
my differences with Rod Rosenstein, and I still think that he is fully
capable of helping run a Justice Department that we can all have
confidence in,” said Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House
Oversight Committee, on CBS’s Face the Nation.
And Representative
Will Hurd, a Republican on the intelligence committee, told ABC, “I want
to stress Bob Mueller should be allowed to turn over every rock, pursue
every lead so we can have trust knowing what Russia did or didn’t do.”
Protesters rally in support of a permanent legislative solution for immigrants in Los Angeles on Saturday.