Democrats and Republicans on the House Intel and Judiciary Committees have been feverishly preparing for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s appearances next week, some holding full mock hearings with a Mueller-stand in to refine their questions.
Republicans are Ready
Why did you start this witch hunt?
How much does George Soros pay you?
Are you some kind of Commie?
Why do you hate America?
Trump No Collusion AMIRITE?
With any luck, the Republicans will go too far and actually piss Mueller off with all of their crazy accusations. That would be fun to watch. I doubt even Mueller can remain stoic forever.
Glad to hear this. This is a moonshot for the rule of law in this country.
Mueller(R-Friend of Barr) should be questioned as a hostile witness by the Democrats
I think the Dems appear to be on the right path with these questions/lines of inquiry. Get to the issues that go to federal crimes and disabuse the public of ‘no collusion’. The key to understanding the gravity of Mueller’s findings is that the purpose of the obstruction was to prevent the gov’t from finding enough evidence to charge a criminal conspiracy involving the the Trump campaign, members of the Trump Transition/Administration and a hostile foreign power’s successful attempt to undermine US Democracy, US foreign policy and US national security. It was successful obstruction. The clear and present danger and threat to the US is ongoing. That’s why obstruction must be prosecuted as a serious federal crime. That’s why Trump must be impeached. The impeachment articles should contain a strong recommendation urging DOJ to charge Trump with criminal obstruction and that he should face trial.
Guaranteed , the Republicans will go too far
It’s the Party of T-rump
They don’t want to face scorn from the great leader.
Like Kim’s Audience
Will you be the first one to stop clapping ?
This is a waste of time. Mueller will say nothing more than he’s already said. Grandstanding will occur. Nothing will change. All smoke, no fire.
Impeach
Something I would hope to get out of the Mueller testimony (though I’m not getting hopes up) is the one thing that Mueller and now SDNY have implied but failed to clearly acknowledge: that Trump should be charged with federal crimes once he leaves office. The only thing preventing that from happening now is the office he presently holds and the OLC memo. That’s all clear from Mueller’s report if you read it, but we don’t read anymore and many of his constructions are like a LSAT logic game question instead of in plain English. It would be helpful to have the ‘plain English’ version instead of legalese.
That said, I think the impeachment debate has moved far beyond Mueller. Lots of Dems are now looking, correctly, at the totality of the corruption and criminality. They are starting to look at the real risk Trump poses to our Democracy and to national security. I credit Warren and Harris with pushing that sense of urgency. Where I think Warren really took that torch early, in the last month I think Harris has made the more trenchant attack and is carrying that torch now.
The impact of the Mueller hearing on the debate will be interesting to watch. It can give Warren a chance to remind people of her bona fides on the issue, especially since it’s a good point of contrast with Bernie (who will be on the stage with her). It will also be a point of contrast between Biden and Harris. If Biden and Bernie are smart, they’ll come out more strongly in favor of impeachment. Their failure to do so contributed to voters shopping around and giving Warren and Harris serious consideration.
I agree completely. If Mr. Trump cannot be impeached, who could? The 2 questions I would love to hear SC Mueller’s responses to are: 1. Why didn’t you insist on an interview with Mr. Trump?, and 2. What role (if any) did the OLC memo play in your deliberations?
He answered both in the Mueller Report. I don’t think those answers would be too illuminating.
Hell, the number 1 reason for impeachment should be: It’ll piss donnie off and freak him out, and slap that label on him for eternity even without a Senate conviction.
Just thinking about how he freaked out over a symbolic nothingberder of a House Resolution condemning his racism. Or how Barr pleaded and begged not to be held in contempt.
The hearings are really his last chance, and ours, for him to be a hero and stop pussyfooting around. As others have noted, however, he has his bias, which we hoped would be in our favor. I don’t know that this is going to have the impact we need it to have because he has discredited himself by not pushing for the indictments based on what he found. The hearings won’t change that. His position is his position and he’s not going to advance the ball.
I suspect way too much negotiation of what he will and won’t answer has also already taken place. The GOP will play this all like a fiddle to make the Dems look bad. I can’t see what might come out of these hearings that would change the game, but I’m willing to be somewhat optimistic and hopeful.
Exactly. Trump has gone on unhinged, unfocused benders this month to move from scandal to scandal that triggers him. You want Trump off message and your candidate on message. When Bill Clinton won the presidency, an unsung hero of that campaign was Majority Leader George Mitchell. Mitchell loaded Bush I up with all kinds of legislation that Bush vetoed but were popular in the nation. Clinton took that baton and ran with it while an unpopular Bush was fighting Congress on things that were popular. Family and Medical leave is one example, but there were many others. Nancy should be loading stuff up on Trump on the oversight side to drive him nuts. Of course, I think impeachment is the most effective way to get there, but you can tell even from a simple resolution of disapproval how much that one act has done to change the national discussion and consciousness of Trump’s racism. He has validated every accusation in that document. Do more of that.
“Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
[Ernest Hemingway on things that can never happen.]
I wasn’t aware that he had definitely answered both questions. However, I still think it would be useful for the general public to hear his answers.
The Repubs loved, loved, loved Mueller until the hated, hated, hated him. One wonders why…
Has he? Or are you talking about one of the lines of questioning that is surely going to come up, unless the Dems totally have their heads up their asses (always a possibility).
Much of the illumination can be things like that-- who discussed the non-indictment, how was that decision reached. Since if he had formally requested it and Barr denied, there would have been an automatic report triggered to Congress.
Or what instructions Barr gave and how that impacted the report, whether there were loose ends still out there (now that we have evidence that Barr came on board and promptly got to work shutting down investigations).
We are bound to understand that by the end of the hearing. There will be multiple attack dogs. What will finally break Mueller to say what needs to be said? How much slander will he tolerate before he breaks and tells the world what he really thinks in pure and unvarnished language that even the worst of Americans can understand?
There is a vast difference between words in a report and spoken words in a congressional hearing that will be widely watched. All the Dems need to do is get Mueller to read critical parts from the report and answer a few key questions.