After Attorney General William Barr looked over the report on the Russia investigation handed in by Robert Mueller (below), he issued a summary of the Mueller report this past Sunday - giving talking heads on cable news something to talk about all day along on the slowest news day of the week (pre-empting in the process a couple of CNN documentaries I'd been hoping to watch!) - that said there was neither evidence of collusion between the Russians and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign nor evidence of obstruction of justice.
Trump quickly claimed victory, suddenly embracing Mueller as a truth-teller and blasting the Democrats for insinuating that a crime had been committed and that they will pay dearly for their attempted character assassination.
So is this the end? Are the Democrats doomed to wearing egg yolk on their faces all the way to next November? Is Trump vindicated? Not so fast. Mueller was supposed look at the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election and catch the guys who were involved. He did that. And while he found no evidence to suggest that Trump went so far as to collude with Putin to get himself elected President, he did find a whole lot of other wrongdoing that highlighted the extent of Russian interference in our elections. There's another problem - while Mueller's report said that he couldn't find enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of justice, he couldn't find enough evidence to exonerate Trump either. It was Barr who said that Trump was exonerated, which makes sense, considering that he was appointed by . . . Trump.
And Rod Rosenstein more or less agreed with Barr's conclusion.
And while this investigation had nothing to do with Trump's finances and tax returns, there is some information in the Mueller report that could be helpful in those investigations being handled by the Southern District of New York and the New York State Attorney General's office, as well as House oversight committees. So this isn't over for Trump. But this should put to rest the idea that this investigation would be the silver bullet that would take Trump down. Of course, the Mueller report should be issued in its entirety, and, in matters like this, we should never take the word of an Attorney General appointed by the President on such a matter as the final word. But while it may raise more questions than it answers, looking at the full Mueller report isn't necessarily going to answer any more questions. Democrats were ready to accept Mueller's findings - which, by the way, yielded a lot of indictments - whatever they may be, and now they have to do so.
Besides, what if Trump is telling the truth and he did not collude with the Russians? Could it be possible that the Russians did try to interfere in the 2016 presidential election even as Trump had nothing to do with it, and that any charge that he didn't win fair and square is being leveled by Democrats who are ready to blame everyone for Hillary Clinton's loss except Hillary Clinton herself for her lousy campaign and the Democratic National Committee for failing to get a reliable firewall for their e-mail servers when those same Russians decided to break into them? No, of course not, that would destroy their narrative.
It seems nothing short of high irony that the biggest critics of what Trump called "this Russia thing" are not Trump supporters but are in fact liberals and anti-Clinton Democrats. They saw the Russia investigation as another diversion from the real issues regarding the quality of life in America and a distraction from the fact that the Democrats have done little to help the people and have failed to pass universal health care or bank regulation. The Russia story, as far as they're concerned, was just another ruse by establishment leaders to get people's minds off the real issues - Russophobia from the Cold War days repackaged to dupe the masses. Well, guess what - the Mueller report is the best thing to happen for Democrats as well as for Trump. It may be an even better thing for Democrats. The Mueller report is the end of the beginning, a precursor to the other investigations I alluded to that will take place with a lot less noise for now. This frees the Democrats, especially their 2020 presidential candidates, to talk about the issues affecting average Americans and not about Trump, even as Jerrold Nadler, Adam Schiff, and Elijah Cummings lead their respective House committees' investigations of Trump outside the limelight of public scrutiny. These subsequent investigations could find something to reverse Trump's fortunes, but for now, Democrats have the opportunity to change the subject to serious issues like health care and climate change. Nancy Pelosi's decision to avoid pursuing impeachment looks more like a stroke of genius and less like a stroke.
Note to Democrats: It was never Mueller's duty to save the day. It's up to you to save the day by energizing your base and nominating for President someone people can actually vote for, as opposed to having a place to cast a ballot against Trump, while providing congressional oversight over his conduct in office. Mueller's work is done. You are only getting started.
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