Veteran journalist Dan Rather said Wednesday that President Donald Trump "is afraid" of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference.
"This is unique like so much with President Trump's presidency," the former CBS News anchor said of the probe on MSNBC. "We have never had a first-term president get off to such a chaotic, unsteady start as this. The general pattern is the president is most popular when he first comes into office and then in the nature of things, his popularity declines. But what you're seeing with President Trump — and I think it's very clear, Chris, it's not a Democrat or Republican assessment. It's not a biased assessment."
"Donald Trump is afraid," he added. "He's trying to exude power and strength. He's afraid of something that Mueller and the prosecutors are going to find out."
Politico reported Wednesday that Mueller has begun working with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on the investigation into Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, specifically into his financial transactions.
"A political hurricane is out there at sea for him, we'll call it Hurricane Vladimir if you will, the whole Russian thing," he said, in reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. "It's still pretty far out at sea, but each day...this hurricane, this political hurricane . . . is building in intensity."
Rather also addressed Hurricane Harvey and Trump's recent trip to Texas. He said the president risked "seeming irrelevant," because people have seen "duty, honor, bravery" in Houston.
"When President Trump came, the question is whether he could pick up on that, communicate that in some way," Rather said. "But I think there's a very serious case to be made that although the president went, I give him credit for that, didn't make any big mistakes. But he sort of came and went and — he ran the risk of seeming irrelevant."
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