The next person to resign in Donald Trump’s impeachment scandal
Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy Rick Perry resigned on Thursday, just hours after U.S. Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified to the House impeachment inquiry that he and Perry were disappointed in Trump’s decision to route Ukraine policy through Rudy Giuliani’s corrupt schemes. This raises the obvious question: who’s going to resign next? Here are some prime candidates for the next one out the door.
Mick Mulvaney: This one’s almost too obvious, right? And yet if Donald Trump were going to scapegoat Mulvaney, the most opportune time to do it would have been right after Trump saw the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Mulvaney’s confession that Trump is guilty. Keep in mind that Mulvaney isn’t just Acting Chief of Staff, he’s also OMB Director, which means he’s got documentation of the money trail in the Ukraine scandal. Mulvaney could take Trump down tomorrow if he wanted to, and Trump has to avoid doing anything to motivate Mulvaney to flip on him.
Rudy Giuliani: This is a remarkably similar story to the Mulvaney saga. Trump has clearly had enough of Rudy’s bungling ways, and briefly tried to ditch Rudy last week. Then the two had lunch, and suddenly Trump was back to defending Rudy – suggesting that Rudy spent that lunch reminding Trump that he knows where all the bodies are buried. That said, once Rudy gets arrested, which could come at any time, Trump will almost have to fire Rudy as his attorney.
Mike Pompeo: This is a little bit of a wildcard, but it’s notable that Pompeo spent this week leaking to the media that he (supposedly) tried to stop Donald Trump from his corrupt Ukraine antics. Why leak something like that unless you’re dipping your toe in the water about the possibility of selling Trump out to the House impeachment committee? We can’t imagine a cabinet member testifying against Trump and not resigning.
