Bernstein: If Trump Fires Mueller, ‘There Would Inevitably Be a Move to Impeach the Pres.’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

CABRERA: "When you write in your piece that just three days after the Saturday night massacre, 44 separate watergate related bills had been introduced in Congress. 22 called for impeachment investigation. Again, 44 bills. How do you thing this Congress, both houses, Republican controlled, would react to a situation in which the president fired Robert Mueller?"
BERNSTEIN: "I think there would be inevitably move to impeach the president, but I think also, Trump would expect that and Trump is banking that he could stop impeachment, defeat impeachment, certainly defeat conviction in the Senate for anything. Look, I think what we're seeing here now, look, we know that Trump told his counsel, his White House counsel, that he wanted the counsel to have Mueller fired, and the counsel said he would quit rather than fire him. Trump is determined to make this go away. But one of the things that's going on right now is the leaving of the Justice Department of the number three person there, Rachel Brand, and it's hugely significant, because if Rob Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general in charge of this investigation, were to be fired by the president, the next in command, if Rachel Brand, who is going to leave, is the solicitor general of the United States, Nole Francisco. There's every expectation, I'm told by people in the White House, is and would be very sympathetic to President Trump's view that he, Trump, is the victim in the investigation."
CABRERA: "Let me stop you because we also know he would have conflicts of interest based on what his law firm's work is doing connected to the trump White House, the administration. So it doesn't sound like it's as clear cut, right?"
BERNSTEIN: "It's not that clear cut. He would have conflicts of interesting, but the most important potential conflict of interest, and let me say something that's a little new here, is that one of the reasons or factors that may figure in Rachel Brand leaving the justice Department, is that her husband is a partner in the sidly Austin law firm. And that law firm is going to take over the defense of Rick Gates, who has been indicted with Paul Manafort. That means, and the White House has been aware for a while, that Rachel brand was going to have to recuse herself from any oversight of the investigation should Rosenstein be fired. And the White House knows this, has been operating under the knowledge that she would not be in charge of the investigation, and so their strategies have included that fact for a while now. That she would have had to recuse herself because of the conflict with her husband's law firm."