Pence’s sensitivity to talk of 2020 speaks to White House insecurity
August 7, 2017 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
For months, President Trump’s White House has been prone to veering off message, sometimes wildly so. But it was crystal clear on one point Sunday: No one except Trump should put up a hand for the 2020 GOP presidential nod.
Vice President Mike Pence denied that he is considering a run for the presidency the next time around, issuing a statement, the vehemence of which underscored how sensitive the White House is to any questioning of whether Trump will seek a second term.
In what appeared to be a coordinated message, the White House also hit back Sunday at a report in the New York Times that described steps Pence and some GOP lawmakers have taken that could position themselves for presidential bids.
Pence went so far as to call the newspaper’s report “disgraceful and offensive.”
“The American people know that I could not be more honored to be working side by side with a president who is making America great again,” the vice president said, invoking Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan.
“Whatever fake news may come our way,” he said, citing another favored presidential phrase, “my entire team will continue to focus all our efforts to advance the president’s agenda and see him reelected in 2020.”
Trump began fundraising for a 2020 campaign almost immediately upon taking office, but a reelection bid would face several potential obstacles:
He was 70 when he took office, the oldest first-term president to be inaugurated, has since turned 71, and would be the oldest second-term chief executive were he to run again and win the 2020 election.
the 2016 race, has been gathering momentum. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III recently began working with a grand jury in Washington.
Mueller has not commented on the course of the probe, but his investigators have sought documents related to several associates of Trump’s, including his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. Investigators are also examining a meeting that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., held with several Russians and Russian Americans in early June 2016, a few weeks before the senior Trump received the Republican nomination.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), a former prosecutor, said the reported impaneling of a grand jury pointed to a probe that was picking up its pace, not slowing to an end.
“You can’t read that this means that indictments are going to follow,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Nonetheless, he said, “it does mean the investigation is not only not being turned off, but it is moving into a new phase.”
Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein, to whom Mueller reports because Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions has recused himself from Russia-related matters, said Mueller would be guided by the emerging evidence, wherever it takes him, and implicitly rebutted Trump’s accusation that the entire matter is a “fraud.”
“The special counsel is subject to the rules and regulations of the Department of Justice, and we don’t engage in fishing expeditions,” Rosenstein said on “Fox News Sunday.” Mueller could seek authorization to broaden the scope of the probe if he deemed it necessary, Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein also commented on the Justice Department’s announcement Friday that it was stepping up investigations of leaks of classified information. He appeared to at least partially pull back from Sessions’ suggestion that prosecutors might pursue reporters for stories they’ve published.
“The attorney general has been very clear that we’re after the leakers, not the journalists. We’re after the people who are committing a crime,” Rosenstein said. “We don’t prosecute journalists for doing their jobs.”
“Generally speaking, reporters who publish information are not committing a crime,” he said, although he added that “there might be a circumstance where they do.”
The move to increase leak investigations appears to have placated Trump, who in recent weeks publicly disparaged both Sessions and Rosenstein. But his anger at Mueller and his investigation continues to threaten the relationship between the Justice Department and the White House.
Trump has talked with friends and aides about firing Mueller — something that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have explicitly warned him against, even if the investigation appears to encroach on areas the president and his allies consider out of bounds, such as Trump’s financial entanglements.
Preserving the special counsel’s independence has been enough of a concern in Congress that two pairs of lawmakers on opposite sides of the aisle have introduced legislation meant to shield Mueller against any attempt by Trump to fire him.
“We’ll let the facts lead us to whether or not it was a hoax or a distraction,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), one of the lawmakers, said on ABC’s “This Week” when asked about Trump’s longstanding contention that the investigation is a witch hunt. “But we are where we are, and I want to see this investigation concluded so that we can get on to doing the good work the president has already started.”
Despite the president’s perceived political and legal vulnerabilities, most prominent Republicans have avoided hinting at a challenge if Trump does seek the 2020 nomination. The main exception has been Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who opposed Trump to the end in 2016 and has not ruled out running against him.
