Kevin Graham wrote:What's getting lost in all this is the fact that Mueller is still a Republican and I think we're beginning to see he hasn't entirely divorced himself from partisanship. Why is he refusing to publicly address Congress? Ken Starr had no problem saying Clinton was guilty of a crime, so why is it suddenly a horrible thing for him to do what he very well knew the country expected him to do for over 2 years if he found Trump was guilty of crimes?
Why refuse to answer newer questions to Congress? Because he's afraid that by telling the truth on TV, it would hurt the Republican party too much. He pretty much said today that yeah, we can't exonerate Trump and he did a bunch of crummy things that we can't say are illegal because that wouldn't be fair, but at the same time here's a 400+ page report that is just ambiguous enough to make sure the media narratives are easily derailed by Right Wing commentators.
Oh yeah, and if you ask me to answer clarifying questions to ease the confusion, I'll simply read the report back to you and refuse to answer Congress's questions designed to expand our understanding. Yes, this is basically what you would expect from a True Republican who is just honest enough to cover his reputation but not willing to offer full disclosure because he still needs to cover his political ass, and he's probably afraid of the attacks from the Trump camp.
We know for a fact that William Barr lied when he said Mueller told him the policy for not indicting a sitting President had no role in his decision not to indict. Mueller flat out contradicted that in his report as well as his recent comments, but at the same time he won't say or even suggest Barr misrepresented him. Why not? Because Barr is Trump's new lapdog who has been given unlimited authority to "investigate the investigators." Mueller did his job and now wants out of the spotlight to return to private life with his family. Vexing the Trump administration would ensure that never happens.
I disagree. I think Mueller is doing his best to play it straight up and not get sucked into the partisanship. Starr was not, in my opinion, as nonpartisan as an independent counsel should be, and I respect Mueller for not using Starr as a model for his own conduct.
Mueller has no duty to voluntarily appear before Congress, and I think he sent a message today that he would not testify to things not in his report. Some on both sides of the aisle think they can get something out of his testimony that will be of political advantage. He clearly isn’t going to play those reindeer games. He’s not going to opine as to whether he would indict Trump if there were no DOJ policy against it, and he’s not going to say that the FBI was on a partisan witch hunt.
I saw his press conference today as an attempt to say: I’ve given you the evidence — my opinions aren’t relevant to whether the House should begin an impeachment inquiry. I don’t think he said he would refuse a subpoena. And I suspect he would answer questions genuinely requesting clarification of something in the report that is unclear.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951