CNN's Toobin says Trump is begging for impeachment: 'If Mueller gets fired they will find it impossible to stop'

A CNN panel on Thursday said that President Donald Trump is clearly executing a plot to shut down special counsel Robert Mueller's probe -- but they warned he could be courting trouble for doing so now that Democrats have subpoena power.

Panelist John Avlon laid out how Trump not only fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but replaced him with a hardcore loyalist who has in the past mused about ending the Mueller probe by slashing its budget so it cannot effectively conduct its investigation.

"Whitaker's only credibility and criteria is that he is a hard partisan who has been accused of being a back channel -- and some say spy -- to the White House from the Justice Department," he said, in reference to new acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker. "And he has written and spoken out several times -- repeatedly, in fact -- about the Mueller probe and retweeting an article that called it a 'lynch mob'... the fix is in on that front."

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin then said that incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders absolutely do not want to impeach Trump at this time, in no small part because there is no chance of him being convicted by a Republican Senate.

However, he said that moving to get rid of Mueller in such a brazen matter was practically begging Democrats to start impeachment hearings.

"If Robert Mueller gets fired, they will find it impossible to stop the impeachment in the House of Representatives," he said.

Watch the video below.