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The Mueller Report: A Damning Indictment… of Something
As we wait more or less breathlessly for the release of the Mueller Report, the assumption appears to be growing that it will be, in the eloquent words of Secretary Clinton, a nothing-burger.
But it will not be a nothing-burger, even if it reports no evidence of collusion. Because we’ve spent more than two years obsessing over this, driven by a press that pronounced almost daily the beginning of the end for the Trump administration. If there was no there there, then someone has some explaining to do. Because many of us thought this was pretty obviously cooked up from the start, to hide either Clinton campaign embarrassment or, worse, Clinton/Obama collusion to undermine the 2016 Trump campaign.
The ladies and gentlemen of the press fancy themselves the guardians of democracy, the bulwark (ahem) against ignorance and tyranny. If it turns out, as I suspect it will, that they have wasted most of their time and energy and resources, and our attention, over the past many months on a trumped-up non-story, an improbable bit of misdirection foisted on us by a failed candidate with the assistance of a corrupt former administration, then they have made a mockery of the fourth estate. Democracy dies in darkness, sure. Or by being run over by the mainstream media clown car.
Published in Elections
Along with millions of wasted dollars.
If the report is (mostly) exculpatory, there’s another reason why it need not be a nothing-burger. I fully expect the President to make political hay over this, as he probably should, and to use it as a battering ram anytime anyone questions his Presidency. Trump is pretty good at that stuff. BTW I’m not complaining.
Both Pelosi and Schiff are backing away from this rapidly.
I’m mostly surprised that Schiff is backing down. Here’s the nutcase who has been saying he has his own hard proof of collusion, now suddenly running the other direction.
Some think Pelosi put her finger to the political winds and saw that impeachment was a losing proposition. I think Schiff’s reasons have more to do with not wanting to be indicted for his own criminal leaking.
I feel like things are actually starting to fall apart for the Democrats. It’s a great feeling.
Who is we? I certainly haven’t.
Work with me, dude or dudette.
Trump is an existential threat to the administrators of the administrative state. They had to come up with something. This is simply their something. They got Nixon who said in his second inaugural he was coming for them. Trump’s theme was draining the swamp.
Has the CIA or NSA been making sure the FBI Special Probe isn’t up to anything funky?
Can one make a mockery of what is already a mockery? We need an expert opinion. Is there a mockery-making maven in the maison?
Maybe.
Many just have explaining to do. Some have more serious charges to answer to. At the very least we should have something more concrete than opposition-party-bought-foreign-misinformation like the pee pee dossier. If colluding with Russians to influence the election is a major crime, then team HRC and the DNC and several others involved have more trouble than egg on their face. So too the CIA, NSA, and FBI: these agencies politicized the power of the state at the highest level – did they do it on their own or was there a quarterback calling the plays?
If nothing else the Mueller Special Counsel has spared the free world of the evil Paul Manafort who will surely die in prison …. for lots of really, really bad stuff. If Mueller were to stick his same prosecutorial hard nose up the orifice of many DC lobbyists/consultants he would be sure to find the same stink.
Henry is spot on …. the worst idiots in this entire clown car operation have been the MSM for playing along with this Trump/Russia collusion nonsense, when for at least the past year or more they had every reason to know it was a crock of poop.
The even worse idiots are those so-called Republicans who likewise knew it was crock of poo, but “Orange Man Bad!”
I don’t want to overstate the case because proving it would require far too much research, but …. It appeared to me there were far too many (R)/Conservative scribbler/talkers who disliked Trump so much, and so desperately wanted the Trump/Russia collusion BS to be true, that they have essentially held their collective tongues as one of the biggest scandals in US history (ie: Obama DOJ/FBI/IC malfeasance) has unraveled before their eyes.
Being disgusted with the Obama DOJ/FBI/IC malfeasance then investigating and writing about it does not mean you support Trump. If there is a disgusting abuse of power by the DOJ/FBI/IC then call them out and demand those responsible be held accountable … doing just that does not equal being Trumpy …. staying quiet is very wimpy to me.
But it grants them access to those sweet, sweet CNN and MSNBC appearances.
I think Terry Moran got it right on Sunday. There will be a reckoning if there is no collusion found. Too many months of MSM collusion coverage and too many politicians getting airtime claiming they have proof of collusion. Yes, democrats and MSM will try and rewrite their narrative but I think they already spent too long with the collusion narrative.
But who will hold them accountable? What consequences will they suffer?
Voters.
We can’t vote CNN out of existence. : (
And though we voted for President Trump, the Deep State remained in place — and the swamp will prevail.
Drew, the First Amendment gives the press — gives everyone — the right to be as biased and/or inept as they like. That’s a beautiful thing.
My hope is that the consequences they face will be that their ability to influence the electorate will continue to wane, and that the candidates they support will lose. To help bring about those consequences, we have to keep spreading the word about how biased and inept they are, and how little they deserve our trust.
Faith in media is imploding, as it should. But this is the long fight.
Voters include viewers in some cases. CNN will lose a lot of viewers even if they continue to pay many hotel chains and most airports to run them 24/7 if Trump loses in 2020. Or runs out of time in 2024.
I think Terry was referring to journalists more than politicians. And believe it or not, there are still some left even on TV.
But long term even “safe” voting districts can only disappoint their voters for so long. So if politicians expect to win endless reelection they eventually have to stop relying on False promises. Or promises of proof that they can never provide to bring down a President of another party.
The swamp and deep state is for another thread.
Yes, I know. That’s why it’s difficult to punish them in the way they justly deserve.
Yes. But winning is the best revenge. Let’s win.
The initial issue is whether the Mueller report will be released to the public or a summary or nothing beyond a brief statement. That decision is with the Department of Justice. If the report is not immediately released that will become the unceasing cry of the day from Democrats and the media. The failure to release the report will be cited as an impeachable act. I assume that at the same time there will be leaks from the Mueller team about the contents of the report, leaks that will characterize any of its content in the most negative way for the President.
I do think ultimately at least a summary of the report will be issued and probably a full copy leaked to the press.
I assume the contents will indicate:
No indictable collusion type activity by the Trump campaign. However there will be very negative language about the Trump campaign’s activities and statements regarding Russia.
No recommended indictment of the President for obstruction of justice. Once again, however, I anticipate very negative language and speculation about the President’s actions and motives. This will become the new focus for the President’s opponents in the Democratic Party, the media, and The Bulwark. The NY Times will run a 45-part series on the Mueller report for which it will win the Pulitizer Prize.
The goal of the exercise, once no indictable conduct was found, is to ensure the report or a detailed summary becomes public, and to make sure it is written in the most provocative way in order to keep the issue alive as a political matter.
There will be nothing in the report regarding actions by the FBI and DOJ in its investigation of the Trump campaign and in its obtaining of the FISA warrant on Carter Page.
We will learn nothing more about the “unmasking” campaign by the Obama Administration, including who authorized the extensive unmasking supposedly authorized by Samantha Power, which she has denied authorizing herself.
They’re going to find out Trump wasn’t a prostitute for Putin, he was a nymphomaniac.
We will all know soon enough, of course.
I think they will report no evidence of collusion. And, if they do, that will make the past two years of ceaseless press hyperventilating nothing less than scandalous.
I’ve always thought they were trying to pin him for the wrong crimes. It’s been a big waste.
We agree about that last point.
My guess is that in the immediate 48-72 hours after the report is released, if their is no evidence of Russian collusion whatever the worst allegation is against Trump will be spun as being just as bad as Russian collusion. The B- and C-level pols and talking heads will then demand a major investigation and possible impeachment hearings on whatever that happens to be, after which it will be dropped, once The Narrative is set in place that Trump still did something awful (it’s the same scenario that for many on the left mandates even in the blandest of times there must by a crisis at hand, in order to justify government intervention into solving that crisis).
Probably. But if in fact there’s no evidence of collusion, we should make as much noise about that as possible: beat the drums and mock the press for its ceaseless hysteria.
We should have been making noise about this since 2016. By we I mean all Republicans. The basic facts have been known for a long time now. False opposition research has was used as the basis for spying on a campaign and then investigating a president. That happened. The speculative part which should have been the subject of investigation is how that happened and at whose hand. Indeed Paul Ryan’s failures are legion. Mitch at least is getting judges through confirmation.