Introduction
Even though I believe that U.S. Attorney General Wiliam Barr is a dishonest individual, I do want to thank him for one thing. Because of the incredibly misleading statements that he told in his four-page summary of the Mueller Report a few weeks ago, American citizens, and the entire world, got to see what America would look like in an Alternative Universe, one where the Mueller Report completely exonerated Donald Trump. Let's think back a few weeks ago to the very beginning of that Alternative Universe.
The William Barr Alternative Universe Of Total Exoneration
In the Alternate Universe created by AG William Barr on March 24, 2019 by his supposed 4-page summary of the Mueller Report, the Universe where Robert Mueller and his team completely exonerated Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, and his team were hailed as heroes by both Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans--men who had done their jobs well and properly. Notably, when this occurred, not one Republican thought about the irony that the Republican party had just spent the past 22 months badmouthing both the FBI and the Mueller team in every way that they could. Republicans had methodically gone after every one of the FBI professionals who could confirm what Jim Comey had told them after his fateful meeting with Donald Trump, and Republicans then proceeded to destroy each one of these FBI agent's careers. In addition, Congressional Republicans argued that the entire Mueller investigation should be ended because it was supposedly based on a flawed Steele Dossier (although it was not actually actually started because of that).
Republicans had decided to begin two fake Congressional Russia investigations, one in the House and one in the Senate, where they let witnesses pick and choose which questions they wanted to answer, in order to try to show the world just how misguided the whole Mueller Russia Investigation was and to give Donald Trump cover against the Mueller investigation. Yet, back a few weeks ago, when Mueller and his team had, according to William Barr, come to the conclusion that Republicans were apparently hoping for, yet apparently never expected, not one Republicans said, "Gee, ya know, this outcome is really odd and unexpected." or, "Why did we just spend so much effort trying to smear Robert Mueller and his associates if the report was going to totally exonerate Donald Trump?"
Instead, Republicans completely and totally accepted the outcome that they liked, and they never once questioned an outcome that supposedly had come from 17 Angry Democrats hell-bent on the destruction of Donald Trump from the supposed core of the Deep State. In addition, I could find no reporter who sat back and examined the irony of it all. Instead, the mainstream media started producing articles about how the Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for devoting so much time to the Russia investigation.
Supposedly left-leaning organizations like Salon.com started producing articles saying that Rachel Maddow had become as bad as Fox News (I guess because she actually dared to spend time reading court transcripts on the air) and because Rachel actually spent time wondering aloud why so many odd things were occurring. Republican leadership apparently decided that Democrats must pay for their devotion to Presidential oversight, and whispered to journalists that Trump and his associates were going to go after every one of them who had done Trump so very wrong by even hinting that Trump was anything less than wonderful and pure.
Then Came The Mueller Report
Then the Mueller Report came out on Thursday, April 18 2019, and we learned that William Barr is apparently also an apprentice to Donald Trump. Barr has aparrently mastered both Trump's lying skills and his total lack of ethical behavior. From the Mueller Report, we learned that while Robert Mueller stopped short of recommending an indictment of Donald Trump or anyone on his team on charges of Criminal Conspiracy or Obstruction of Justice, there was apparently a massive amount of collusion and obstruction that went on in Trumplandia.
So, how exactly did Republicans deal with these new revelations that contrasted so sharply with those alleged revelations of Total Exoneration from just a few weeks ago? Well, first they ignored the revelations entirely and proclaimed Total Exoneration for Donald Trump and Game Over for Congressional Democrats. Then, as the mass media slowly went through the report and read line after line, all the while disseminating to the world the shameful amount of bad behavior and malfeasance on the part of Trump and his associates, Donald Trump fell back into his pre March 24 2019, pre 4-page-Barr-summary mode and started complaining about 18 Angry Democrats again. We were suddenly back to we were before, back to the days of Trump complaining that the whole Mueller investigation was a witch hunt and a hoax.
At this point, we should all take a minute and realize what this truly means. It means that for Republicans, the actual reputations and motivations of the Mueller team never really mattered. Whether the people working for Robert Mueller were motivated by a lifelong devotion to justice or had partisan axes to grind never mattered either. To Congressional Republicans, all that mattered was whether the Mueller Report helped or hurt Republicans, and their assessment of Mueller and his team was based solely on that--and nothing else.
When Republicans thought Mueller had cleared Trump, they offered no apologies for the endless months of dragging Mueller's team through the mud. Along those same lines, there will be no acceptance by Congerssional Republicans of the possibility that Mueller's team actually told the truth now that the Report looks bad for Donald Trump. The reputations of Robert Mueller's team never mattered to Trump or the Republicans. The truth never mattered to Republicans. All that ever mattered to Republicans was how well they could craft a good sounding narrative--and both the truth and the reputations of career professionals be damned.
This is what the GOP Has Become
This is what the Grand Old Party, the party that helped to free the slaves, has evolved into. This is also why we need to start Watergate-style Congressional Hearings as soon as possible. During the time of Nixon and the Watergate hearings inthe 1070s, Republicans took a long time to realize that former Presiden RIchard Nixon was corrupt. Today, in the time of Donald Trump, Congressional Republicans have demonstrated that they simply do not care if he is corrupt or not. All they really care about is advancing their agenda, and they are willing to support any lie to do that, no matter who gets hurt along the way. This should not stand.
Robert Mueller and his team spent 22 months putting together the most devastating case of Obstruction of Justice that I have ever seen. We actually have Donald Trump, on video, admitting that he fired Comey for "this Russia thing". Yes, Congressman Jerry Nadler should try to get as much information as possible from William Barr, and Congressional Democrats should try and get as much information as possible from the White House, but as of now, both the White House and AG William Barr’s Department of Justice are stonewalling all requests for information. They have already demnostrated that they will fight any requests for the unredacted Mueller Report, for Grand Jury testimony, and for the underlying Mueller Report evidence all the way up to the Supreme court, and that could take years. In the meantime, honorable and honest Congressman Jerry Nadler, please, start the hearings now.
When Congressman Jerry Nadler issued a subpoena for the full Mueller report, the DOJ responded by saying that his request was “premature and unnecessary". Congressman Nadler, in case you missed it, that is the DOJ flipping you off. Oh, and the DOJ offering to provide the slightly less redacted version of the Mueller Report to a few select people, as long as they say nothing about what they read? Congressman Nadler, You were totally right to turn that down, That was a giant insult. Please do not let them do this to you. Fight back! Show them if the DOJ will not give you the info, you will recreate it yourself with Congressional Hearings. Those 17 or 18 Angry Democrats are all still alive and are all still living in the United States. They can tell you exactly who to interview so that you do not waste time. They might even help you figure out which questions to ask.
In the words of former Attorney General Eric Holder, ANY prosecutor could win on the case Robert Mueller has given Congress. Here's what the former Attorney General wrote on twitter yesterday mornng:
Yes, one should always get as much information as possible before starting hearings, but Trump and Barr have bunkered up. They will fight Congressional Democrats now for every scrap of information Because of this, the time has come for Watergate-style hearings for the Russia Investigation.
Congressman Jerry Nadler and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, I know neither of you wanted this. Most of us Democrats hoped we could avoid this as well. Yet, after two years of the most corrupt and dishonest American Presidency that the world has ever seen, we have had enough. Robert Mueller handed America a gift to save American Democracy. At this point, Congressional Republicans would not vote to convict Donald Trump in the Senate if we had video of Donald Trump shooting someone on Fifth Avenue. Does the fact that Senate Republicans will never convict mean that we should not even bother with hearings, regardless of the evidence?
At this point, whether or not the Senate would vote to convict is not nearly as important as choosing to fight the fight worth fighting. If we do not fight this fight, will we really deserve to win the Presidency in 2020? If we do not fight this fight, will our party be any better than the Republicans? It is now time, in the words of Dylan Thomas, to "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", no matter the outcome.
Our country was created by a bunch of people fighting against what they knew to be wrong. Every one of our Founding Fathers risked death for their beliefs. Thomas Jefferson wrote that, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." We don't actually need anyone's blood, but we do need a whole lot of effort. Please, Congressional Democratic Leadership, make the effort. We showed up in droves in 2018 to give the Congress back to Democrats, overcoming vicious gerrymandering. You know we have your backs. This is the fight for which you will be remembered. Do you wish to be remembered as fighting for what you believed in, or for tirelessly gathering information until the clock ran out? If you do not fight, what exactly is all of that information gathering for?