WASHINGTON — Liberal activists already have a plan in place if Donald Trump fires Rod Rosenstein.
Since last year, progressive groups have prepared a nationwide protest in case Trump interfered with special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into the president. The highly unusual planning includes more than 300,000 men and women who have signed up to protest in all 50 states, specifying when and even what time the demonstrations will take place.
More than 800 such events are scheduled.
“We’ve never had a crisis plan that we had to put into action like this,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director for MoveOn.org, which is helping to organize the protests. “From time immemorial, we’ve always had protests planned in response to events or to create events themselves.
“We’ve never been teetering on a brink of a Constitutional crisis like this,” he said. “These extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”
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The possibility that Trump could fire Rosenstein took on new relevance this week, after reports that the assistant attorney general approved a raid by Federal Bureau of Investigation officials on the home and office of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer. CNN reported Tuesday that the president was considering such a move.
Wikler and others had once planned the protests for the possibility that Trump would fire Mueller. But the grassroots leader made clear that firing Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller and the investigation, would also trigger the mass demonstrations.
“The goal is to make sure that if Trump attacks the Constitution, it turns into a political crisis that demands a response from the House and Senate,” Wikler said.
So far, the protests are planned in every major city and many smaller ones, like Norman, Oklahoma, and Rock Hill, South Carolina. Wikler said he expects much more than the 300,000 who signed up to attend.
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