Greg Sargent raises a good point:
Given that Robert S. Mueller III’s findings supposedly amounted to “total exoneration” for President Trump, you might be puzzled to learn that Trump’s top allies are spending enormous amounts of time scheming about how to undermine the former special counsel’s credibility and cast doubt on those findings.
With Mueller set to testify to Congress on July 17, Politico reports that Trump’s leading Republicans defenders in the House are putting together a new battle plan that will finally expose the Mueller investigation once and for all as the fraud it has always been.
I think this is a simple recognition that when Mueller goes in front of the cameras and answers the Democrats’ questions, his honest and straightforward answers are not going to jibe with the narrative that has been told by the White House and attorney general William Barr. In other words, they know that narrative will immediately become obsolete.
During Watergate, President Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler initially told reporters that there was nothing to see: “it was a third-rate burglary.” Later on, he conceded that his first spin on the story had become “inoperative.”
So, it’s in anticipation of having a major problem that the Republicans are readjusting their strategy. Mueller is no longer “The Great Exonerator,” but the leader of a failed coup run by Obama holdovers, Clinton diehards, and rogue and treasonous leaders of “the Deep State.”
It’s easy to understand why Mueller resisted having to testify. I think he also is capable of anticipating how these hearings will go, and he didn’t want to have his reputation tarnished.
In the first phase of this saga, the White House has some big advantages. Number one, since the public was primed for evidence of a conspiracy, the report was less damning than many expected. Number two, since William Barr was able to dictate how the information was doled out and put his own spin on it, the White House has control of the narrative.
In the second phase, beginning with Mueller’s testimony, the surprise at the tepidness of the report has worn off and the focus is going to be on the parts that are most incriminating. At least on the House side, the Democrats and Mueller will be in charge of the narrative. This changes the dynamics in a way that is hard to defend on the merits. So, the alternative strategy is to trash Mueller so that people will be less inclined to accept what he says as the holy gospel.
Unfortunately, there are countless quotes on the record from Republicans who defended Mueller’s integrity before, during and after his inquiry.
From “Total Exoneration!” to “Treasonous Coup!”, one has to admire the ability of low-grade Foxist and Rushified conserva-cogs just to keep up with the evolving Trump/Barr/McConnell narrative, let alone (apparently) believe it. Also, too, what kind of a determined “coup leader” comes up with something like the Mueller Report? Wouldn’t a treasonous coup leader worth his salt have to do a better job than this?
“We are now at war with Oceania!” Orwellian satire has nothing on National Trumpalist reality.
I am amazed at the perverted level of thinking a modern conservative has to have these days. Family values? Personal responsibility? they are devoid of any sort of moral compass whatsoever…very, very, sad. I cry for my country.
That’s something that has puzzled me. If Mueller’s more than halfway smart, as his reputation suggests, he should’ve anticipated _all_ of this, including the impotence of his report on a corrupt president and party. (Most of us certainly did.) If he wanted to impose some consequence on Republican lawbreaking, wouldn’t he have chosen a different route?
I suspect that he’s simply not concerned. He’s a close personal friend of Barr, right? I’m sure they disagree about specifics of this matter, but I imagine there’s more overlap there than would make us comfortable.
Alternate take: Yes, he’s reportedly “a close personal friend of Barr”, I think. Therefore, he was genuinely taken by surprise with the brazenness of Barr’s treasonous, oath-breaking betrayal (personal, and of the nation) in his attempted coverup.
I know I found it breathtaking!
I hope you’re right. I absolutely know that my close personal friends aren’t treasonous Trumpies, though. The suggestion that Mueller didn’t notice that about one of his friends is … curious?
Yeah, and to be clear, I’m not promoting that take as how it necessarily is, nor even how I think it probably is. Just throwing it out there as a plausible alternative way of looking at it. And who knows, it could be right! It could happen. Stranger things have.
Was Mueller awake during the Ray-gun/Bush years? Why did he think Trump nominated Barr?
Or he is the last of the old school, who thinks ideas like shame and personal responsibility have meaning. Not for any of the sociopaths currently running the Republican Party.
Yeah, he might be pathologically naive. That just seems unlikely, no? For someone political enough to have achieved everything he has in his career.
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