Keller @ Large: Country Headed To Constitutional Crisis?
BOSTON (CBS) - "If the president fires Robert Mueller he creates a constitutional crisis," says Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Is that an accurate claim?
A constitutional crisis occurs when a co-equal branch of government defies another's authority, as in the Watergate scandal of the 1970s when President Richard Nixon threatened to ignore a Supreme Court order to turn over incriminating tapes. He backed down and resigned instead.
Some called it a constitutional crisis last year when customs agents reportedly ignored court orders to suspend President Trump's Muslim travel ban.
They called it a constitutional crisis when Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor, and Mr. Trump has hinted he might do the same with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
"He better not talk about pardons for Michael Cohen or Paul Manafort," warns Sen. Chuck Schumer, hinting at another potential area of constitutional crisis. Because the Constitution only limits presidential pardon power in cases of impeachment, a decision by the president to pardon key figures in the current criminal probes could be subject to court rulings of whether that's constitutional.
"We are still a nation of laws, and no one in this country, not even the president of the United States, is above the law," says Warren.
But could the current situation lead to a constitutional crisis? Yes, but we're not quite there yet and if Mr. Trump thinks there are enough Republicans who will back him even if he flagrantly defies the law and congressional authority, he hasn't acted on that impulse...yet.