Democrats' focus on determining what crimes can be found against President Donald Trump will eventually backfire on them, just like when Republicans "overplayed" their hand against former President Bill Clinton, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Wednesday.
"Democrats don't win by trying to make a criminal out of their president," Dershowitz told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program, noting that when either side overplays its hand, it causes them to forget their positive agendas.
A few weeks ago, some Democrats in Congress were starting to talk about impeaching Trump, but much of the talk has stopped, and people who do not support the president are starting to speak differently, he said.
"Even David Brooks, who was certainly no supporter of Donald Trump, has said in The New York Times the other day 'enough is enough,'" Dershowitz said. "The American people don't want to see our time and energy spent on criminal investigations, there are already investigations.
"Did the Russians try to influence our elections? Look into that. Should the president have the power in the future to fire the FBI director? Maybe not."
Dershowitz also said he does not get the sense that the Democratic Party wants to turn the page and get back to tax reform, healthcare, or other issues.
"They are a divided party," said Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat.
"Right now, the visible manifestation of the Democratic Party is Bernie Sanders, or Keith Ellison. The party is moving lefter and lefter and lefter, and they are not going to get the centrist Americans who they need to win in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, if they want to turn this thing around."
Democrats need to have a positive program that shows they are better than the Trump administration, he added, and "focusing on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice is getting them nowhere."
There are, meanwhile, many conflicts of interests involved in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, said Dershowitz, including with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
"The Justice Department is trying to prosecute a president for following a dictate of the Justice Department," he continued.
"The very person who appointed a special prosecutor wrote a memo saying [former FBI Director James] Comey should be fired, and 'now we are going to prosecute you for firing Comey.'
"Who do you think the first witness is going to be for Donald Trump? The deputy director of the Justice Department is the man. That's already a conflict of interest."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.