Reporter pulls back curtain on Trump 'game plan' as he fumes in White House

President Donald Trump apparently does not appear to be following his conservative friend’s guidance in dealing with the plague of scandals heading his way now that Democrats are in control of Congress and willing to hold the Trump family accountable for alleged self-enrichment and other crimes.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper remarked Wednesday night that conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly appears to be telling his old friend Trump that he needs to get out ahead of congressional investigators by “coming clean.”

“Get out in front of the Trump family enriching itself because this is going to come hard and it's going to come fast,” said O’Reilly. “All right? Get out in front of it. Explain what is going on. … Now, if there's some kind of illegality or something like that. But it needs to be explained by president Trump, or they're going to go wild on him.”

But so far, it looks like Trump is not taking that advice, according to a report by CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, who said Trump is instead planning to obstruct Democrats’ investigations, no matter how badly it looks. Trump over the weekend was already accusing Democrats of trying to extort administration officials by warning they could get ensnared in investigations and probes and that they do not have Trump’s Supreme Court-granted immunity.

“But this has kind of been building over the last few days because the president was so angry last week,” said Collins. “He got angrier, by the day, after the midterms, watching the coverage, not just of the historic Republican losses, but seeing all these Democrats come out and say, ‘yes, we're taking power … and we're also going to hold the Trump administration accountable and launch all of these investigations.”

Over the weekend, attorney general Todd Blanche parroted Trump’s rebelliousness on cable television, and Blanche followed that up with a letter to incoming House Oversight Chair, Robert Garcia.

“Basically, it's a signal of how the administration plans to handle this come January. They are going to fight these subpoenas,” said Collins, adding that this brand of obstruction surpasses Trump’s obstruction in his first term when they ignored or defy subpoenas. “They're signaling this is going to be a very combative white house with this democratic majority here in Washington.”

Democrats’ plan to get around White House obstruction is unclear as Congress and Trump trade barbs in court, arguing over executive privilege.

“And that is a game plan that the White House is familiar with,” said Collins. “They've lived this story before. A lot of these Democrats were not in power when Trump was in office the last time. And so, this is a new, new ballgame for them, essentially.”

Later that night, Garcia told Collins that the fight against obstinate White House officials can carry down to state courts, if necessary — and that Trump and his people will be out of D.C. in two years and extremely vulnerable to prosecution.

“Either answer questions now or face them in the future,” Garcia warned.