Robert Mueller Doesn’t Matter
On Wednesday, Robert Mueller, of the oft-eponymous investigation, testified on Capitol Hill before both Senate and House committees regarding his findings and subsequent report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter. Not at all, for a few reasons.
Republicans still won’t acknowledge the problem.
The Republican members of Congress in both the House and the Senate have largely fallen in line with the President’s talking points in an attempt to discredit the investigation at large. Additionally, Fox News continues to contribute not only favorable airtime but also prepackaged talking points to the GOP. This was especially apparent in the House yesterday when Devin Nunes listed successive red herrings that, as the Daily Show recognized, were directly from Sean Hannity’s playbook.
Republicans don’t want to criticize Trump, and so they continue to toe the party line for their own benefit (they want Trump’s endorsement and they don’t want a primary challenger) and for the benefit of Trump himself, without any regard for the future of their own party or for the good of the democratic norms in the country (as if they ever cared about that in the first place). Former Trump critics within the party have gone one of three ways. The first, and largest group, have capitulated; think Lindsey Graham, who thought Trump was crazy and unfit for office during the 2016 primaries, but has become one of his staunchest defenders. The second, smaller group, have largely faded from public eye, such as John Kasich, who everyone keeps mentioning as a potential presidential candidate again, but nobody actually thinks he’s going to run. And the third is the people who have left the party. Only one Republican at the federal level has left the GOP over Trump, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash.
Democrats still won’t act on the problem.
For at least two years now, it’s been clear that Donald Trump committed crimes of impeachable offense if not during his campaign, then definitely during his term as president (and even during the two-month transition period between the two!). One of the most high-profile of these acts was the infamous Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner, of which the administration has repeatedly altered their story as soon as new details surface that contradict whichever lie they had constructed before (and of which Don, Jr. publicly tweeted the emailed schedules). Then there’s the plethora of Emoluments Clause violations surrounding the President’s own properties which, from any reasonable observer’s perspective, he hasn’t divested himself from and continues to benefit from the stays of foreign dignitaries, corporate leaders, and even the Secret Service when the President decides to stay somewhere else for the weekend (or the week). And most recently (and egregiously) are the repeated avoidance of subpoenas issued by House Committees for members of the administration, including Bill Barr, Kellyanne Conway, and Hope Hicks.
Yet, through all this, Speaker Pelosi has refused to even entertain the possibility of impeachment inquiries. A few weeks ago, when asked about the subpoenas that Trump administration continues to dodge, Pelosi answered “obstruction of justice!” and just kept walking. For months, she has avoided talk of impeachment, yet when even she references one of the most-cited reasons for impeachment, she brushes it off like nothing. Just last week, the majority of the Democratic caucus voted against a resolution to start impeachment proceedings. Pelosi has done her best to shut down any talk of impeachment among her caucus and has visibly distanced herself from progressives who call for it, most notably Rashida Tlaib and “the squad” of freshman congresswomen.
Everyone else is too entrenched (or ambivalent) to care.
Really, what’s the objective of calling Mueller in to testify? What is Democrats’ endgame in the situation? Trump’s base among the GOP will do anything to defend him, especially if Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson tell them to. Staunch pro-impeachment Democrats (whether progressives or #resistance liberals) won’t be swayed the other way. People are tired of hearing about Mueller’s investigation, and polling proves it: among polled 2018 midterm voters, the Russia investigation consistently fell dead last among their priorities for candidates and for Congress to address.
As Kamala Harris would put it, we can prosecute the case against Donald Trump without needing to resort back to storylines about Russian meddling and Mueller’s investigation. In the end, continuing to blame Russia won’t do anything to help the Democrats in the long-run, just as it didn’t in 2018. Democrats should feel free to actively consider articles of impeachment against Trump and definitely should at least open an inquiry, but we don’t need Robert Mueller to do it for us.
In the end, Democrats have to focus on voters to win elections, not continue to use Putin as a scapegoat. Trump didn’t do well in the midwest just because of some Russian disinformation campaign. Trump won the midwest because he was something different. Not a good different, obviously, but different. Democrats need to remember this as they head into the 2020 election cycle and several candidates (one in particular) are harkening back to the days of Obama, yearning for a status quo that didn’t work for millions of Americans. Democrats need at least two things to win: first, bold and progressive policies from presidential candidates to recapture disillusioned voters while (arguably more importantly) also energizing their own base. Second, to take a strong stand against Trump, his policies, and his morals, or lack thereof, up to and including considering impeachment in the House. I hate to quote Eric Swalwell in any context, but if Nancy Pelosi can’t do that, it may be time for her to pass the torch to someone who can.
