As Amy Walter pointed out, it is definitely worth reading the Mueller report no matter what side of the aisle you're on as there is something there for everyone. You can read it here.
On the one hand in the first half of the report, it outlines how the president did not collude with Russia. On the other in the second half, it shows a president rooted in obstructing justice at any cost. Now, there are qualifiers and context that are attached to those rudimentary assessments but if you're looking for Rudy Giuliani to provide any cogent explanation, you're looking in the wrong place.
Mr. Giuliani, with every television appearance, embarrasses himself further and today was no exception. The prime observation from the interview with Chuck Todd is that Mr. Giuliani is arguing that it's OK to use information provided by a foreign adversary against your opponent in a campaign, trying to normalize it. As a general proposition, it's difficult to make sense of all of Mr. Giuliani's gibberish because he's in the position of being Mr. Trump's defense attorney, but gives examples of when he was a prosecutor. First, he said that the special counsel never took the position of Mr. Trump being innocent, adding the Mr. Mueller is incapable of this. However, he assumed that FBI was politically motivated against Mr. Trump without any evidence for that assertion. Not to mention that fact that when Mr. Giuliani was the District Attorney of New York and his advocacy for stop and frisk, it's safe to say that he did not believe in people being innocent even if they weren't committing a crime. Also, when Hillary Clinton was questioned by the FBI and said some form of "I don't remember" thirty-seven times, Mr. Giuliani said that since that was the case, she must be hiding something. When Chuck Todd confronted him with the fact that on Mr. Trump's written answers, he said "I don't recall" over thirty times. As a matter of fact, Mr. Giuliani said that he couldn't remember how many times the phrase was used in his written answers. Also, he added that he wouldn't advise his client to volunteer any extra information.
When asked why didn't Donald Trump Jr. report to the FBI that he was offered dirt on a political opponent by Russians (a foreign adversary), Mr. Giuliani said that it was a set up and that people had the right to know to this information. If it actually were a set up, and Don Jr. had the idea that it was a set up then he should have spoken to the FBI.
Rudy Giuliani is to the say the least being hypocritical on a farcical scale, and to that he can never again be called "America's Mayor." Frankly, what is Rudy smoking that he can say with a straight face that he believes that Mr. Trump is truthful. Jonah Goldberg called his answers completely nonsensical and for that he has thoroughly disgraced himself.
At the top of Jerrold Nadler's (D-NY) interview, the congressman, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, laughed at the mention of Mr. Giuliani's interview because he has long known of Rudy's ramblings.
We like to say in this country that no one is above the law. However, Attorney General William Barr seems that that is not the case and that the president is immune from the law. On this point, Mr. Nadler flatly stated that the Attorney General is wrong. And to that end, Mr. Nadler's committee has subpoenaed the full Mueller including the portions that have been redacted. On top of that, Mr. Nadler is calling William Barr, Robert Mueller and former White House Don McGahn to testify.
When asked straight up by Mr. Todd whether what is outlined in the Mueller Report is cause for impeaching the president, Mr. Nadler paused for a moment and then said, "Yeah, I do." Then he said that he's going to see where the evidence leads, but it seems that minds are already made up for Democrats.
In response to a clip of Senator Kamela Harris saying that she wanted to hear from Robert Mueller before making a decision on impeachment, Joshua Johnson rhetorically asked "What game are you playing?" When it comes to impeachment, it's a political action and that's the game that the Democrats are playing, a political one. As for the Administration, Hallie Jackson said that from her reporting the White House wants to turn the page, close the case, and muddy the waters. Democrats shouldn't allow that to happen.
On impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is right that impeachment is not worth it because politically it wouldn't be beneficial for the Democrats to proceed in that direction, as it could backfire on them in 2020. Not to mention that Republicans in the Senate would never take up impeachment. - Would. Never. Happen. Amy Walter explained that the Democrats are looking for that 'aha' moment, the smoking gun, but in agreement with her, they have to give up on that when it comes to the Mueller Report.
What the report clearly shows is that this Administration requires strict oversight and that's what the Democrats need to provide. Does it seem that the president obstructed justice? He certainly wanted to. President Trump has widened the divisions in this country, only professes to want to govern part of it and has made us a laughing stock internationally.
The Attorney General is the one who should be impeached for committing acts that are in the interest of the president solely, and not the American people.
So what we're left with is what Joshua Johnson called, "lawful but awful."
Panel: Hallie Jackson, NBC; Amy Walter, the Cook Political Report; Joshua Johnson, NPR; Jonah Goldberg, the National Review
One more thing...
Joe Biden is finally putting up and will announce he's in the race.
And it's worth noting what Chuck Todd said at the very end of the program - there are still 12 unknown cases going on as we speak... Some of which will probably hit right around election time (our words).
No comments:
Post a Comment