Mick Mulvaney just confessed to the whole thing
“Get over it.” That’s what Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said to reporters just now, after he directly confessed that Donald Trump did indeed engage Ukraine in a quid pro quo. That’s right, Mulvaney just publicly confessed to a felony criminal conspiracy that’ll send himself, Trump, and a whole lot of other people to prison. So what just happened?
One theory is Mick Mulvaney simply snapped. But his tone and buildup to the confession didn’t have a Jack Nicholson “you’re goddamn right I did” feel to it. Instead, this felt more calculated, albeit a historically bad calculation.
You can see why Mulvaney and Trump might have decided to go this way, though. Trump’s close ally Gordon Sondland just testified to the House impeachment inquiry that not only was Rudy Giuliani running a quid pro quo with Ukraine to rig the 2020 election, Trump instructed Rudy to do it. Game over.
There’s no longer any way for Donald Trump to continue pretending he’s innocent. So now he’s got Mick Mulvaney up there confessing to the whole thing, under the premise that he can minimize the severity of his crime by smirking and admitting he did it.
Mick Mulvaney just sent himself to prison. He just guaranteed that he’ll be indicted after Donald Trump is gone. Mulvaney just threw away his life on the fool’s bet that Trump will magically pardon him. Mulvaney is lucky he’s fairly young; he might get out of prison before the end of his natural lifespan. Trump won’t have any such luck at his age.
