Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered his final report to Attorney General William Barr on March 22. The investigation, which lasted for nearly two years, looked into whether or not Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election and whether or not Trump was involved with obstruction of justice.
In his summary to Congress, Attorney General Barr stated that Mueller found no evidence of collusion with Russia.
On obstruction of justice, Barr stated that the report neither incriminates nor exonerates the president. Mueller laid out evidence for both sides, leaving judgment on whether or not Trump obstructed justice to other authorities.
While it’s been made clear that there is no evidence of criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Democrats continue to push this issue and insist that some level of collusion must have occurred. This shows on social media, as opponents of Trump continue to insist collusion occurred.
Instead of playing politics with the probe, Democrats should stop talking about it explicitly and focus on policy going into the 2020 election season. There are a plethora of issues plaguing the nation that Americans want solutions for. We need to have open and honest discussions about policies like Medicare-for-all, rebuilding the infrastructure of the country, climate change, immigration reform, the income and wealth inequality gap, the influence of money in our elections and many more issues.
Trump’s platform is not good for Americans and Democrats should be taking every opportunity they can to make this very clear. Let’s talk solutions, not play politics.
There are plenty of reasons Trump is a terrible president regardless of whether he colluded with Russia. While Mueller found no evidence of coordination with the Russian government, the Trump campaign openly encouraged Russia to interfere in the election and it turns out that’s exactly what happened. Trump also had investments and interests in Russia that he lied about.
Trump is crude and represents the country poorly. Trump is not viewed positively by many of the United States’ allies. He’s unintelligent and not capable of maintaining a solid stance on issues.
Trump’s administration is clearly corrupt. He appointed Ajit Pai as Chairmen of the Federal Communication Commission. Pai worked for Verizon as general counsel and is now in charge of regulating companies he once represented.
Scott Pruit, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, was under investigation regarding his use of taxpayer money for travel, his suspicious spending habits and his use of aides to do personal errands. Ryan Zinke, former Interior Secretary, and Tom Price, former Health and Human Services Secretary, are also both under investigation for misuse of public funds.
At least nine individuals associated with Trump or his campaign have been charged/indicted for various crimes. Six of them have pleaded guilty and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, was convicted of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. Clearly, Trump’s inner circle is corrupt.
While Democrats should continue to push for the public release of Mueller’s full report, we should shift the focus to more tangible arguments.
Because Mueller’s report did not make a decision on obstruction of justice, there is enough evidence for Democrats to reasonably continue to investigate this. As opposed to the issue of collusion, the question of obstruction has not been settled.
Regardless of whether Trump colluded with Russia, the reasons to vote him out of office are plentiful. Continuing to push the issue of collusion will continue to deepen the political divide in this country and fuel the toxic rhetoric we constantly experience.
