Just drop all the political posturing for a moment and use
basic common sense:
Imagine
you are hired for a job, a job for which both you and the people who hired you
believe that you are someone who can
accomplish great things and turn around what you and those who hired you saw as
a movement in a wrong direction. The day
you begin you are told that you are being accused of a terrible crime that will
not only affect your reputation but also interfere with your ability to perform
your job duties. You know you did not commit this crime, yet you are under
daily attack by those who wanted someone else to get your job. Your friends and family are slandered. The investigation of you for something you know
you are not guilty of heats up more and more every day.
Wouldn’t you be both frustrated and angry
with this daily barrage of interference with your ability to perform the job
you were hired to do? Wouldn’t you wish
and then verbalize your desires that the investigation stop so you could just
do your job? Wouldn’t you even perhaps
think about actually stopping it?
So, in the above scenario, are you nonetheless guilty of
obstructing the investigation when, while you wished and verbalized desires to
do so, in the end you did not actually obstruct the investigation? The Democrats think so. Not because it makes sense, common or
otherwise, but because they must condemn the President. That seems to be the only thing for which
they live – not to do their jobs as elected officials, not to work for the good
of the country, not to support our system of government, not for any other
reason than to destroy Donald Trump and hopes and dreams of all those who
believe in him, in our country, and in a strong and proud America.
I have now read the Mueller report, though in reality it
will take more than one reading to fully understand all of it. But here are some comments on the obstruction
issues (Volume 2 of the report).
First, one must understand that Mueller is a Prosecutor who
was charged with developing a case against Donald Trump. His job is to look at evidence and develop
the strongest case that he can against the subject of his investigation. So, here is what he does: He looks at the law and what he must prove to
make a case against Trump under that law. If the law is ambiguous, he develops the best
argument he can for an interpretation of the law that is favorable to his
position. That argument/interpretation might or might not prevail in court. Then he looks at the evidence in the light most favorable to him (and
most unfavorable to Trump) and develops the best possible argument against
Trump that the evidence can support. Again, that might or might not be an argument that would be successful in court. He
then determines whether this best prosecutorial case is actually strong enough to indict.
So, what we see in Volume 2 are a lawyer’s presentation of
the argument that could be made against Trump on 10 specific allegations of obstruction. This is a one-sided presentation – the strongest
view that the prosecution can come up with.
One must remember that there is also a view and arguments that can be
made in favor of the other side. Law is
an adversarial profession; lawyers represent one side or the other and make the
best argument they can for their client.
Lawyers are not the judge or the jury.
Mueller and his team are good lawyers and they write
arguments that sound convincing. But, remember,
there can be even more convincing arguments written for the other side. And that is likely why Mueller was unwilling
to make an up or down call on obstruction.
He did the investigation and left it to his superior to take a more objective
look and make the final call. As was
appropriate under the law, his superior, the Attorney General, did so. (And, as the Attorney General noted, it was
for him and not for Congress – we don’t use our law enforcement and
intelligence agencies to go on investigatory (and sometimes witch) hunts to
gather information that Congress can use for political purposes).
Everyone will have their own reaction (largely based on
their political leanings) to the evidence set forth in the Mueller report. The main thing I see in Volume 2 (the
obstruction portion of the investigation) is that Donald Trump was very human
in his anger and frustration of being wrongfully accused of collusion. He was angry and frustrated that the
political climate allowed the investigation to become so overtly hateful of
him, his policies, and his supporters.
He was angry and frustrated that this was all interfering with his
ability to focus fully on his job as President of the United States. And, he was not a political operative and was
less savvy in handling this political witch hunt than would be a seasoned
politician.
I think it is time for everyone to let this go. As did the Attorney General, look at the evidence
objectively and in context. Put the
evidence into the larger context of the collusion investigation which it is
clear that Trump felt, and rightfully so, was a witch hunt. So, the President did some things, made some
statements, that may be interpreted negatively; he was not perfect in the face
of the false allegations against him. But,
that does not amount to obstruction. And,
the greatest argument that there was no obstruction is that the investigation
went forward to its end, Trump gave unprecedented access to the investigators,
and at no time claimed executive privilege.
While I, and most others who care about this country, may
think that it is time to let this go, sadly, the Democrats and the Left-biased
media do not. Instead, they double down
on their attacks against the President and now, also, the Attorney General, and
even Mueller (their yesterday hero when they thought he was the one who would “get
Trump”). Some now see the Mueller report
as presenting a plan for their impeachment of the president. They want to unveil grand jury testimony,
something protected by law (protected so that people will not fear testifying
in the future). They are issuing subpoenas
against any and all who might give them some scrap that they can chew into some
sort of allegation. Meanwhile, the rest
of the country’s business that they should be attending to goes unattended.
Above I explained my overall reaction to the Mueller
report. My overall reaction to the
Democrats' responses is that they do not have any understanding whatsoever of
the law, of our country and its government, of their role as elected
representatives of the people, or of human nature in general. They would rather continue their campaign of
hate and anger against the President who, even despite their daily attacks
against him, is accomplishing more for this country than they have been able to
do in many years. Perhaps they might
look, instead of at how next to attack the president, at how they can applaud the
low unemployment and growing economy, the improved international respect that
we see. Perhaps they could try to
support instead of interfering with Trump’s efforts around the world and within
America. Hey, maybe they could even try
to solve the immigration crisis instead of denying its existence. (But, sadly, for many Democrats the only
crisis is that Donald Trump and not they are in power; that Donald Trump and
not they are getting things done.)
As I watch the Democrats react to the Mueller report my
(diminishing) hope is that they might at some point come to their senses. They are destroying themselves with their
overwhelming and irrational hatred. The
danger is that they will take this country with them in their destruction. I pray that, even if their leaders do not, the
rank and file Democrats will come to their senses and demand more than hatred
from their party.
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