The handful of congressional Republicans calling for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to be fired added a high-profile member of the House Judiciary Committee to their ranks on Wednesday.
Texas representative Louie Gohmert said in no uncertain terms Wednesday that he wants Mueller’s Russia investigation dismantled.
“I think Mueller should be fired,” Gohmert said. “He needs to go….He should never have been appointed and he should never have accepted.”
The Freedom Caucus member slammed certain “establishment Republicans,” saying their opposition is the only thing preventing Mueller’s ouster. Their fear they will have to impeach Trump afterwards is unwarranted, Gohmert said.
“No, it’s not” an impeachable offense to fire Mueller, Gohmert stated.
“We have so many people who have not bothered to do their homework on who Robert Mueller is and the damage he’s done, especially to the FBI as director, the thousands of years of experience he ran off that could have helped guide some of these wayward FBI agents away from the path they took,” the congressman said. “He’s done enough damage.”
President Trump began attacking the special counsel directly for the first time over the weekend and continued doing so into this week, calling the investigation a “witch hunt” and questioning the integrity of the investigative team.
A total WITCH HUNT with massive conflicts of interest!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 19, 2018
The White House said Monday that it is not considering firing Mueller, but reiterated its claims that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz called in December for the special counsel to be fired.
“Congress has an obligation to expose what I believe is a corrupt investigation and I call on my Republican colleagues to join me in firing Bob Mueller,” Gaetz told CNN.