Day 329: House Republicans Follow Trump’s Lead, Try to Discredit Mueller Probe
Donald Trump has decried the Robert Mueller investigation a partisan witch hunt since inception. Those declarations have only gotten louder, even as Trump’s argument has been undercut by Mueller’s four key arrests and the cooperation of Michael Flynn. Trump, likely sensing his neck growing closer to Mueller’s noose, is doing everything possible to discredit Mueller and his team, deploying a cache of tweets and an army of lawyers and aides to flood the airwaves and newspapers with his spin.
While Fox News continues to serve as a borderline propaganda outlet, plying their viewers with hosts and guests proclaiming the probe is tainted or biased based on inferences and half-truths, Trump has also found a group of allies in Congressional Republicans.
Yesterday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions was forced to recuse himself due to lying about, ahem, meeting with Russians, testified before the House Judiciary Committee.
Republican after Republican lined up to question the credibility of the investigation or cast their own narrative of it.
“The public trust in this whole thing is gone,” said Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, summing up sentiments among his party. “It seems to me there are two things you can do: You can disband the Mueller special prosecutor, and you can do what we’ve all called for and appoint a second special counsel to look into this.”
Public trust is far from gone, as Washington Post-ABC News poll showed Americans approve of the way Mueller is handling the investigation by a 58–28 margin.
Rosenstein, to his credit, did not back down an inch.
But the swelling campaign to undermine Mr. Mueller’s investigation, which has dominated conservative media for days, appeared to have little effect on Mr. Rosenstein, who oversees Mr. Mueller. Mr. Rosenstein said he would only fire Mr. Mueller if he had cause under Justice Department regulations — and he said nothing that has happened so far met that standard.
Instead, Mr. Rosenstein mounted a step-by-step defense of Mr. Mueller’s conduct. He noted that department rules prevented Mr. Mueller from taking political affiliation into consideration when hiring for career positions, and he distinguished between officials holding political views and making investigative decisions out of bias. He said Mr. Mueller would be careful not to allow the latter.
“We recognize we have employees with political opinions. And it’s our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions,” Mr. Rosenstein said after Representative Steve Chabot, Republican of Ohio, read out the names of members of Mr. Mueller’s team and political contributions they had made to Democratic causes.
Republicans were unconcerned that Mueller is a registered Republican who was first appointed to lead the FBI by George W. Bush. They’re similarly silent on the fact that current FBI Director Christopher Wray has previously donated $39,000 to Republicans. Democrats aren’t proclaiming that Wray must suddenly recuse himself from investigations because of bias.
Republicans, with top intelligence for over a year pointing to Russian interference, are now attempting to throw their bodies in front of Donald Trump and protect him. This despite four of his cronies, including his campaign manager and National Security Advisor, being swept up in the probe.
Maybe Republicans were hoping Mueller would learn that there was no collusion and the nation could move on. Now it appears they just don’t care. It’s yet another act of party over country for the GOP.
329 days in, 1133 to go
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