News Politics

Robert Mueller Tempts Dems to Focus on Impeachment While Trump Focuses on Issues

Democratic presidential candidates rushed Wednesday morning to call for President Donald Trump to be impeached, after Special Counsel Robert Mueller left the door open for Congress to accuse the president of obstruction of justice.

Mueller said nothing new, other than defending Attorney General William Barr as having acted in “good faith” in his summary of the investigation’s report. He reiterated that there was “insufficient evidence” to substantiate claims of Russian collusion, and said the investigation did not reach a conclusion on obstruction: “As set forth in our report, after that investigation, if we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that.”

All of that had been said before. Yet Democrats seized on it — as well as on Mueller’s acknowledgment that he could not have charged a sitting president with a crime, as per Department of Justice policy — to demand impeachment.



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Execution set for twisted killer who taunted police with message in victim’s blood: ‘Catch me if u can’
Trump Announces Major News for ‘Rogue’ Ex-GOP Representative
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Texas teens arrested in killing of Marine veteran working as rideshare driver
Elise Stefanik Calls Mamdani a ‘Jihadist Communist’ in Response to NYT Hit Piece on His Critics
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President Donald Trump commutes former New York GOP Rep. George Santos’ prison sentence
Louisiana man arrested for allegedly participating in Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack
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Fox News Politics Newsletter: Bolton pleads not guilty
Dem judge in hot seat after DHS exposes ‘whole new level’ of activism, sheltering illegal immigrant
Top Houthi military leader killed in Yemen by ‘Israeli-American’ airstrike
Mamdani sparks online frenzy over response to whether he endorses NY Gov Hochul: ‘Humiliating’

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — who would need to agree to bring an impeachment vote to the floor — attempted to sidestep the issue. Yet she is under pressure from inside her caucus, many of whose members spoke out Wednesday:


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The demands for impeachment drowned out discussion of other policy issues. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), for example, desperate to revive his campaign, launched a new immigration policy Wednesday — and was largely ignored.

That could be the pattern for the next 18 months. By holding out the possibility of impeachment, Mueller has given Democrats a temptation they cannot refuse.

That was probably not his intention. Mueller did not have to pursue an obstruction investigation, nor did he have to disclose the results of that investigation. He pointed out Wednesday that he could not indict a sitting president, but failed to note that it was also impossible to charge a retired president with obstruction of justice, for actions taken furtherance of his constitutional duties. Mueller seemed, all along, to be seeking a way to bring down the president.

The main reason Mueller declined to testify before Congress may have been that he would have faced very difficult questions about whether he had investigated the origins of the surveillance of the Trump campaign, and whether that had been linked to misinformation fed by Russia to the FBI, via former British spy Christopher Steele, the Fusion GPS opposition research firm, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. (If not, why not?)


Bill Ackman jumps into NYC mayoral fight, says Sliwa must drop or ‘we are toast’
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White House Staffers Troll Far-Left HuffPost Over Question About Who Suggested Putin Meeting in Hungary: ‘Your Mom Did’
Texas teens arrested in killing of Marine veteran working as rideshare driver
Elise Stefanik Calls Mamdani a ‘Jihadist Communist’ in Response to NYT Hit Piece on His Critics
Zelensky surprised by Trump Truth post following meeting but agrees war must ‘stop where we are’
President Donald Trump commutes former New York GOP Rep. George Santos’ prison sentence
Louisiana man arrested for allegedly participating in Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack
House Republican unveils bill to award Trump Congressional Gold Medal
Fox News Politics Newsletter: Bolton pleads not guilty
Dem judge in hot seat after DHS exposes ‘whole new level’ of activism, sheltering illegal immigrant
Top Houthi military leader killed in Yemen by ‘Israeli-American’ airstrike
Mamdani sparks online frenzy over response to whether he endorses NY Gov Hochul: ‘Humiliating’
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Regardless — whether Democrats impeach Trump or not, they will be consumed by the issue through 2020, while Trump discusses the economy, his foreign policy successes, and his new proposals on health care and immigration.

Mueller may have hoped to hurt Trump. Instead, he gave him a huge gift.

Story cited here.

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