Trump is going all-in on the same strategy he used with Robert Mueller: report
The Justice Department announced a special prosecutor to handle two cases involving possible indictments of former President Donald Trump. It was reported last week that prosecutors inside the DOJ believe the indictment will be handed down for the document scandal in the next 30 to 90 days.
Speaking on CNN Sunday morning, it was reported that Trump's Twitter account has been restored with all 72 million followers, significantly more than he has on his personal social media website, Truth Social.
The panel joked that having Trump on his own platform meant that Republicans could legitimately claim they hadn't seen the comments from Trump. It's difficult to deny they've seen a Trump tweet, however, though most of them tried, before running away from reporters' questions.
"He thinks it is the voice of the people," Axios reporter Jonathan Swan said. "Now, it is kind of a worse nightmare of the Republican leadership on the Hill. Members of congress have to deal with Manu Raju running up to them saying have you seen Trump's latest tweet? No, and then they run off down the hall."
Meanwhile, the special counsel announcement on Friday left Trump with a familiar foe, the panel said.
"He sees the special counsel through the lens of his personal experience with Robert Mueller, as an unending witch hunt," said Swan explained. "Most people expected it to happen he's been told by the advisers that being a presidential candidate does not immunize him from indictment but told by people close to him that he still sees it as politically advantageous. Sorry. Legally advantageous to be a live political candidate in this context."
It's the same comment that New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman noted after it became clear Trump would be announcing. She explained that he has told people that running for office means that he can paint the indictments as a purely political attempt to stop him from the presidency. The problem he runs into is that the National Archives tried to work with him for a year before they had to seek assistance from the DOJ to get the stolen White House documents back.
"He's following the same playbook as Mueller saying this is a witch hunt. Left-wing prosecutor. He was a career prosecutor at the Justice Department," said Manu Raju. "But the difference is he was a president then, and Mueller didn't come to a conclusion saying he would be prosecuted on obstruction because they were bound by Justice Department policy saying you can't charge a sitting president. This is a much different circumstance for Trump with legal exposure."
"He said he won't partake in it. I don't know that he has a choice to partake in it but using the same strategy," agreed Nia-Malika Henderson. "He's taken on so much water over the last two weeks with a sound defeat of election deniers, his candidates, but with this news. He'll say this is good for him and certainly, I think bind 30% of the Republican Party to him but not good for the chances overall."
Margaret Talev said that the only real benefit to the special counsel for Trump is that they usually take a very long time.
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