Morning Joe and CNN's New Day rebut Trump's 'witch hunt' claim, noting the president's own appointees are investigating him
Early Tuesday morning, President Trump returned to his critique of the FBI's raid on his longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, tweeting that "attorney–client privilege is dead!" and this is "A TOTAL WITCH HUNT!!!" Trump railed against what he called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Democratic "witch hunt" in public comments on Monday evening, but on Tuesday's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough pointed out that Monday's raid was orchestrated by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, "Rudy Giuliani's former law partner who Giuliani got appointed to the Southern District of New York as a prosecutor."
"This was a Trump man, a Trump contributor, and a Giuliani man who executed this search warrant," Scarborough said. "This is his doing, it was not Robert Mueller's doing, and there's nothing Donald Trump can say and there's no lies that he can try to spread that will change that."
"This raid was no Democratic fishing expedition," Scarborough added in a tweet. "This is Rudy's protégé running an investigation of a president whose campaign he cut a $5,400 check to in 2016. Trump interviewed and appointed him. Some conspiracy." On CNN's New Day, political analyst John Avlon noted that this is Trump's first crisis without Hope Hicks, his communications director and handler, but agreed that Trump also must be "reconciling himself to the fact that this is his Justice Department, this is a U.S. attorney for the Southern District appointed by him to replace Preet Bharara, so there's got to be an extra sense of betrayal which may further inflame his actions."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Jeffrey Toobin went on to argue that Mueller's investigation "absolutely" might end if Trump orders him fired. "This is a very important point, that the president really has within his ability to stop this investigation," he said. Luckily, Trump was probably watching Fox & Friends.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Australia’s teens brace for social media banIn The Spotlight Under-16s will be banned from having accounts on major platforms
-
Labour’s dilemma on workers’ rightsThe Explainer TUC says Employment Rights Bill is ‘essential to better quality, more secure jobs’ but critics warn of impact on economic growth
-
Coaches’ salary buyouts are generating questions for collegesUnder the Radar ‘The math doesn’t seem to math,’ one expert said
-
Honduras votes amid Trump push, pardon vowspeed read President Trump said he will pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years for drug trafficking
-
Congress seeks answers in ‘kill everybody’ strike reportSpeed Read Lawmakers suggest the Trump administration’s follow-up boat strike may be a war crime
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
