Donald Trump Can’t ‘Survive Another Week Like This,’ Says Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano
Donald Trump may yet survive the multitude of investigations, allegations, and failures that have dogged him throughout his presidency, but another week like last week could very well doom him, says Fox News contributor Judge Andrew Napolitano.
In a Washington Times op-ed piece, titled “President Trump’s Bad Week,” Napolitano looked at the string of setbacks suffered by the 45th POTUS recently, which included a failure to gain ground with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in a much-ballyhooed summit; damning Capitol Hill testimony from his former attorney, Michael Cohen; and at least two new congressional investigations looking into possible wrongdoing by him and his associates.
Hanoi summit with Kim Jong-un fails to get results.
Last week, Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, the second meeting between the two men after last year’s historic Singapore summit. Napolitano posits that Trump was done in by his own approach to foreign policy: playing it by ear and hoping that his own “towering personality” would be enough to bring Kim to heel. It wasn’t.
Damning testimony from Michael Cohen.
Of course, the Trump-related event that dominated most of the headlines during Trump’s bad week was the testimony on Capitol Hill of his former attorney and “fixer,” Michael Cohen. In between damning accusations of misdeeds, Cohen also called his former boss a “racist,” a “con man,” and a “cheat,” among other things.
BREAKING: Michael Cohen sues Trump Organization for breach of contract related to payment of his legal fees. https://t.co/jZikYMBaNa pic.twitter.com/gh8J11fc5c
— ABC News (@ABC) March 7, 2019
Two new Congressional investigations.
Elsewhere in Washington, Congressional Democrats, now in control of the House of Representatives, have announced two new investigations against the president, one of which has already begun. One House committee is already building a case to convince a court to force Trump to release his tax returns. Another House committee has already sent legal documents to 81 individuals and entities connected to Trump and his family as part of a far-reaching investigation that may yet lay the groundwork for eventual impeachment.
Questions about son-in-law Jared Kushner’s security clearance.
Lastly, Trump has been bedeviled by reports that he pushed through a top-secret security clearance for his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, even though the FBI and CIA were against it.
How a president should react.
Though attacked on four fronts, any other president could possibly weather such a storm simply by virtue of deft handling of the accusations when asked about it by the media. But Trump may yet be done in by his own bluster, says Napolitano, as his method of dealing with adversaries is to publicly belittle them, especially on Twitter.
“He needs to do more than demean [his adversaries] with acerbic tweets… He needs to address these issues soberly, directly, and maturely.”
Further, notes Napolitano, Trump now has enemies within Congress and without who have the legal authority to do him real harm. Napolitano notes that, beyond the four new problems that are imperiling the Trump presidency, there’s another one that could do even more than that. The Southern District of New York is currently investigating a wide range of Trump Organization activities, and federal law says that if he’s convicted, the federal government can recover three times the amount of money he made from any illegal schemes – more than enough to bankrupt him.
Another Fox News host jumps ship.
Andrew Napolitano is not the only Fox News correspondent to admit publicly that Trump may yet be on thin ice. As reported Friday by The Inquisitr, correspondent Lou Dobbs said this week that the Trump White House has “lost its way.”
