Democrats ahead of the hearing had hoped that Mueller would bring his report to life — that even if he stayed within the confines of the report, he would help illustrate to the public the misconduct the investigation had documented. Instead, Mueller’s constant one-word responses and decision not to engage on a multitude of issues even within in the report prompted Trump and Republicans to declare victory Wednesday and call for Democrats to move on.
(CNN, July 25, 2019)
Evidently, Democrats had no clue that Mueller served as nothing more than a figurehead for the lawyers and agents who conducted this famous investigation in his name. But what played out smacked of political malpractice.
Because, like everyone else, the presiding Democrats sat dumbfounded as the obvious ravages of old age made it difficult for Mueller to hear their leading questions, let alone respond according to script. How could they not have known that Mueller was no longer the made-for-TV character he was 10 years ago…?
Think what you will about the Trump stooges at Fox News, but nobody summed up the spectacle that unfolded as fairly and pithily as anchor Chris Wallace:
I had to laugh a little bit when you talked about the testimony by Robert Mueller because testimony has to be put in quotes. …
This has been a disaster for the Democrats and I think it’s been a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller.
(RealClear Politics, July 24, 2019)
Train wrecks are usually perversely entertaining. But this one was just intensely cringeworthy. I mean, imagine the shock and dismay if the following scene played out:
- K. Rowling appears at a congressional hearing on the childhood reading phenomenon her books inspired.
- A congressman asks her about Professor Albus Dumbledore.
- Bewildered, Rowling fumbles over the name before admitting she has no idea who that is.
I fear this shambolic performance will result in more than a jab to Mueller’s legacy. My heart goes out to him.
But I blame his colleagues for not doing as much to keep him from testifying at this hearing as Trump’s lawyers did to keep him from testifying during Mueller’s investigation. In Trump’s case, they knew not only that he would be exposed as a certifiable dunce, but that this pathological liar would commit at least 1000 counts of perjury.
As for the dumbfounded Democrats, well, this serves them right for putting so many of their impeachment eggs in this Mueller basket.
But they control the House. Therefore, Democrats still face the categorical imperative of impeaching Trump. This, no matter the damnable intent of Republicans who control the Senate to acquit him, or that a “martyred” Trump might make him and Republicans invincible at the polls in 2020 (I don’t ascribe to this prevailing wisdom).
Incidentally, Trump has thoroughly cuckholded Republicans by taking over their party. This is why they would acquit him even if Democrats presented clear and convincing evidence that he committed more rapes than the Mexican migrants he infamously slandered as rapists. #Projection!
No doubt Mueller failed to serve the Democrats’ purposes by emulating Sgt. Joe Friday (or the cinematic Eliot Ness). But the fact remains that he cited so many credible charges of high crimes and misdemeanors against Trump, they make those Leon Jaworski cited against Nixon seem like prosecutorial overreach.
Frankly, if Democrats fail to impeach, history will judge them as every bit as complicit in normalizing Trump’s willful misconduct as Republicans. And, yes, they can impeach while (despite or to spite Trump) the intelligence agencies work to foil Russia’s manifest intent to attack US elections in 2020 even more insidiously than it did in 2016.
Related commentaries:
Mueller speaks…
Projection…
Republicans abandon faith…
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