The Mueller report made it clear: Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and there are at least 10 instances of Donald Trump obstructing justice. It's extremely troubling, and any objective reader would conclude that he must be held accountable.
During his May 29 remarks, special counsel Robert Mueller said that, under Department of Justice policy, he cannot indict a sitting president—but the Constitution allows other measures.
In other words, Congress needs to follow up on his investigation and start an impeachment inquiry.
It would help if members of Congress had read the Mueller report, a 400+ page redacted version of which has been public for two months.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first presidential candidate to call for Trump’s impeachment after she read the report. Rep. Justin Amash is (to date) the only Republican in Congress to call for his impeachment, and he came to that conclusion after reading the report. And most recently, Democrat Rep. Katie Porter (who flipped a long-held Republican district in Orange County last fall) has come out in favor of impeachment after reading the report.
Meanwhile, Georgia Republican Rep. Rod Woodall admitted to MSNBC that he did not read the report, which led Daily Kos staff to wonder: How many other members of Congress still haven't read the report? Daily Kos activated our activism email list to promote a call to action—and more than 350 of you answered the call. Once you were connected to your member of Congress through the Capitol Hill switchboard, you left this message:
Hello, my name is {{ SAY YOUR NAME }} calling from {{ ZIP CODE' }} in {{ YOUR CITY }}. I want to ask: Did my member of Congress read the Mueller report? If so, what do they plan to do about it? If not, why did they not read the Mueller report?
As a former Capitol Hill intern (I worked for Sen. Dick Durbin in the late 1990s), I know what it's like to answer constituent phone calls in a congressional office. Unless your boss has made a public statement you can refer to, you do not answer a question with a definite answer. So it's unsurprising that folks overwhelmingly got the answer "I don't know." But despite that, we got a surprising number of affirmative responses—and (depending on your perspective) entertaining or disturbing explanations as to what they plan to do about it.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS:
Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, Bill Posey of Florida, William Timmons of South Carolina, Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, John Curtis of Utah, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Steve Watkins of Kansas, Tim Walberg of Michigan, Scott Tipton of Colorado, and others all had their aides confirm to constituents that yes, they had read the report—without further comment.
If they did read the report, it's hard to imagine that they did not come to the conclusion that Congress should hold impeachment hearings. But it's the members whose offices chose to add additional comments that were most revealing:
"Impeachment would divide America."
Bryan Steil (Wisconsin): The aide said that he read the report but doesn't want to proceed with impeachment hearings because it would divide America.
One could argue President Donald Trump has divided America and will continue to do so as long as he stays in office.
Reading comprehension fail.
John Moolenaar (Michigan): The aide said he read the report and that there was a statement on his website. I checked it out and see that it has one sentence indicating that there was no collusion. Therefore I called Rep. Moolenaar's office again to register my concern that it does NOT say that he read the report and that I was not satisfied with his statement about the report in that it only mentioned no collusion but didn't address the obstruction of justice.
"Nothing to see here."
Jim Hagedorn (Minnesota): He went over it with his staff. His conclusion was there is no collusion and the government needs to stop wasting taxpayer money on investigating Trump.
I'm sure that Jim Hagedorn felt the same way about Benghazi, right?
"Yeah, so what do you expect me to do about it?"
Greg Walden (Oregon): Yes, he read it. But "there is nothing about impeachment before the congress just now."
There is nothing about impeachment before the Congress now? Actually, Walden could join the co-sponsors of H Res 257, who have called for an impeachment inquiry. I’m sure they would be delighted to have him as part of a growing coalition.
"I like to read books."
Tom Cole (Oklahoma): The aide said Cole was an avid reader and read the entire 448 pages. I told her I would hope he would do something constructive based on what he read!
"You mean Attorney General Bill Barr's report, right?"
Kenny Marchant (Texas): "The aide said he thought he had read the DOJ report. I asked if that was the Attorney General's summary. He wasn't sure, but would pass along my request that he read the actual report or, at least, Mr. Mueller's summaries."
Kenny Marchant came close to losing in 2018, and has a new Democratic challenger.
And then, there were a few Republicans whose offices were rude and disrespectful in response to their constituents’ questions:
Denver Riggleman (Virginia): "They hung up on me three times before I could say anything."
David Joyce (Ohio): "They laughed. That pretty much sums up that he doesn't really care about losing our democracy."
HOUSE DEMOCRATS:
Not surprisingly, the responses from Democratic offices were far more friendly.
Several offices confirmed that the representatives had read the report and supported an impeachment probe (California's Ted Lieu, Arizona's Greg Stanton, Pennsylvania's Madeleine Dean, Colorado's Diana DeGette, New Mexico's Ben Ray Luján, and several others). An aide to Michigan's Debbie Dingell said that "she is on her third read-through."
But while many Democrats made statements that they support the investigation, some were noncommittal about holding Trump accountable—and about whether an impeachment probe can help build up public support.
Susan Davis (California): "I asked about impeachment and the aide stated that Susan prefers to wait for ongoing committee investigations to complete as well as having more congressional and public support to impeach. I asked if there was a time table for committee investigations, and the aide did not know."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been reluctant to push harder on impeachment, likely because she fears it does not have political support and would make things uncomfortable for members who represent more Republican-leaning or swing districts. I found this comment helpful.
Lucy McBath (Georgia): "He didn't know [if she had read the Mueller report.] Lucy has read it. I'm sure. I reminded him that our district has been Republican as long as I've been here until Lucy and that they should send it out to her constituents that she read the report and what's in it specifically."
If a swing district legislator such as Katie Porter can come out in favor of impeachment (because of what is in the Mueller report), then so can others. And by reading what's in the report and using it to educate their constituents, they can build up more public support. Because as the Trump administration continues to stonewall Congress' investigation, the public will get more and more restless about why Democrats have not ratcheted things up. Consider what this constituent had to report back:
Lance Gooden (Texas): "Yes, that he has read the whole [Mueller report], and I followed with the question: "Why is it that nothing has been done about having a criminal in the White House?" I could 'feel' an uncomfortable squirm, and pause, and ‘Uhhhh. That is a question I cannot answer.’"
So are these constituent phone calls helpful? You bet. Consider the feedback we got from this Republican congressional office:
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Washington): Many people are calling and asking if she read [the Mueller report], and he would pass that message along to her.
So please, keep calling.
Paul Hogarth is a Campaign Director on the Daily Kos Activism Team.