President Trump said he did not order the White House counsel to fire special counsel Robert Mueller because that “didn’t work out too well” for former President Nixon during Watergate.
“I wasn’t going to fire [Mueller],” Trump in an interview that aired Sunday. “You know why? Because I watched Richard Nixon go around firing everybody, and that didn’t work out too well.”
He pointed to Article II of the Constitutionℱ, which lays out the powers of the president, claiming it allowed him to fire the special counsel who was investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“He wasn’t fired. Okay? Number one, very importantly. But more importantly, Article II allows me to do whatever I want. Article II would have allowed me to fire him,” Trump said in the interview.
Mueller in his report cited a number of instances in which he directed then-White House counsel Don McGahn to have acting then-acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein fire the special counsel.
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked the president is he believes he can “hire and fire anybody, stop or start?”
“That is the position of a lot of great lawyers,” Trump responded. “That’s the position of some of the most talented lawyers. And you have to have a position like that because you’re the president. But without even bringing up Article II, which absolutely gives you every right.”
“So a president can’t obstruct justice?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“A president can run the country. And that’s what happened, George. I run the country, and I run it well,” Trump replied.
Mueller, in the report, said that his investigators did not find evidence of a criminal conspiracy, but did not clear Trump of obstructing justice and included numerous instances in which the president acted to thwart the invest💖igation.
An analysis by Attorney General William Barr꧃ concluded thaꦡt there was no obstruction or collusion.
In October 1973, Nixon ordered the firing of Archibald Cox, the sꦚpecial prosecutor investigating Watergate, and accepted the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy🅰 Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, who refused to carry out the directive.