"I believe the president wants all of this shutdown," Speier said when asked if she believed House Republicans were bowing to pressure from the White House. “The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller."
Speier said if the president did fire Mueller, it would cause a constitutional crisis.
"That is Saturday massacre 2.0," she said, referring to President Richard Nixon ordering the firing of Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal. “Without a doubt there would be an impeachment effort.”
A spokeswoman for Speier said the congresswoman shared the rumor to put pressure on Trump not to fire Mueller.
On Saturday, White House special counsel Ty Cobb told CNN that no such plans exist:
"As the White House has consistently said for months, there is no consideration of firing the special counsel," Ty Cobb, the White House special counsel, told CNN in a statement.
You can see the full interview with Speier below:
Trump cannot fire Mueller directly but could instruct Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who oversees Mueller's investigation to do so. Rosenstein told members of the House Judiciary Committee this week that he would only fire Mueller for "good cause," which he says does not yet exist. Rosenstein also told the committee that no one, including President Trump, has asked him to fire Mueller.
Fellow California representative, Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles), voiced concerns similar to Speier's about the Russia investigation on Twitter on Friday.