"Treason Against The United States"

Politico reported Tuesday

Mary Kissel often took a dim view of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. As a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, she tweeted about his “frightening ignorance,” criticized his approach on Syria and China, and said Vladimir Putin “scored a great propaganda victory” at the Helsinki summit in July.

And Trump swatted back. After Kissel said in a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Trump has “no principles, he has no policies,” the president counterpunched on Twitter. “Major loser!” then-candidate Trump wrote, adding that Kissel had “no clue!”

So of course Kissel is now part of the Trump Administration as

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s new senior adviser for policy and strategic messaging....

“Trump would lose his mind if he knew about this,” a former administration official who has witnessed Trump react to past criticism told POLITICO.

That's only because he loses his mind- or seems to- continually.

The day after this story appeared, Trump retweeted aphotoshopped image "which depicted targets of Trump attacks like former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, Huma Abedin and James Comey overlaid with the text “Now that Russian collusion is a proven lie, when do the trials for treason begin?”

pic.twitter.com/FWJRNzBUB3

— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) November 28, 2018

But the image included also Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 

It is arguable whether the President of the USA can directly fire the Special Counsel, but inarguable that he can terminate him indirectly. Donald Trump's stooge, Acting Attorney General Matt Whittaker, would need little coaxing to ax the man conducting what his boss has claimed is a "witch hunt" that has "shattered so many innocent lives."

The President could fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein, understandably, initially incurred Trump's displeasure when it was revealed that the DAG had raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to get rid of the President. Wisely, Rosenstein denied the report.

And now President Trump has accused Rosenstein and Mueller of treason.

This is a serious charge, as those which are punishable by death generally are.Yet, as of late Thursday morning, alleged traitors Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller are still in their critical, prestigious jobs. Reporters need to ask Sarah H. Sanders and the President himself why individuals giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States of America should remain in their positions, let alone not be charged with a felony.

We know why Trump has not dismissed Chief of Staff John Kelly when "his potential ouster has been the subject of numerous reportsin recent months." He would have to sack Kelly himself, and Trump is terrified of firing anyone. (Additionally, he may be concerned that Kelly would give him the Lewandowski treatment, which probably would result in a severely injured Donald Trump.)

Nonetheless, now the President has accused two high-ranking officials of treason. Were the media to pursue it, the Press Secretary (and others) might write it off as "hyperbole," a "joke,"  or merely passing on an entertaining tweet. Let them. Otherwise, Donald Trump again enjoys the privilege of denigrating the investigation into his high crimes and misdemeanors and riling up his base further without pushback.  And failing to push back against a guy who sees himself always as a "winner" and practically everyone else as a "loser" (below, in August 2015) gives him a big, undeserved, win.

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