Appearing on CNN early Sunday morning, presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said the firing of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman puts Donald Trump in line for a second impeachment inquiry -- particularly if he survives the November election.
Speaking with host John King, and with New York Times' Maggie Haberman saying silence from Republicans over the abrupt and controversial firing of the SDNY prosecutor spoke volumes about how they viewed it, Brinkley said the president may have set himself up -- once again -- for impeachment hearings.
"Rings the Richard Nixon bell of cover-up. Nixon had his famous Saturday Night Massacre, October 1973, that was a term coined by coined by Art Buchwald and David Broder, made popular. It was a string of events and Nixon in cover-up mode," Brinkley explained before detailing the series of firings that eventually led to the Watergate hearings.
"A president would only do what Nixon did, and what Donald Trump's doing now, is if they were deeply fearful about what was going to come out of that New York district attorney -- what knowledge they had and he bungled it," he continued. "I think he [Trump] was full of hubris over Tulsa, he really believed he was going to have two giant rallies packed with people, a love fest, instead it was a tepid rally, didn't accomplish very much for him and now he's stuck with this headline which is going to fester between now and November. And if he got re-elected, may lead to a second impeachment if the Democrats continue to hold Congress."
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