White House counselor Kellyanne Conway snarked Sunday about special counsel Robert Mueller and his “band of Democratic donors” as tension between the White House and Mueller grows.
“Why doesn’t the president just want Mueller to prove that Trump is right, that Russia was a hoax. Why doesn’t he just want Mueller to just go ahead confirm that for him?” CNN’s Brian Stelter asked Conway on his “Reliable Sources” program.
“Isn’t Mr. Mueller and his band of Democratic donors doing that? Aren’t they trying to do that?” Conway replied.
Mueller, a registered Republican, has indeed hired at least seven Democratic donors to join his legal team. These attorneys have given a total of $60,787.77 to federal Democratic candidates, including Trump’s former opponent Hillary Clinton.
Trump previously called the hiring of these Democratic donors “ridiculous,” and Conway has highlighted an article about the hiring of these donors on Twitter.
“FEC report: Mueller’s team includes big Democrat donors. Some maxed out, none wanted Trump to be POTUS,” Conway tweeted in June.
The tension between the White House and Mueller increased this past Wednesday when Trump told The New York Times that it would be a “violation” if Mueller were to investigate his family’s finances in a manner not related to the investigation into alleged Russian election interference.
When asked if he would fire Mueller if he did this, Trump replied, “I can’t, I can’t answer that question because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Bloomberg then reported on Thursday that Mueller is in fact looking into the finances of Trump and his associates, including possible money laundering violations by Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort.
His spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not comment specifically on the report, but insisted that while Trump maintains the ability to fire Mueller he doesn’t intend to do so “at this time.”
The Daily Caller previously reported how several Trump allies are opposed to Mueller’s investigation, but think that it wouldn’t help the president to fire the special counsel. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told TheDC that Trump allies should focus “on the total bias of the effort so it is discredited.”
Longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, however, remarked in June that “Mueller intends to cook up what I think is either an obstruction of justice charge or a perjury charge against the president to give the Democrats a hook for their impeachment march.”