Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Here’s my scorecard on questions related to Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the campaign of President Donald Trump conspired with Russia:
Did President Donald Trump or his campaign cooperate with Russian efforts to affect the outcome of the 2016 election?
Republicans, 0.75; Democrats, 0.25.
Mueller says he did not find enough evidence to indicate the Trump campaign criminally conspired with Russia. He did find evidence that the campaign might have known about and encouraged Russia’s anti-Hillary Clinton efforts.
Reasonable doubt, however, is likely to carry the day even if Senate Republicans do not lock arms against inconvenient facts in their unquestioning (and to me unreasonable) loyalty to the shakiest president we ever elected, should the House of Representatives call for impeachment.
Did the president act to obstruct the investigation?
Republicans, 0; Democrats, 1.
Mueller says he cannot exonerate the president on obstruction, and also points out his job is not to prosecute elected presidents. He strongly hints that it’s Congress’ job.
If there was no cooperation between the president’s campaign and the Russians, why would there be obstruction of the investigation?
Republicans, 0; Democrats 1.
I see two possible explanations: 1. The president ignorantly thought there may have been some criminal cooperation. 2. The president’s paranoia and zero-sum (I win, you lose or vice versa) assumptions about government and politics made him think the Democrats would find a crime, even if there wasn’t one.
Obstruction is a crime either way.
Will Attorney General William Barr’s investigation of the Mueller probe find that Mueller’s investigation was motivated by a Democratic Party scheme to make sure Trump was not elected?
So far:
Republicans, 0.5; Democrats, 0.5
Republicans insist the Mueller probe was started because of the Steele dossier, which Democrats deny. If the Republicans are right, it seems the dossier contains mostly unsubstantiated hearsay. Republicans get a half-point.
Democrats say the investigation was started after a Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, told Alexander Downer, a high-ranking Australian official, about Russia’s “dirt” on Hillary Clinton — the filched emails. When the emails later leaked, Democrats say, Australian officials informed U.S. officials about the conversation with Papadopoulos, and that got the investigation rolling.
That’s what the Mueller report says. Score a half-point for the Democrats.
Should the president be impeached?
Republicans, 0; Democrats, 1.
Yes. There is enough evidence of Trump’s attempts at obstruction to begin a Congressional inquiry. Mueller has strongly hinted at this.
Will the president be impeached?
Republicans, 1: Democrats, 0.
No. The Senate’s majority Republicans think Trump’s base is too big to fail. If impeachment occurred, the Senate would conduct the trial, and for them, the incentives to rig the trial in favor of Trump are far more powerful than their duty to conduct a fair and impartial trial.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi and more pragmatic Democrats know this is what would happen, so they are discouraging calls from their more idealistic colleagues, based on duty, to begin impeachment.
I think pragmatism will beat duty on both sides.
Steve Hansen writes about our life and times from his perspective of a semi-retired Tucumcari journalist. Contact him at: