America made it through Robert Mueller’s testimony on Capitol Hill and while it wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say there were no fireworks, it arguably wasn’t the circus that some expected.
It seems likely that both Democrats and Republicans will come away disappointed, albeit for different reasons. Trump will claim it was all at once a victory and a travesty. In exchanges with Ken Buck and Ted Lieu, Mueller appeared to indicate that he would have indicted Donald Trump were it not for regulations preventing the special counsel’s office from charging a sitting president with a federal crime.
Subsequently, as the second hearing of the day with the House Intelligence Committee got underway, Mueller “clarified” his remarks, essentially repeating what he said in the report and in his May 29 press conference.
Read more: Mueller Appears To Tell Ken Buck That Trump Would Have Been Indicted, Later ‘Corrects’ The Record
Many accounts of the proceedings describe Mueller as being “off his game” or “not as sharp as he once was”. To the extent that’s true, one explanation could be that he made clear in May he did not want to testify because, quote, “the report is my testimony”. So, it’s possible the reason the former FBI director often appeared confused and generally out of sorts is that by his own account, he was there against his wishes. It’s also possible he’s just old and tired, to speak colloquially.
In any event, the second hearing with Adam Schiff’s intelligence panel generated some notable moments, including the following exchange during which Mueller discussed the Trump administration’s affinity for Wikileaks.
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As you can see, Robert Mueller thinks “problematic” is “an understatement” when it comes to describing the current US president’s love affair with what Trump’s own current Secretary of State has called “a hostile intelligence service”.
Mueller was also asked why he didn’t subpoena Trump.
“We decided that we did not want to exercise the subpoena powers because of the necessity of expediting the end of the investigation”, Mueller said, adding that “if we did subpoena the president, he would fight the subpoena”. Clearly, that is not ideal.
Asked whether Russia’s malign efforts to interfere in America’s democracy were a “single attempt”, Mueller said no.
“Nah, it wasn’t a single attempt”, he scoffed. “They’re doing it as we sit here”.
As far as anyone knows, the only person in American politics of any consequence who has yet to whole-heartedly endorse that assessment of Russia’s efforts to subvert the democratic process is the President of the United States who, while seated with Vladimir Putin in Osaka at the end of last month, literally made a joke of telling the Russian president not to meddle in the 2020 election.
Nothing further.
Full coverage of the Mueller hearings
So depressing. All of it.
Why are you depressed? It was clear from those hearings if Trump were not president he would be on his way to federal prison. It is also clear that — despite Trump taking the side of Putin over all of our intelligence agencies — Russia interfered in our election and is laying the groundwork to do it in 2020, and Republicans won’t do anything about it. Why would you be depressed, knowing that Trump is not only a pathological liar, a crook, a tax cheat, a sexual assaulter and a rapist —- but he is also a national security risk.
I have expressed the positives, which should make you feel better.
Now, would you to tell you something that will make you feel depressed?
You’re right, of course. But that doesn’t mitigate the fact that one of our two major political parties is determined to protect Trump, ignore Russian interference in our elections, and denigrate the work of Mueller and the committee; that a major cable network is dedicated to disseminating far-right propaganda and spreading false narratives designed to deflect and distract from the clear and present threat to our democracy that Trump represnts; and that 80 percent of Republican voters do not and will never accept the truth about Trump and his enablers, both in Congress and the Kremlin. That’s depressing.
To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
Now all the truth is out,
Be secret and take defeat
From any brazen throat,
For how can you compete,
Being honor bred, with one
Who were it proved he lies
Were neither shamed in his own
Nor in his neighbors’ eyes;
Bred to a harder thing
Than Triumph, turn away
And like a laughing string
Whereon mad fingers play
Amid a place of stone,
Be secret and exult,
Because of all things known
That is most difficult.
MAY 1914