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After Mueller Debacle, Where Do Democrats Go?
Townhall.com ^ | July 26, 2019 | Pat Buchanan

Posted on 07/26/2019 3:04:04 AM PDT by Kaslin

The Democrats who were looking to cast Robert Mueller as the star in a TV special, "The Impeachment of Donald Trump," can probably tear up the script. They're gonna be needing a new one.

For six hours Wednesday, as three cable news networks and ABC, CBS and NBC all carried live the hearings of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, the Mueller report was thoroughly trashed.

The special counsel stood by his findings. His investigation was not a "hoax" or "witch hunt," he said. He admitted that he had found no Trump-Russia conspiracy. He denied he exonerated Trump of obstruction of justice.

All this we knew, and all of it we have heard for months.

What was new, what was dramatic, what was compelling was how the House Republicans arrived with their war paint on and ripped Mueller and his investigation to such shreds that viewers were feeling sorry for the special counsel at the end of his six hours of grilling.

The Republicans exposed him as only vaguely conversant with his own report. They revealed that he had probably not written his own statement challenging the depiction of his findings by Attorney General Bill Barr.

Mueller's staff of lawyers, Republicans showed, reads like a donors list for Hillary Clinton. The FBI contingent that started the investigation was a cabal so hateful of Trump that some had to be fired.

Republicans raised questions about the origins of the investigation, tracing it back to early 2016 when Maltese intelligence agent Joseph Mifsud leaked to a staffer of the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, that Russia had Clinton's emails. That and subsequent meetings have all the marks of an intel agency set-up.

Repeatedly, Republicans brought up the dossier written by British spy Christopher Steele, who fed Russian-sourced disinformation to Clinton campaign-financed intel firm, Fusion GPS, who passed it on to the FBI, which used it as evidence to justify warrants to spy on Trump's campaign.

To many in the TV audience, this was fresh and startling stuff.

Yet Mueller's response to all such allegations was that they were outside his purview and that other agencies were looking into them.

Wednesday's hearings often proved painful to watch.

Mueller, a 74-year-old decorated Marine veteran of Vietnam and a former director of the FBI, sat mumbling his dissents as one charge after another was fired at him, his associates and his investigation.

For this disaster, the Democrats are alone to blame.

Mueller had wanted to file his report and leave it to the attorney general and Congress to act, or not act, on its contents. His job was done, and he did not want to testify publicly.

Democrats, desperate for impeachment hearings, wanted him to recite for the TV cameras every charge against the president.

What Democrats hoped would be a recital of Trump's sins, Republicans turned into an adversarial proceeding that ended Mueller's public career in a humiliating spectacle lasting a full day.

Where do Democrats go from here?

Their goal from the outset has been to persuade the nation that Trump colluded with Putin's Russia to steal the 2016 election, and that the progressives are the true patriots in seeking to impeach and remove an illegitimate president and prosecute him for acts of treason.

The Republican position is that, for all his flaws and failings, Trump won the 2016 election fairly and squarely. He is our president, and the drive to impeach and remove him is an attempted constitutional coup d'etat by a "deep state" terrified that it cannot win against him in 2020.

The rival narratives are irreconcilable.

The Republican message of Wednesday: Proceed with hearings to impeach and there will be blood on the floor.

Democrats are in a hellish bind.

Should they proceed with hearings on impeachment, they will divide their party, force their presidential candidates to cease talking health care and start talking impeachment, and probably fail.

Impeachment hearings would fire up the Republican base and energize the GOP minority to prepare for combat in a Judiciary Committee where they are already celebrating having eviscerated the prosecution's star witness.

If Democrats vote impeachment in committee, they will have to take it to the House floor, where their moderates, who won in swing districts, will be forced to vote on it, splitting their own bases in the run-up to the 2020 election.

If Democrats lose the impeachment vote on the House floor, it would be a huge setback. But if they vote impeachment in the House, the trial takes place in a Senate run by Mitch McConnell.

Trump would go into the 2020 battle against a Democratic Party that failed to overthrow the president in a radical coup that it attempted because it was afraid to fight it out with the president in a free and fair election.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bringitmfs; demonrats; forwhat; impeachment; presidenttrump; rathatred; robertmueller; sorelosers
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1 posted on 07/26/2019 3:04:04 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Back to Russian collusion


2 posted on 07/26/2019 3:05:16 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nicdip.com)
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To: Kaslin

They can ask Guns N Roses.


3 posted on 07/26/2019 3:12:54 AM PDT by dp0622 (Bad, bad company Till the day I die.)
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To: Kaslin
This is all they have left...

Coming soon...the "Squad" edition!

4 posted on 07/26/2019 3:21:15 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The Electoral College is the firewall protecting us from massive blue state vote fraud.)
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To: Kaslin
Probably one of the best articles Pat Buchanan has ever written.

FTA: The Republican message of Wednesday: Proceed with hearings to impeach and there will be blood on the floor.

I am most proud of the Republican response...

5 posted on 07/26/2019 3:23:02 AM PDT by FtrPilot
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To: Kaslin

Mueller was the tip of the iceberg of corruption. He may be incompetent, but he is also unethical, and his “investigators” exemplify the deep rooted immortality of a government that needs to be cleansed. It’s up to Republicans with backbone, if there are any, to do the cleansing.


6 posted on 07/26/2019 3:26:17 AM PDT by djpg
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To: Kaslin

Exploding cigar 14,324.


7 posted on 07/26/2019 3:27:35 AM PDT by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: All
For the Mueller disaster, the Democrats alone are to blame.

He filed his $50M report and left it to the AG and Congress to act, or not act, on its contents.
His job was done, and he did not want to testify publicly.

Power-mad Democrats, desperate for impeachment, staged the hearing.....even handed out talking points.
They wanted Mueller to recite for the TV cameras every charge against the president.......a public recital of Trump's sins (as they see them).

But thanks to alert Republicans, America saw a humiliating spectacle, indicting both Mueller and Democrats.

Three stooges and a moron.

8 posted on 07/26/2019 3:29:38 AM PDT by Liz (Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: FtrPilot

As am I


9 posted on 07/26/2019 3:29:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Some observations from the other side of the pond.

From the go, this whole saga has been an attempt using the media to mold public opinion against the president. It appears that it just strengthens President Trump's base while “preaching to the choir” of lefty lunatics.

President Trump has mastered the art of the “reality show” and using “new media” to totally bypass the biased MSM. The tricks of the left no longer work and Trump will not back down. Heck, I suspect he relishes a good fight!

It takes a lot of time for “regular folks” to (1) pay attention and (2) understand what is going on. One of the big blow backs of Mueller's appearance is now folks are aware of Clinton/FBI/Intel hand in creating this tempest in a teapot.

With the IG/AG Barr/Durham reports/investigations coming out I think we will finally see attitudes shift which will allow the proper prosecution of offenders. I doubt it will every reach to the top but I am sure a number of players are not sleeping well at night.

Just my thoughts.

10 posted on 07/26/2019 3:32:40 AM PDT by lowbuck (The Blue Card (US Passport) Don't leave home without it.)
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To: Kaslin

There’s a rant going on Facebook about President Trump playing too much golf.

We must support this plan of attack. Excessive golf is precisely what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they wrote about ”high crimes and misdemeanors”. It’s like they were channeling or something.

The dems are deeply concerned about this misuse of taxpayer money.

Democrats = no sense of irony.


11 posted on 07/26/2019 3:37:41 AM PDT by jazminerose (Adorable Deplorable)
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To: djpg

The mess our gummint has made will be “cleaned up”. One way or another. Responsible adults will grab a bucket of soap and water and get to work or there will be not just buckets but ocean going tankers of blood to “once again fertilize that precious soil”. It may be poets who rhapsodize about “That Indominatable Human Spirit” but it is every day folks who refuse to be subjected to tyranny. Our current predicaament of “impasse” is not a log jam that will last forever.


12 posted on 07/26/2019 3:47:18 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: lowbuck

Notice how other presidents age in office? Notice how Trump is imperturbable? He has endured the hardest first three years of any president in history, IMHO, and it doesn’t show a bit. It’s like he draws energy from it, and like a fine wine, only improves with age and experience. “No weapon formed against him prospers.”


13 posted on 07/26/2019 3:50:58 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: Kaslin

I am waiting for them to declare that Mueller was suffering from the on set of dementia and that they want a second counsel appointed to do the investigation again.


14 posted on 07/26/2019 3:54:01 AM PDT by Falcon4.0
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To: Kaslin

Shifty Schiff said they are going to go after his income tax returns to show Russian money.
It would be comical if it were not so dangerous.
Trump is like the Roadrunner and the Dems like Wiley Coyote.


15 posted on 07/26/2019 3:54:01 AM PDT by ZULU (Impeach John Roberts for corruption. SOROS IS "SPARTACUS" BOOKER'S LANISTA.)
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To: Kaslin

Wherever will do them the most good.
The media will back them, whatever it takes.


16 posted on 07/26/2019 3:54:09 AM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: kalee

For later


17 posted on 07/26/2019 3:57:06 AM PDT by kalee
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To: Kaslin

“As the dog returns to it’s vomit, so the fool to his folly’’.


18 posted on 07/26/2019 3:58:52 AM PDT by jmacusa ("If wisdom is not the Lord, what is wisdom?''.)
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To: wastoute

I was saying this exact thing to my wife last night. The job of president of the United States is the most stressful job in the world. Any president two to three years in visibly ages. Trump hasn’t. He hasn’t because the man is a real New Yorker. Tough and takes no sh!t from anyone. When hes attacked he hits back. He isn’t owned by anyone and that is driving the Swamp Dwellers crazy. It sure isn’t bother President Trump.


19 posted on 07/26/2019 4:02:48 AM PDT by jmacusa ("If wisdom is not the Lord, what is wisdom?''.)
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To: Kaslin
After Mueller Debacle, Where Do Democrats Go?

___________________

To hell where they belong.

20 posted on 07/26/2019 4:06:20 AM PDT by a little elbow grease (... to err is human, to admit it divine ...)
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