Why every American should celebrate.
The Mueller Report finally dropped, and the most shocking revelation is how little it actually changes what we already knew about the 2016 presidential election. What it does do, however, is finally put to bed an insidious accusation that led millions of people to question the integrity of our democratic institutions.
Nearly every day for over two years, news outlets like CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Vox, Daily Beast, BuzzFeed News, and more have been insinuating and sometimes outright accusing President Trump of “colluding” with the Russian government to win the 2016 election.
I said it two years ago and I’ll say it again: the collusion conspiracy has always been about undermining the election results, casting Trump as illegitimate, and yes, getting revenge for Trump’s embrace of the Obama “birther” conspiracy.
Hillary Clinton supporters were so certain she would defeat Trump in a landslide, they literally couldn’t believe Trump actually won by legitimate means. There had to be another explanation besides Hillary was a lousy candidate whose scorched earth campaign against Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary cost her crucial votes in the Midwest.
Rather than gracefully admitting defeat, revelations that Russians hacked into DNC servers and allegedly released damaging information to the public through Wikileaks opened the door to a new narrative, one that, to any objective bystander, smacked of desperation. It cost taxpayers $12.9 million disproving these allegations.
Even now, in the face of Special Council Robert Mueller’s conclusion that there is no evidence Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia, partisan hacks can’t admit defeat. “I don’t need the Mueller report to know [President Trump is] a traitor. I have a TV,” Bill Maher said on national television.
And yes, if you have been watching or reading any of the news outlets I mentioned earlier for the past two years, what else could you conclude?
Here is what Robert Mueller concluded after issuing 2,800 subpoenas, executing nearly 500 search warrants, and interviewing approximately 500 witnesses, according to Attorney General William Barr:
“The report outlines the Russian effort to influence the election and documents crimes committed by persons associated with the Russian government in connection with those efforts. The report further explains that a primary consideration for the Special Counsel’s investigation was whether any Americans including individuals associated with the Trump campaign joined the Russian conspiracies to influence the election, which would be a federal crime. The Special Counsel’s investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
Unfortunately for Bill Maher and friends, what Mueller based his conclusion on is called “evidence,” not some TV news pundit’s opinion.
CNN, et al, is still misrepresenting things, claiming the summary issued by Attorney General Barr “does not exonerate” Trump on charges of obstructing justice. Wrong. Mueller explicitly left the issue of obstruction up to the Attorney General’s Office, and the Attorney General concluded the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”
I predict most Americans will put this sad chapter in our recent political history behind them, while an increasingly desperate and partisan minority will continue clutching at straws. I won’t argue the Mueller investigation was a waste of time. On the contrary, it exposed Russian efforts to influence our elections and led to the prosecution of some nefarious characters. Most importantly, it exonerated the President of a particularly nasty charge that threatened to shatter our faith in our political institutions. We can all sleep a little easier tonight.
M.A. Kleen 