GOP Senator Says He'll Vote To Impeach Trump If Mueller Is Fired "Without Cause"

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Speaking to a Washington Post reporter on Tuesday, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said he’ll vote in favor of impeaching President Trump if Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the lead investigator in the Russia probe, is fired “without cause.”

“We’re begging him: ‘Don’t go down this road,'” he said. “‘Don’t create a constitutional crisis. Don’t force the Congress to take the only remedy that Congress can take.’ To remind the president of that is the best way to keep him from going down that road. To fire Mueller without cause, I don’t know if there is any other remedy left to the legislative branch.”

He added, “If [Trump] fires [Mueller] without cause, how different is that from what Nixon did with the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’? He left before impeachment came, but that was the remedy then, and that would be the remedy now.”

We are begging the president not to fire the special counsel. Don't create a constitutional crisis. Congress cannot preempt such a firing. Our only constitutional remedy is after the fact, through impeachment. No one wants that outcome. Mr. President, please don't go there.

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) March 20, 2018

He went on to say that firing Mueller would “probably” be an impeachable offense and that he would fight back against that decision by voting in favor of firing Trump if the special counsel is removed “without cause.”

Flake also praised GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for repeatedly speaking about the possibility of impeaching Trump should the special counsel be fired, something most Republicans want to avoid at all costs.

“The president needs to be reminded that while there is nothing the House and the Senate can do constitutionally to prevent the president from moving forward, our remedy is on the other side,” he said. “And the firing of a special prosecutor without cause will, as Lindsey Graham said, prompt that remedy.”