Painter: If Trump Fires Mueller, ‘Very High Chance,’ He’ll Be Impeached, Jailed

RUSH EXCERPT:

HAYES: "Richard, this is something that was in the “New York Times” story that I thought was interesting. To some extent I think the fact of the leaking is almost the most significant — this is politico. I think the fact of the leaking is almost the most significant that we’ve reached a point where people at the center of things feel the need to redeem themselves at the expense of the president. What do you make of that as someone who obviously worked in the White House?" 
PAINTER: "I don’t know who was leaking. A lot of people are leaking in this White House because President Trump throws his own people under the bus with regularity and people don’t last long at this White House. But this concern that president Trump’s going to try and fire Robert Mueller is a real one. People in the White House are well aware of it. And this is a reiteration of the exact same story that we have known about all along. I can say that if president Trump chooses to fire Robert Mueller, there’s a very high chance he’s going to be removed from office. Republicans are not going to tolerate much more of this. They have to go into the 2018 elections and suffer the consequences of trump’s conduct and their own failure to rein it in. And there’s only so much they’re going to put up with. And President Trump himself could end up being prosecuted and going to jail. This is serious. When you fire a special counsel in order to impede an investigation, he’s already fired James Comey, he has the power to hire and fire just like the mayor of a town may have the power to hire and fire the chief of police but if the chief of police stops the mayor for speeding, and the mayor says you’re fired, the city council is going to be meeting by the end of the week and thinking about what to do with the mayor. And that’s the difference. It’s the difference between the power to do something and the legal right, in this country, he can’t do that. That point’s got to be made very clear to him one way or the other."