How many millions of dollars have been spent or, perhaps, wasted on Mueller's report? It does not seem to bring us any closer to the impeachment of the uncouth boor occupying the White House.
3
The truly amazing thing is, with everyone agreeing that he is ill suited for his current job, he STILL has a 40% approval rating. The guilt lies with those people, who continue to enable him.
28
Giuliani is completely off the the rails, now he claims that people who testify to Mueller were tortured.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/21/rudy-giuliani-torture-jake-tapper-1284279
Giuliani briefly accuses Mueller team of coming ‘close to torturing people’
As one of great comments on NYTimes put it...
"Never before have we been treated to such an array of imaginative tales and assaults on our consciousness, but let us not ignore those who follow in thrall to these tales of improbabilities, he could not get by without their cooperation.
It is though we are all living in a mental institution, our keepers are called politicians"
So true!!!
11
Has Ross Douthat really become so inured to the corruption of this administration that all he can do is shrug his shoulders and note that the Mueller report is not news and that it is the responsibility of the Democratic party to defeat Trump? It is certainly news that an investigation, prepared with all the power of law enforcement, has laid bare that the reporting that has come before has proven true (and not 'fake news'). (One wonders whether Douthat values his own position in a media organization.) And I would think it is the responsibility of all US citizens, no matter their policy preferences, to work to elect someone who will restore good ethical governance to the federal government. I am thankful William Weld has declared his candidacy, and I do wish other Republicans would follow suit, so that it becomes crystal clear just what is at stake.
14
Yes, it is we who allowed this disease to take root in our country.
6
Ross, I seldom agree with your essays. This one, however, is accurate. Painfully accurate.
7
Whoa there, boy, slow on down now. What you are doing is minimizing Mueller's report and that it only mimics "Fire and Fury". That is conservative wishful thinking. Certainly, we have not received an unredacted report and it appears, contrary to what you are opining, is that the tentacles of the investigative report reach deeply as well as far and wide. I am not into conspiracy theories but certainly your article is one of them.
5
I think he needs to be impeached before 2020. Over and over in myriad ways, Trump has shown himself to be a criminally misfit president. Psychologically and emotionally he is most unfit for office. He needs to go now.
14
@Truthiness But you know impeaching him won't make him go, right? That the senate will vote it down, and we'll still be stuck with our biggest problem: convincing at least some sliver of Trump democrats in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that their former party cares about their jobs and the health of their communities?
2
Anyone paying attention should have come to the conclusion that there couldn't possibly be any "coordinated effort" with the Trump campaign because Trump couldn't coordinate an Uber ride for himself. However, the fact that the campaign never notified anyone of attempts by a foreign power, and in this case, a hostile foreign power, to undermine the integrity of the U.S. electoral process, can be seen as treason. I'm certain that any military officer would face court martial for such an omission. Should not the Commander in Chief be expected to uphold the same standard?
18
Whoever ordered that Hillary Clinton never be investigated by the Justice Departent did the cause of freedom and justice no favors.
That decision had to have been made by one person, who will never have to answer for it.
The 2-tiered justice system may end up electing Donald Trump clones to the White House for decades unless it is permanently fixed. People are not going to put up with the connected people getting away with such calumny.
2
So it’s clear now that the “collusion conspiracy theory” was a hoax. Why did it take so long for the media to acknowledge this? And one step further, given that the Steele dossier was most likely a Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 elections and undermine candidate Trump, why hasn’t it been investigated by Mueller and his team? Why no subpoenas, no wiretaps, no attempt to find out who funded, and whether the Obama administration, the fbi, the cia, department of Justice, the Clintons colluded with Russia? Did the mueller report even mention the Steele report in its 2-volumes report? And if mueller decided to ignore the most successful and most important part of the Russian operation in 2016, isn’t this by the very definition, an “obstruction of justice”?
4
Next to Trump, Sarah Sanders and Kellyanne Conway, Don McGahn is the worst of the deplorables in the basket of. Just watching him pushing the grotesque beer-swilling word-shouting red-faced bald-faced liar Brett Kavanaugh was nauseating; to think that he has systematically stocked our courts (supreme and unsupreme) for decades to come makes him directly responsible for the destruction of the United States. How does he live with himself? Throw HIM in prison instead of Michael Cohen.
15
Trump's supporters are celebrating with just cause. Not only were his worst decisions successfully circumvented by advisors like McGahn. But his phalanx of lawyers successfully kept Trump from speaking to anyone in any venue in which he could be held accountable for telling the truth. Now he's safe.
5
@DC
Not at all. There are 14 other investigations of Trump, and the Southern District of New York is gathering plenty of evidence against our crime-prone president.
9
Even if there are some questionable positives (mostly for the rich) in Trump's presidency, none of them will count when the planet self-destructs due to global warming. We have maybe twelve years to right this battered ship. Why are you wasting them defending this awful man who neither understands, nor cares about, this threat?
6
@Antonia,
12 year? You mean, like, 144 months? And then? Will it be the 2nd coming? Like, I mean, the end of the world, with trumps and all?
1
The Donald is the same person in his private life that he is in public. An unfortunate number of voting Americans in certain key states seem to find that reassuring.
In the meantime, I'm having trouble distinguishing between the two portraits Maureen Dowd has published in this Sunday's edition of the Times. Trump or Ford, who's more egregious? Granted, Ford doesn't have a nuclear arsenal, but that somehow doesn't seem to make him less objectionable. Maybe it's just me.
2
I still wonder what happened in that two hour meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki last year, and about the likely money ties between the Trump Organization and the Russians. No collusion? Not believing it.
14
If either party could give us a candidate who isn’t owned lock, stock, and barrel by Wall Street, Hollywood, K-Street, and Silicon Valley, we wouldn’t need Trump. But until then, Trump it is.
10
@Greg
And Trump is different? He may "own himself," that is, he may have delivered those tax cuts for the wealthy & dismantled those services & regulations because it lines his own pockets, but the bottom line is what's good for Trump is good for the rest of the 1% -- Wall Street, Hollywood, K Street and Silicon Valley.
46
@Greg
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both presidential candidates, have been challenging Wall Street and the power of the very wealthy for years, and so are Congressional Democrats, who have passed a measure to bring democracy to our electoral process. Try looking on the other side of the aisle.
66
@Greg -- All your comment shows is that you were too lazy to read Hillary's platform or detailed fact sheets. Here is a brief excerpt:
"Hillary would also hold both corporations and individuals on Wall Street accountable by:
Prosecuting individuals when they break the law. Hillary would extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting major financial frauds, enhance whistleblower rewards, and provide the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission with more resources to prosecute wrongdoing.
Holding executives accountable when they are responsible for their subordinates’ misconduct. Hillary believes that when corporations pay large fines to the government for violating the law, those fines should cut into the bonuses of the executives who were responsible for or should have caught the problem. And when egregious misconduct happens on an executive’s watch, that executive should lose his or her job.
Holding corporations accountable when they break the law. Hillary will make sure that corporations can’t treat penalties for breaking the law as merely a cost of doing business, so we can put an end to the patterns of corporate wrongdoing that we see too often today."
28
The only word I would change in Ross's analysis is "amoral." The more appropriate word is "immoral." It is a toxic mix when combined with the incumbent's incompetence.
13
Unfortunately, Lucky Don will get away with everything. It has been his life story.
13
@W Some people have it like that. Dangerous!
1
If any administration was investigated as Trump's has been you would find the same infighting goes on. This is the nature of politics. Obama's white house was just as frantic and people were fired or left as well. Clinton was no different.
Much ado about nothing.
13
@Mr Chang Shih An
Nope.
Trump's cabinet turnover has been higher than any President since Grover Cleveland.
Turnover amongst Trump's senior staff has been three times higher than it was for either Obama or Clinton, and it is fives time higher than it was for George W. Bush.
Much ado, sure, but not about nothing.
263
@Mr. Chang: A foreign government, historically an enemy of the USA, interfered in the 2016 presidential election. And the Trump election campaign willingly accepted that interference without reporting it to the FBI as is required y law. Does that not cause you the slightest bit of alarm?
46
@Mr Chang Shih An
Sorry,not true. Not even a little bit when "No-Drama" Obama was in the White House (he had that nickname for a reason).
Clinton was somewhat less controlled, but he was a politician in the root sense of the word (he was naturally empathetic to the problems of our citizenry) and he was brilliant (as well as a quick study who always did his homework).
Looked at objectively, Trump has no idea what being President entails - as he consorts with our enemies, freezes out our allies, breaks laws with abandon, and remains defiantly ignorant of his responsibilities.
I look forward to Mr. Mueller's testimony in Congress.
31
The guy in the Oval is a loudmouth egotistical showman with zero political experience. So why is anyone surprised that his administration is chaotic and he has to be held back from committing "obstruction of justice"? His opponents conspired to keep him out of office, and once he got in, to get him out, alleging a ridiculous narrative of collusion. Falsely accused, Trump tried to stop the smear campaign and the stigma of the Mueller project - with no context or appreciation for the legal and political quagmire. Frankly, I find this whole obsession a total waste of time, apart from the attempted Russian interference in our election. The Democrats have come up with loony tune socialists out of touch with mainstream Americans who will re-elect this chaotic loudmouth because the economy is great, unemployment is at record lows, unnecessary government interference in business has been cut back, taxes are lower and business and consumer optimism is strong.
28
@MGKaufman
While Trump did not "conspire" with the Russians, he certainly did collude. The accepted and encouraged the Russian interference in the election. We all know this. It's just that some people don't care.
55
@MGKaufman, not all agree with your rosy picture of life under Trump, though for the wealthy, it probably is and explains in large part why he has as much support as he does.
For many, the jobs they have do not pay well and provide no benefits, taxes are mostly lower for the wealthy and corporations, of which many of the richest pay no taxes at all.
So for you, having a chaotic loudmouth as the leader of our country, is an OK exchange for your payback. If only that was all he is, but he is a pseudo tough guy who sucks up to Putin, thinking I suppose that it makes him one, too. That he skirted a conspiracy charge with the Russians we know he didn't refuse their help and obstruction was clearly committed.
This "obsession" with Trumps behavior has to do with more than winning the next election, it has to do with seeing this necrotic process eating away at our Democracy excised.
71
@Diane B with all the bad behavior exhibited by other Presidents (JFK on drugs every day and having sex with hundreds of women, LBJ's womanizing and disgusting bathroom behavior, Clinton's affairs, Obama'z cozying up to Farrakhan and Arab leaders, lying about being able to keep your doctor, getting us into a really awful deal with terrorist-financing Iran), maybe I'm just assuming they're all cynical hypocrites who lie to get power. So basically I don't care much about his personality and crass behavior, but do care about the economy and democracy. You say not everyone has a good paying job with benefits - isn't that just a basic fact of life? If our companies have to pay higher taxes they can't compete well globally and end up creating fewer jobs. You can't have everything.
2
Maybe, maybe, maybe there was no Trump and Russia conspiracy, but Trump is still a Putin hostage as consequences of his international criminal activities.
4
We saw it life on television while he was campaigning, we read about it in Michael Wolf's book gossipy "Fire and Fury," and now, under oath, we get the same first-hand accounting of the White House under Trump.
The only question is: does the truth lose it's punch for having been so obvious for so long?
7
If Trump is not impeached by September 2020 we will hear the following arguments from conservatives;
1. if he really is that bad why didn’t you impeach him?
2. Democrats didn’t impeach Trump simply because they did not have the goods on him.
5
Honestly, McGahn and other White House officials who protected and prevented Trump from committing impeachable blunders are no heroes. At the very least they are accessories. Had they exposed their Boss Man, Trump would have been impeached or forced to resign by now. It would have saved our Country. Period.
7
It is striking that in all these comments, few if any seem able to face the fact that Mrs. Clinton and her campaign proved to be more incompetent than even Trump and his. Even though it cannot be shown that a single vote switched from HRC to Trump because of Facebook entries, the fact is the election had no business even being close. It took some incredible bungling to blow it.
5
It is striking to think that Hillary Clinton was the only factor in Trump's election. Can we really ignore the trajectory of conservative politics, Russian interference, Comey's involvement and the implications of the first major female presidential candidate?
All that and she still "lost" by almost three million votes. She played a part, but let's not hold her accountable for Trump. That's ultimately on the American people.
10
@Jacob: Comey's disclosure of Anthony Weiner's allegedly un-tested computer in the week before the election should have nullified the whole atrocity. I want to know how that came about. Mueller's report avoids that subject altogether.
3
Most dysfunctional presidency ever was obvious in the first hundred days. Subsequent events have not changed the paradigm.
5
"But because it adds to a well-understood reality, the report will probably have the same modest political impact, the same limited media half-life as prior, less-extensive exposés,"
Ross, this is your wish life talking. What about that soft voice in your head that tells you trump is toast and so are many of the insane individuals around him, whose fate is to follow that line of people that is going to prison.
4
Trump's actions, which are too numerous to list, most certainly appear to violate some level of Federal or Criminal Law defined below:
Intent:
1) In criminal law and the law of evidence. Purpose; formulated design; a resolve to do or forbear a particular act; aim; determination. In its literal sense, the stretching of the mind or will towards a particular object. . “Intent” expresses mental action at its most advanced point, or as it actually accompanies an outward, corporal act which has been determined on- Intent shows the presence of will in the act which consummates a crime.
Conspiracy:
2) If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
Accessory After The Fact:
3) If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.
Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.
2
Vladimir Putin did not care about Trump or Hillary. He cares about Russia, to get it back to its former glory (the Soviet Union). His objective is to destabilize the US and EU democracies. To erode the trust in the democratic institutions. To pit us against each other. Yes, he said that he preferred a Trump’s presidency instead of Hillary’s, but even that statement had a purpose. He was just adding fuel to the already raging fire. The Russians go on social media and play both sides to incite hate on both sides. They are playing us like a Stradivarius. And our politicians do nothing because they believe they can benefit politically by all this hate (Democrats think the more people hate Trump and the republicans, the better their chances of winning, and vice-versa). It is a sad sad situation. And I do not see a solution. Putin wins.
2
Rather than seeing McGahn as having saved the President from himself, perhaps McGahn and other Republicans from Lewandowski to McConnell were saving Trump for themselves. Trump, clueless in the ways of State, could be directed however they pleased - so long as he could be made to think it was his idea, which was not hard. Like a very large barking dog on a leash, he pushed through tax cuts and judicial appointments to their liking. When he pushed something they frowned upon (such as a "beautiful healthcare plan" he didn't have on his own) they just let it drop. The same for committing obstruction of justice. They have very adeptly used him to advantage. They also let him behave abominably, an insurance policy wherein all blame might be dumped as needed. All hail the deep state. Putin couldn"t have done it better.
5
The United States of America as described in the constitution and as we have known it is truly over.
"Collusion" implies secrecy, and Trump did his business with Russia right out in the open.
We have an individual who, with the help of the Republican Party, acts repeatedly in a way that places him above the law. Intelligent people who should know better, such as RD, just yawn and make useless pontifications.
The USA as we knew it - a democracy of laws that apply to all - is over. Done. RIP. Russia and greed have won.
3
There is one flaw in this analysis.
Ross said that what we know is what we have known all along, and that Trump is as incompetent, shallow, mean, and unfit as we always knew he was.
But who is this "we"?
Not his base. They thought, and will continue to think, he is a genius, and that liberals and conservatives like Mr. Douthat are simply "haters" -- and thus democracy dives down into being about as sophisticated as a third grade playground.
4
What is the world coming to? For once I find myself in nearly complete agreement with Ross Douthat.
The Mueller report and the issue of impeachment will dominate political debate for a few days or perhaps a few weeks. Then we, all of us, will have to step back, take a deep breath, assess the situation and take action.
Mueller tells us that Trump is a whacked-out, dysfunctional grifter who cannot faithfully discharge the duties of the presidency or any other office. Unfortunately, Mueller failed to find evidence (witness testimony, documents etc) that Trump conspired with Putin or other Russians.
The constitutional grounds for impeachment are high crimes and misdemeanors. Nixon faced almost certain impeachment because he ordered the Watergate burglary and then obstructed justice by acting to cover up his own role in the burglary. Burglary was clearly a misdemeanor, if not a high crime.
The impeachment action against Clinton involved sex with a young intern and lying about his conduct. Whether a President having sex with a young intern was a crime or ought to have been a crime was a legal question that went to the basis for the Clinton impeachment.
Trump is, and always has been, unfit to serve as President of the United States. That is not sufficient to support impeachment.
The remedy is not impeachment. Trump's reckoning will come with the election results on November 3, 2020.
1
So Ross, it seems like you don't consider it "treasonous" for a presidential candidate and members of his campaign/family to ask for help from hostile foreign powers to interfere in our elections on their behalf. Or enthusiastically welcome such help. Or hold meeting after meeting with representatives of hostile foreign powers to arrange that help. Or to send polling data to that hostile foreign power so they can better tailor their interference to help you win. Or lie to the public (and law enforcement) repeatedly about your extensive contacts with hostile foreign powers. And all of this AFTER the FBI briefed Trump and the Campaign that hostile foreign powers would be trying to infiltrate the campaign, and their duty is to report any and all such approaches to the FBI. How can you just wave all of that away with "nothing traitorous to see here"? Yes, the Mueller Report establishes that Trump is an incompetent, amoral, corrupt, and small little man unfit for his office. But it also establishes that he is a traitor to our country - as is every Republican elected official who tries to cover for hm at this point.
2
OK Ross, does aiding and abetting the Russians pass muster with you? Or, are the "deep state experts" and "Resistance Industry" faulty there as well?
After reading the Report, it appears obvious to me that aiding and abetting the Russian attack isn't exactly the confabulation or alternative reality that you ascribed to the paranoid center in your March 26 Op Ed. Of course, the case for obstruction isn't paranoiac in the least.
So please let's not give the Trump people an apologetic pass and chalk it all up to dysfunction and incompetence. This isn't over yet ...
3
I will reserve judgement until all of the other investigations are finished.
1
With glib insouciance Douthat dismisses the Mueller report as having no more weight than a sensationalist best-selling expose, but a document that will have a shorter shelf life in comparison.
Of course, in reality the Mueller report has infinitely more ethical and legal weight than “Fire and Fury.” And certainly Douthat knows how to do a close reading, but for some reason he refuses to read between the lines to arrive at what Mueller was really saying.
It does require wading into some unnecessarily prolix legalese. The report’s main fault was that it could have been expressed in much plainer English. Strip away the legal filigree and you have: Trump tried very hard to commit a crime, but for personal incompetence, lack of cooperation of his minions, and legal restrictions on Mueller he could not be indicted. Mueller offers a dozen examples of obstruction, but says he will leave it up to the courts and Congress to pursue them.
But – all of this seems to elicit no more than a yawn from Douthat.
4
I don't know why all the analysts keep saying that if DT had been allowed to fire the special counsel he'd be in real trouble. He's already said he could shoot someone on 5th Av & get away w/ it &, so far, it seems to me that he could've fired the special counsel w/ impunity too. Who would've done what? The GOP??
Americans cannot trust our system if there are rules for the rest of us which a President exploits. Trump clearly took advantage of a system that never foresaw a lying, deceitful, corrupt narcissist in the Oval Office. The Justice Department principle of not indicting a sitting president seems short-sighted in dealing with someone who said during the campaign that "I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose voters." It's time to change the rules. Trump thinks he's a king, and right now the rules are making it easy for him to act like one.
3
You nailed it, Ross! Great writing!
Thanks.
“We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning.”
--- P. Trump, Individual -1
I did something so ridiculous the other day that it surprised even me.
I was watching an Army-Loyola University lacrosse game on TV and didn’t like the way the game was going, so I turned it off midway.
Next day I googled the game and discovered that my side had won after all, so I turned it back on and enjoyed it .
I am just so sick and tired of losing with Trump that I have been reduced to finding new ways of not losing.
1
Ross. I agree—we should let either the Omni-incompetent Trump or the Omni-competent Russians pick the democrat challenger for the 2020 campaign.
I'm still not convinced Trump is 'incompetent'. If Trump is incompetent, what does that make Hillary? This guy has been a successful businessman for decades. Yes, he's had his ups and downs, but he's always ended up on top. So he decides to run for president, and, with no experience, he ends up beating the "anointed one". Trump is a dis-likable liar, but by believing he's incompetent is to under-estimate him. That is probably a big mistake for anyone running against him.
1
Why do people constantly overlook the national security risk that is ever present in this White House?
2
Under oath while being questioned by Mueller, Trump couldn’t remember a single conversation he had or a single act he had taken to obstruct justice. At the same time, he claims to precisely remember every conversation he has had with his staff over the last three years when rebutting anything negative said about him.
That tells us all something. First, like every other white color criminal, he was coached by his legal team to fain selective amnesia. (Great job Rudi!) Second, the man is a pathological liar. Third, the man is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt.
1
Excusing Trump's criminality because he's ignorant and incompetent doesn't fly.
Trump's immediate circle had over 400 intentional contacts with Russian agents and associates. They were alerted to Russia's GRU's desire to interfere with our elections. They not only failed to report a single approach or instance where 'dirt' was being offered to them via Russian intelligence, they had Trump dictating duplicitous statements covering that up.
So apologists for Trump who try to ascribe this traitorous behavior to "deep policy divisions," do not pass the laugh test. Any other presidential campaign would, and has reported such overtures and approaches to the FBI. This outfit of grifters and liars did not.
Mueller describes the constraints he operated under both limiting the scope and disposition of his inquiry and the reach and authority accorded to it to compel or require testimony from the Chief Executive.
Impeachment is the way.
The rest is empty and corrupt false equivalency and 'both-sidism' rationalization worthy of Charlottesville being excused by Trump as ascribable to the 'deep divisions' in our nation which he works assiduously to worsen with every inflammatory lie and tweet.
3
This wasn't supposed to be an expose', it was supposed to be a formal investigation.
Inclusion of reams of salacious material not directly related to evidentiary documentation was a purposeful and malicious move on the part of an investigative team that was hopelessly biased against Trump, wanted desperately to indict him, and in the end finding nothing whatsoever to cling to.
So they went on the attack.
The statement that the team's analysis "does not exonerate" the president is fundamentally unethical.
A prosecutor's job is not to exonerate. It is to indict, or pack up and go home.
It is not, to publish a hack job.
Mueller's team is a disgrace..
The great thing about the Mueller report, other then it lays out what a despicable man Trump is, plus his family and his associates are for all to see, not only those of us who have "known" them over the years...
It shows that abject lying, as a personal practice, is something far too many Americans are very,very okay with. Okay with their president and everyone around him doing. Not spinning, but blatant lying.
Seems that in this allegedly Xtian nation, lying is fine as long as you call others names, denigrate swaths of people, and make shoddy policy calls, and fail to fulfill promises.
Its all okay as long as you stand there and bloviate, and accuse others for your failings. As long as you can play the poor-me, victim card...lie as much as you want.
Just don't be a Dem, Liberal, woman, person of color, or of a non-traditional sexual orientation, or an immigrant, etc...
The Republic is most threatened not by Trump, although he's a huge threat, but by those who condone and laugh at his behaviors. Who lack the guts to see their own hypocrisy. They are the larger threat, because who knows who they'll support next time...
2
Mr Doubthat said: "One way to approach the Mueller report, if your sense of civic duty requires you to approach it", but he never mentions his party's lack of sense of civic duty to do what they were sworn to do.
It's gonna be a long haul from here to the 2020 Armageddon, but suffice to say: if the Democratic party makes this a referendum on Trump, he will win in a walk.
Even his core supporters know he is a sociopath (although they probably wouldn't use that term). But he is the jerk they know.
The Demos, meanwhile, will have spent a year spearing and smearing one another, basically for sins against the current (and always shifting) sins against...well, there are so many sources of personal, racial, economic guilt. Each "ism" has its self-appointed tribune; each constituency for obscure rights will brook no compromise. The coalition will collapse under the weight of its search for utopian morality.
Think any secret Trump supporter will vote for that? For a political uncertainty that's threatening on a personal, "you are guilty until we allow you to be innocent," level, administered by the humorless Judge Dreds of the left?
Trump is a clown and, we are told, a threat to the political order (an insider's game that the average citizen stands no chance of playing). But the system has stubbornly refused to collapse under his half-baked assaults. Under Bernie, or any of the other lefties? We're not so sure about that.
So, put your money on the Trumpster.
As always, we Americans will stick with the devil we know.
Trump is dishonest, void of character, uninformed and mentally unbalanced. He is a danger to our democracy and not completely but to a large extent a tool of the greedy, racist and religiously hypocritical whose message has needed a spokesperson and alignment with other fringe groups to gain traction. Mueller's report provides a framework of evidence necessary to impeach Trump and his cronies and calls for Congress to do their duty. Impeachment is the trial that will present the argument and require those who support Trump to make a decision between country and party. Whether convicted by the Senate or not, we will have the information needed in preparation for the next election. I am unaffiliated and as such value responsible alternatives. I am hopeful that responsible Republican's of the past will again fight for the center instead of catering to voters with agenda's of hate, greed and authoritarianism.
2
So you take the Mueller report at its word, a one-sided look by partisan Democratic lawyers and an anti-Trump acolyte and best friend of James Comey. I don’t doubt there been chaos and bad decisions by a new president that was falsely accused of collusion and treason. Not sure how anyone would react to that. That said the big lie here is not by Trump but by the fbi and the media that supported that narrative with a vengeance and blind hate of trump. Be nice if you pointed that out rather than adopt the Deep State excuse narrative that now dominates the news media. You owe Trump and apology for your lies and false accusations, your hypocrisy reeks. And on competence, I have not seen an economy as strong as the current one in decades. Perhaps if your anti-Trump conservatives were competent that might have happened early and our middle class would not have been destroyed and our borders would not be overwhelmed. But you all are very polite and proper, just feckless I guess.
So this is Easter Sunday, the day when, presumably, the right--thought to be dead--is raised up miraculously. However, here in the real world those few who repented and told the truth are going to jail, while the master of it all rides high and, indeed, has been formally declared to be above the law. And many, many so-called "Christians" are still celebrating the scoundrel and overlooking the victims. Happy Easter!
3
Hey, Ross:
Yo say that Michael Wolff used an interesting tactic to gain access to the White House. Let's be honest. He used an unethical tactic. So why not excoriate Wolff 's legerdemain the way you beat up Trump about his. C'mon, Ross. Make a good act of contrition.
@Big Al , Ross needs no act of contrition. As I think you know, a journalist is not the President of the United States. I think you'll agree that they would be held to significantly different standards of behavior. But if that comparison doesn't work for you, why not bring up Hillary again?That always seems to be the go to when unable to defend Trump.
1
2 years and $30,000,000. Well wasted time and words to exonerate an innocent man who by the way didn’t need the job but took it on to turn this country around. The msm has been spewing hatred non stop since January 2016. For the record in just 2018 his accomplishments were, Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, confronting China, middle class wage rise, NFTA trade deal, ended the Iran nuclear deal, moved the U.S embassy to Jerusalem, smashing the ISIS caliphate and exiting Syria, increased minority jobs, holding the line with migrant caravans, record American oil production. Your welcome.
Another way to look at this is that when an insider like Michael Wolff or David Corn expertly and credibly write about a crisis in the White House that threatens the foundations of our country’s principles and institutions, the House Republicans who deny it, discredit it, ignore it or cant read books should be made to put on huge red dunce caps and paraded up and down the street in front of the news cameras.
2
Douthat declares that Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children....
No, Trump is a criminal incompetent loony surrounded by petty criminals and other shabby human detritus, Guiliani, Kelly Ann Whatsis, prairie maiden, Sarahh Sanders, and, yes, the greedy, lying kids.
Promoted by his base and the jellyfish GOP, Trump has despoiled this country. Impeachment and conviction won't happen because of the goose-stepper republicans in the Senate.
There is only one solution: vote the GOP and Trump's his big fat behind out of office.
Make America GOP-less Already.
1
You miss the point ... he’s a money launderer and the real life Manchurian candidate.
2
I agree that Trump is supremely incompetent and possibly a high end criminal, BUT, what about all the republicans in the a senate and those idiotic, superficial people who elected him? Are they not to blame for continuing to support this poor excuse for a president? Where is the Republican Party’s conscience? I guess their EGOS are what motivates them: afraid to lose their position in government and the financial benefits thereof, if their idiotic constituents who support Trump will not support them in their next election.That’s what appears to be motivating that band of losers in the senate and the house.
2
Hey Ross,
Imagine Hillary had won and a corrupt and inept Acting AG appointed a special counsel to investigate the Democrat Campaign team -- and their collaborative efforts with Putin to throw shade on DJT.
Good thing all Mueller's team had was blanks.
1
So it comes right back down to the first two most likely possibilities:
1. Trump and/or his administration (part or all of it) are guilty of conspiracies and cover-ups.
2. Trump and/or his administration (part or all of it) are guilty of incredibly incompetent stupidity.
Couldn't Trump be impeached for stupidity that leads to gross incompetence?
1
Loyal member ofthe Professional Republican Commentariat Ross Douthat dutifully ignores what the Mueller Report, what little of it can be seen, actually says. Instead, he mimics the Barr spin. Here is a scenario to point out the flaming hypocrisy of Douthat and the rest of the Republican Commentariat: say Douthat wants to rob a bank but forgets to load his gun. He enters the bank, threatens everyone within with the gun, and demands money. The police show up, Douthat tries to fire his unloaded gun at them and is mowed down in a hail of gunfire. Does anyone believe for one minute that the police and press would defend the dead attempted bank robber Douthat as innocent because he was too stupid to load his gun?
After the 2016 election, for the sake and hope of contributing to some semblance of civility, I banished the cheap and gratuitous f-bomb from my vocabulary, so I can’t say what actually came first to mind. So I’ll put it this way: have you lost your mind, Mr. Douthat??? Do you really want to live in a country or world where there are no consequences for one’s deceit and transgressions?
3
So basically Trump is indeed a Russian asset and too stupid to realize it. The key is his tax returns to see why is he Putin’s puppet and why he has been covering for Russia all this time.
Hillary Clinton knew it from day one.
1
The Special Prosecutor's report is the 3rd or 4th iteration documenting the DJT WH riven by deceit and chaos, and led by a president with a limitless reserve of megalomania. Another worrisome view of the current environment is, "Who is taking notes during the DJT WH meetings today?" History may well determine Mueller's appointment and the Special Prosecutor investigation was started too early and with the wrong precipitating event. The WH and the DJT administration are populated with far more people resembling SH-Sanders than D McGann. For the next 18 months, DJT has a coterie surrounding him that may well follow through on his worst impulses and lie about it with shameless impunity matched only by DJT.
I predict that Trump will fire Barr in several months, because somehow Barr didn’t make him look good. This won’t be reasonable, of course, there was so much that was damning in the report that it would have been impossible to make it positive, but Trump will probably conclude that nothing further beyond the initial summary should have been released.
Your view is of Trump as the "useful idiot" for Putin and others.
Still, idiots are not competent, and they should not be allowed to continue as President. What is a shame is that we can't all agree to get rid of him because of that.
The 40% of fools is our real problem.
3
So now we know Trump is a crook. And we are supposed to suck it up and wait for the people to decide in 2020? So trumpists can run on the fact that Trump was not impeached, and therefore nothing was there?
E. Warren is right, if Trump is really unfit for office he has to be impeached, otherwise we are playing pure politics.
1
"we will be back to talking about whether Joe Biden can beat Bernie Sanders and whether Sanders can beat Trump."
We should be talking about how best to save our society from the ethical cesspool that it has become. So long as we stay focused on who can beat whom instead of on what is needed to become a decent society, we will remain lost.
2
The president is a public servant, doing the people's business, being paid by taxpayers, in whose interests he must act. He is sworn to faithfully execute the laws. He is, as Jed Shugerman and Ethan J. Leib have argued in the Washington Post, a fiduciary.
Why, then, is it so hard to determine what's going on in the White House? It is not the private reserve of Donald Trump. It is not Trump Tower. It is the people's house.
We should not have to rely on investigations or seditious authors or even former staffers to let us know what happens in the people's house. That place should be open and transparent.
Instead, it's Richard Nixon without the fig leaf.
4
Simple question: What is the plausible, innocent explanation for why Trump refuses to have any other American present when he talks to Putin? This policy only applies to Putin. Why?
Answer that question and I'll believe there's no collusion.
4
In a court of law, there is direct evidence and circumstantial evidence. A defendant can be convicted on the basis of circumstantial evidence alone. There is no direct evidence that Trump conspired with the Russians . There is direct evidence that he obstructed justice. There is circumstantial evidence that he both conspired and obstructed. There exists sufficient evidence to find him guilty on both counts. Mueller couldn't bring charges against a sitting president but perfected the record for any future action by Congress or others.
5
The Mueller report also noted that Russia did work to influence the election in favor of Trump. Putin wanted Trump President and helped him luck into it. And Trump apparently still wants to build a hotel in Russia with his "powerful" friend Putin.
1
So, the bottom line is that the Russians will conduct an even larger cyber-disinformation campaign in 2020 than they did in 2016.
Led by President Trump, the entire Republican Party and the executive branch of the United States will look the other way.
And why shouldn't they? The key objective of the Russians is to re-elect Trump.
So, let me ask Mr. Douthat, is the Republican lack of interest in Russian cyber-warfare treasonous?
4
Saying nothing is really new in the Muller report is displaying a very blasé attitude. Complacency of the erosion of the rule of law and ethical standards is of grave danger to democracy.
If we believe that what Muller reported should only be seen as a political football, we might as well forget about the constitution.
We are basically saying that having fifty percent of the people (a bit less in reality) voting for someone confer them with immunity. What's next then, suspending elections, jailing political opponent "lock her up", caging children, recklessly ignoring the oath of protecting the nation and its people (by recklessly ignoring ecological and environmental needs) ?
There is no excuse in my mind not to start impeachment proceeding base on what we now with a high level of certainty now. They should have started earlier since we had a lot of evidence in plain sight of what was going on.
Trump claiming "self defense" from investigation overreach cannot excuse violating the law while attempting to block legally initiated investigations. Lets not talk about emolument or campaign finance violations or constant lying to the public which each on their own should be disqualifying.
[Trump would also not have won without Russian help. The fact that his election itself was seriously tinted gave much leverage to the Russians over our foreign policy. Trump refusing or delaying enacting sanctions on Russia should also be disqualifying].
3
Very specifically, the report was about obstruction of justice and very specifically Mueller states there was no exoneration because of the narrow scope of the investigation and there was no term " collusion " in legalese. So the report venerated as exoneration is wrong and false.
3
Mark Shields made the comment below on PBS News Hour on his takeaway from the Mueller Report. It bears repeating:
"I guess sadness, more than anything else, Judy, sadness about the state of the leadership of the country.
I mean, every White House is inevitably a mirror reflection of the president at the top of it, whether it's in terms of optimism of a Reagan or sort of the paranoia of a Nixon.
But this White House, it may be good at some level to have worked in Donald Trump's White House for somebody, but it's terrible for one's self-respect. I mean, at no point in the entire narrative does any sense of the president's unselfishness or patriotism or larger national interest ever emerge in any way."
5
Well put Ross.
Successful impeachment is a practical impossibility in the GOP controlled Senate.
Despite this the Democratic controlled House should draft Articles of Impeachment if such can be credibly assembled from the exhaustive Muller efforts, but not based on some interminable re-investigation and rehashing of every minute detail of the Special Council’s effort.
The absolute first order imperative for the Democrats, and more importantly the nation, is the unmitigated and unblemished defeat Trump in 2020.
This seminal challenge alone is weighty and convoluted enough to suggest uncertainty and no foregone matter given the internal turmoil and dissension actively brewing around the GOP presidential candidacy with a field of nearly 20 aspirants.
2
@G. Sears
I agree. Impeachment is a wasted effort since it will take almost as long and voting him out to lunch forever and subject the the NY Southern District and the City of New York for all his other crimes. They could put him in jail - way better than impeachment. Lots of lawyers get paid too.
It's fine to continue any investigations because we all really want to know the truth!v It would be nice to get some real work done in Congress for most Americans done in between. I think that is where Nancy is at. Extending this show business isn't worth the ink for the NYT.
This sentence: "He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. "
What is glaringly missing here is that Trump won not simply despite his "manifold vices" but because of the assistance of a hostile foreign power.
Come on, Ross, I didn't think you'd be one of those to grandstand for no impeachment. And so thinly veiled!
9
Hasn't it been established that Russia actively meddled in our 2016 election? Didn't Trump stand side by side with Putin on the world stage and deny it happened despite what his own intelligence agencies told him? Doesn't the fact that he continues to deny Russian interference despite all evidence to the contrary mean anything to Republicans?
To me it means conspiring with Russia. To me it means dereliction of duty. To me it means collusion.
11
My father had the same mental disorder he was disorganized to everyone but himself. Having dealt with him for many years there was an order to it. But it was truly about him always,shoes ,shirts , clothing and countless other items,it’s a kind of hoard.
Donald collects greedy people.
@John Perhaps this correction will help-"...collects greedy grifters and opportunists.".
1
Ross hits the nail on the head. The best outcome of all of this investigation will be the loss of the 2020 election by Trump. The Democrats need to focus on this outcome, not Impeachment.
And while the Democrats are at it, the more they can tie McConnell and the rest of the Republican Delegation to allowing the catastrophe that is Trump, by aiding and abetting him every step of the way, the better. They need to go as well.
Meanwhile there is plenty of work that the Democratic House needs to do. Infrastructure programs, Health Care, Voting rights,
Protecting the Federal Consumer Protection Agency and all of the rest of our Agencies. This is where their focus is needed.
Maybe Mitt Romney can speak out stronger against Trump and the do nothing Republicans. They need someone to bring them back to reality. I never thought I would be bringing Romney's name up with the same word as reality.
Douthat is minimizing the institutional risk. We have a President and Party so in thrall to the feeling of power they're willing to accept help from an adversary to gain and maintain it. That is the death knell for American democracy.
14
@Hotel... Sounds familiar.. right, HRC campaign paying a foreign spy to collect dirt on Trump through Russian sources. Both sides do shady things to win and gain power. No need to clutch our pearls.
BTW, any relation to the Hotel Putingrad on Mgoblog?
@Ryan... Agree with you. Both sides are totally corrupt. I post frequently on Mgoblog as well. I wondered the same thing about Hotel when I saw the name.
Your comparison of the Mueller Report as an analogue to the more "fanciful", tabloid style swill of "Fire and Fury" is an interesting and valid one, but ultimately lays bare what may be our greatest weakness as an ostensible democracy.
We have arrived at a point where the power of the executive is essentially unchecked but for the occasional high ranking aid's efforts to challenge it in service to their own motivations.
One could persuasively argue that the we had already arrived at that point with the GWB/Cheney executive cabal, but even they observed some of our most sacred democratic guardrails.
With a man like Trump, all bets are off, and it's obvious that we are essentially powerless to stop him until 2020.
I think we can still vote him out of office, but I suppose we'll get a final answer to that in 2020.
4
It is of paramount importance that we not have a second Trump term. The damage he's done already will move forward in intensity -- who knows where our country AND world will be after that. However, we need to be clear-eyed and extremely judicious regarding how we proceed. I personally think impeachment would be a god-awful waste of time, and sap the energy we need to push forward. I, and many other voters, will hold the Democratic Party accountable if there is no candidate proposed who can go mark to mark against this man. Use every advantage not to pick at the crow, but to create in the minds of all Americans a clear vision of personal success if the Dems are elected. I don't want to see more than 3 proposed Democratic candidates by the end of summer. "We must either hang together or surely we will hang separately." Judge the candidates on the basis of their ability to compete on the public stage. And unite behind ONE platform that speaks directly to those who did vote for Trump. Economic security, education and opportunities for the young, and a leader who can bring every side together.
5
The Mueller report would have told us more if Trump had not answered “I don’t remember” to Mueller’s team more than 30 times. If Trump had provided more detail then perhaps Mueller would have been more likely to conclude that Trump had conspired with the Russians to influence the election.
8
So if members of the Trump Campaign were "free lancing" with the Russians, isn't that conspiracy
It's pretty clear that the Donald was doing everything possible to obstruct the investigation.
10
Donald Trump succeeds in wrecking the government and damaging democracy precisely because his critics, mostly on the Left, but also on the Right, are distracted by his barbarism and his boorishness. We can agree that the man is trash in many ways, but we need not count the ways. Opinions on Trump are not going to change; more talk about his is a dereliction of duty because it can accomplish nothing.
What we need to do is get on with the business of governing. The craven and corrupt Republican leadership of the Senate is unprepared to join the House in legislating to meet the needs of the country. The Democratic leadership should respond by passing legislation to address those needs and then by publicizing the Senate's failure to act.
15
If Trump did nothing wrong regarding Russia's involvement in the election, then why does Trump "exonerate" Russia?
Mueller Report does not answer the biggest question of all, and that is what does Vladimir Putin have on Trump? Why does Trump support Putin's claim that Russia did not interfere? Why does Trump today appear to remain completely under the influence of Putin? Look at the title of the Mueller Report. The whole point of the Mueller Report was an investigation of the Russian Interference in the 2016 election.
Is Robert Mueller really saying that Trump's behavior toward Putin, including Trump's denying that Russia interfered, is in no way connected to Trump's lapdog deference toward Putin? I want to hear that directly from Mueller's own mouth.
3
I have long considered Trump's extreme incompetence to be every bit as significant as his corruption. We have had a non-fuctional so-called president since January 2017. Unfortunately, some of his minions have been happy to carry out his damaging yet absurd orders (e.g., Zinke, Pruitt, Ross, DeVos, and the rest of the incompetent but willing Cabinet).
8
RD's scaleable analog beteween Wolff and Mueller breaks down pretty quickly. Anecdote and testimony are not the same no matter how cattily advanced here. Wolff produced a collective shrug of the right wing shoulders while Mueller has indicted, convicted and accepted guilty pleas from actual criminals associated with the Trump endeavor.
There are patriotic Americans involved in resisting this abominable man and his global associates. Making weak and apologetic excuses for Trumpism reveals something about the apologists. We already know all we need to know about how and why Trump prevailed in 2016 and we now have a firmly fixed glimpse of where he is headed, as soon as he leaves office. We have Mueller and his team to thank for that, not Wolff.
4
@jim, cattily advanced indeed. How 'bout the phrase, "resistance industry." Implication being that they are just a busy-bodied zealous group that has no proper utility in the dissolution derby in which we find ourselves.
The incompetence and greed of Trump et. al. is what made them ideal targets of Putin.
This is abetted now by the Republican Party whose "win at any cost" strategies over the years -- voter suppression, unverifiable electronic voting systems, ignoring Obama's right to appoint a Supreme Court candidate, etc.
Barr has become one of Trump's main cheerleaders, but I think it's more for the entire morally and ethically bankrupt Republican Party that has put party over country for too long. They were naive to think that no one on the world stage would notice.
5
The author joins the GOP chorus of 'we know he's bad but don't 'punish' him' and the big lie 'Let's Move On!'.
So optimistic!! The voters don't 'want' impeachment.
How convenient, hypocritical, self-serving and Undemocratic.
Faced with similar actions by a POTUS of Democratic affiliation, the GOP would be getting the fires burning right now. But it's Trump and for some strange reason he is not to be held to account for any of his actions ever. The GOP accepts and condones Trump's actions - hey, it was no big deal - nothing to see here. You knew it all before.
So it is left up to the Democrats to be the party to insist upon accountability in some form. And Trump and the GOP have framed that Democratic possible action as either sour grapes or what the voters don't want to hear.
And ys even the NYTimes goes along with this fake 'quandary' of what to do.
Between a rock and a hard place for sure.
1
Read about Michael Cohen's relationship with Trump in today's Times. Wise people don't negotiate with Trumps because all relationships with the type are sadomasochistic.
4
As the conning, incompetence and lies have been impossible to deny, Trump's supporters have a new mantra: He's Not Perfect (But I Love What He's Doing for the Country).
3
What is missing from Ross's essay is any expression of disgust.
And that tells us the current nature of the president's supporters.
Disgust. Repellance. Repugnance. Fear of destruction.
Danger. Alarm.
That is what normal people feel.
All missing here. All missing from Fox. All missing from the 80% of republicans.
Ross-- are you asleep?
What is the matter with all of these Americans?
9
more short sighted opinion. God help us if the liberal elite take back the reigns of power. They are just bitter they lost them to Donald Trump and yet can’t see why they did in the first place. They will investigate and litigate because that’s the only credible way they have to be rid of trump in 2020.
I'm so sick of hearing Republican mouth pieces like Mr. Douthat claim that McGahn and his cohorts are hero's who saved the country from Trump and his misdeeds be acting behind the scenes. True patriots would have exposed the miscreant to the nation for what he is.
6
To Impeach or Not to Impeach
"To Be or Not to Be"
It's about life and death, and what it means to live.
We're at the point that we don't even know where America ends and Russia begins.
Mother Russia manage to get me here after 40 years.
Tragic!!!
2
Seems to me that this bumbling group of clowns did pretty well with their desire to take down Hillary in the election. The "fools" met many times with the Russians, trump knew about the meetings, they got the dirt on Hillary, and through the Russian connections, and Wiki-Leaks the "dirt" was released at a timely manner. I do believe trump all but announced the release date. The end result was a substantial blow to the Hillary campaign.
It looks like these same group of nitwits may have fooled both Wolff and Mueller. Neither could imagine these bumbling idiots in the trump campaign could possibly concoct and carry out such a conspiracy.
Seems to me they did, trump won, and most will walk away chuckling to themselves for being so smart with #1 a genius!
2
Your naughty boy analysis is another example of underestimating Trump. Trump gets done what Trump needs to get done. He has and will destroy every obstacle in his way to greater self-glorification and it would be unwise to think that civilized discourse will save us from his excesses.
He is ,by no means, a naughty boy behaving badly. He is a man whose emotional needs are so great that he has become a human black hole. We need to do whatever we can to stop him. I, for one, hope that the Democrats have some steel in their spine to do what is necessary once and for all.
2
Note that Mr. Douthat doesn't go after the curious phenomenon of the Trump base: that he can do no wrong, even shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose support.
Note also, that while Mr. Douthat lays down a challenge for Trump's opposition to defeat him at the ballot box, no challenge is laid at the feet of the sycophantic supporters of the president: no questions of or summonses to Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and the rest of the GOP enablers. None.
4
What is significant in the media (and much of the public probably) is that no one expects the Republicans to do anything to contain the damage these grifters (Mulvaney, DeVoss, Carson, Ross, etc.) are doing to our democratic institutions. The election of Trump is accepted as legitimate even though everyone also accepts that the Russians mounted a massive disinformation campaign. Impeachment is not possible because no Republican in Congress will support throwing a Republican President out of office no matter what his crimes against America might be. How do Republicans continually get a pass on this? Where are the news reports outlining Lindsay Graham's obsequiousness and Mitch McConnell's indifference? Devin Nunes.? Mark Meadows? Jim Jordan? But let's talk about Amy Klobuchar being mean to her staff.
5
The simple fact is that a small percentage of the American people believe that Trump is entirely innocent, and that the Mueller report is a total work of fiction. A much larger percentage, however, believe that the report is true, that Trump is a "despicable human being" to quote one supporter heard on the radio, but that they will still vote for him because of abortion, immigrants, race, etc.
So stop fighting the battle of 2016 and start fighting the war of 2020. What the Democrats need to do is (a) come up with ideas that appeal to the people, (b) investigate the corruption of the Trump administration, which does resonate with some of his supporters, and (c) unite behind the eventual nominee.
Trump wins if Democrats stay home or vote for Jill Stein.
4
Clearly, most on the left and many on the right agree Trump is unfit for office. But Ross and others leave it to the Democrats to do the dirty work to get rid of the scourge. Well conservatism bought us Trump. They have made it clear the man doesn't matter as long as he does what is asked of him. But there will be collateral damage. For example, it would be very easy for Trump to blunder us into an unnecessary war. And people will die as a result. And the country will be expected to lower their heads and offer support for the sacrifice of the sons and daughters made not in the name of America, but to help make sure Trump has a legacy other than corruption. You will not cry over the lives that will be lost due to climate change or deregulation of the environment or the loss of health care. You got the judges and the deregulation that will help not you as much as profit and high income increases. So time to stop being greedy and help stop the madness. Hindsight will do you no good as you watch your sons and daughters be lowered into the ground. While Trump hits the links. We will be right here shaking our heads and telling you: " Sorry for your loss, but we warned you". Time to point out the guy on Fifth Ave and say: "He shot that unarmed man" to police instead of being in the picture on the front page of the paper cheering him on.
1
Here's a thought. After reading the Mueller report, and seeing how the careers of everyone around him turns quickly to mud, why would anyone with a sense of history or an ounce of self-respect choose to fill a vacancy in the Trump administration? Such willingness to work for Trump following the Mueller report exposes two serious character flaws; masochism and ignorance. Automatic disqualifiers for anyone hoping to lead a Federal agency.
1
Progressives are so fortunate that the Trump administration and Trump himself are so radically incompetent in attempting to run the government. Otherwise, we would be seeing a reversal of all the policy advances under President Obama. These would include the areas of climate change, educational standards, treatment of disadvantaged identity groups, immigration, transgender rights, etc. We would see a tax program that dramatically favored the rich, even more so than under George Bush 43. We would see a sea wave of conservative judicial appointments, real conservatives, at the district, appeal court, and most importantly, the Supreme Court. We would see a roll back in advances in universal health care coverage. Wow, Progressives are soooo blessed that Trump and his minions are so darn competent !!!
And his accomplice in all this corruption, incompetence and mendacity is the Republican party. And apropos that Steele dossier there is no question there was a Russian state directed conspiracy to influence the election in Trump's favor. This is confirmed by Mueller's report and umpteen US intelligence agencies. The Steele dossier merely suggested the Russian might have some hold over Trump personally. That remains unresolved either way.
1
Mueller will testify to the House that if Trump were a private citizen, he would indict him and be 90% sure of a conviction -- that the only reason Trump's not indicted is because he's president. And the crime is obstructing an investigation into a hostile power that tried to interfere with our election. That, the Republican silence on the issue, and the other 12 investigations trickling out of the Trump crime pinata will be on the front pages into the election. There will be no season 2 of this awful reality show that should have been killed in pilot.
1
Like a good Republican, Ross is keeping the to the party line of "nothing really to see here, let's move on". Like a good Republican, he is ignoring the facts that are so egregious and vile that if a Democrat had done a fraction of what is documented the system would have ground to a halt and Fox would be discussing it without end. Like a good Republican, Ross is normalizing all Trump's actions saying "It's not so bad that people stopped him from really doing harm!"
But what is the point talking about Conservative hypocrisy or mendacity or violation of their Constitutional oath? It has been this way for years and still every supposed liberal news source prints this kind of drivel and allows Republican representatives spout off without any interruption or serious resistance to their canned message. They can go on about Bengazi ad nauseum after millions of dollars of investigations led to nothing, but clear documented Constitutional violations are willfully and easily ignored to talk about the crazy Democrat witch hunt that paid for itself in fines levied and that proved an attack by a foreign entity that our President denied occurred.
The point should be that Republicans are clearly undermining our country to stuff our judicial system with people of certain beliefs, cut taxes on the wealthy, and deregulate and everything and anything can be sacrificed to that end.
3
An op-ed by the Economist's Lexington likens Trump, an old friend of the WWE's McMahon family, to a performer in the billion-dollar spoof wrestling show known as WrestleMania. Seeing politics as "a partisan slugfest almost as contrived and absurd as the WWE," said Lexington, Trump offers "a more ghoulishly watchable version of what voters were already getting. Mixing family, business and politics infuriates sticklers for the law but makes his fans think he is somehow more real -- or authentic -- than his rivals." He is "a master of shifting between degrees of make-believe" and entertains viewers with "constantly distracting microdramas." Knowing that "a WWE performer without an adversary would be a pitiful spectacle," Trump "fills the void not with policies but rather with a parade of new enemies: immigrant children, black football players, and the late John McCain." Lexington's advice to Trump's opponents in the next election: "The WWE's popularity suggests their main hope, that voters will tire of Mr. Trump's grim clowning, may be wishful. More specifically, they should recognize that no professional politician can beat him in a grudge match. They would do better, where possible, to ignore him." Something the media should also heed.
3
Strange-it appears that Ross missed the 182 page Vol 2 part of the report that addressed the obstruction of justice issues. In fact, the word “obstruction” doesn’t even make an appearance in the piece. I’m sure it’s just an oversight.
2
Modest political impact? It appears the wish is Father to the thought.
It proves much more than what we already knew. It proves he is aggresively attacking our justice department, judges, and the free press while contracting out all policy to his congressional syncophants so the wealthy can get even more money, the polluters can spew more toxic filth, and the cynics can go on saying everything is rotten (on both sides). All so the extreme right wing in this country can fill the courthouses with judges denying minorities their voting right and women their health control decisions. To sum up; money, pollution, nihilism, racism and abortion. The big 5 of the conservative movement.
We learned more, not of the vile nature of Trump and company. We learned more details of the abiding rot of your political party, supporters as well as apologists.
2
The author's erroneous and specious conclusion that the Mueller report will have no major media impact is wrong and naive. The opposite is true, and the report will leave a strong footprint in America's history. It will never be forgotten, not now or in one hundred years. The main reason is that it shows an immoral Trump colluding with our enemy, Russia. It's win at any cost even if it means destroying our Constitution. The fact that Trump and his enablers used and allowed Russia to exploit our democracy for some semblance of influence is beyond egregious and tantamount to treason. Even if Trump didn't break the law his actions are not moot. His intent was to use Russia and Wikileaks is clear. He even said so about Wikileaks. The fact that he didn't succeed doesn't absolve him or his misfit band of sycophants. We must never forget what he did to our nation, and use Mueller's report as the gold standard for our democracy.
1
A candidate who beats President Trump should be an icon for what we need to become and a plan for how to achieve it- a nation not beset by endless wars, the highest income inequality ever, crumbling roads and under-funded public schools, and a terrible Corporate Healthcare "system". Whoever has the vision is who should win. Let Mr. Trump fail in contrast to this.
1
So many people are in disbelief that this travesty is allowed to continue. It's really not that difficult to understand. A con man has captured the hearts of the ignorant, the spiteful, and the ambitious opportunists who can make hay from his ascent. That is not all of us (fortunately), but their passion (like that of NRA members) outweighs our ambivalence and disengagement. The remedy - whipping up the left base - unfortunately could be our downfall as it will deepen the divide and up the level of anger in our already dysfunctional government.
Geez Ross: thanks for assurance. I feel better already.
If Putin didn’t believe his interference would have any impact then why did he even bother with it? And if Trump didn’t believe Putin’s help would have any impact then whey did he he even bother to encourage it? For the same reason you practice the Hail Mary play: sometimes it works.
It worked and Putin and Trump will run it again in 2020. As I recall Trump took the notes from his interpreter.
1
Yes, Steve Bannon must be smart to have seized the day and turned the testosterone of so many into a war mentality. No matter that he's setting back morality or civility (whichever you prefer) to feudalism or even the caveman.
I only know what I glean from the news, but it seems the worldview of Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz is back in the form of Pompeo and Bolton. We can only hope they are deposed before the terrible blunder of the Iraq war morphs into the unthinkable WW111.
The current president is the embodiment of the feudal lord basking in the adulation of his serfs while conspiring to take the land of the adjacent fiefdom.
So it falls to the women and the compassionate men to rescue us from this perfect storm of well-funded media driving worldwide xenophobia.
1
Ross,
Trump has been good for all of us in the US - it has opened our eyes. It has allowed us to see how corrupt Washington truly is; how divided the country is; how many hypocrites are in all media outlets; most importantly, how democracy is no longer possible in the USA.
Look at the present situation. Practically, anyone with a Twitter account has become a candidate - most are self-serving narcissists, who, in the words of the NYT, will rip financial benefits just by being in that list.
Money comes from oligarchs who support these candidates in order to get favors, the TV networks make money out of promoting them. It is a large corporate business. Not exactly what our Founding Fathers had in mind. PLEASE, give me a queen!
1
"And that shift will be sensible. Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency — but not secretly omnicompetent, not secretly treasonous."
Lack of concrete proof is not equal to exoneration or freedom from a strong suspicion of treason. The Mueller report revealed to us all an additional 30 contacts with Russia that we did not previously know about.
Going beyond the report.. What does all this say about today's Republicans? What does it say about the complete assimilation of that party by the oligarchy, just based on the achievements of a Republican-controlled congress and executive, and the lightning speed with which Koch-blessed Pence-suggested cabinet members rolled back anything and everything in sight?
Yes, we'll talk about Bernie vs. Joe. We'll, hopefully, talk about the lack of virtue in remaining firmly in a center, when that center has become a bog.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
2
To add insult to injury, Trump's supporters already know all this about the president. They didn't hire a morality surrogate or someone who could speak "globalism" or who would scintillate their pseudo-intellectualism.
Americans hired a contractor to do a job, and Trump hasn't disappointed. As for that morality, it never existed. Just ask those who voted for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Theirs is faux morality now.
@AACNY
Morality never existed? Probably for the right wing extremists like yourself. Of course Hillary was immoral because she ordered to murder someone, right?
Looking back, almost all the right wing propaganda was saying about Hillary was made up, and almost all liberals were saying about Trump was true.
I’m fairly certain that if we hadn’t been inundated with special counsel news everyday there would be an impeachment hearing by now. Because we have more than three networks and have no fairness doctrine we became used to the nonsense that is the trump administration and as such it may be the new normal for all of us. Pity the children who must endure the aftermath that either four or eight years of this clown show has brought us
Time for the strong-minded Democratic candidates for President to separate themselves from the moderate, mealy-mouthed candidates and call unequivocally for impeachment hearings.
We need leaders to shepherd the outraged American electorate to the next step. Give me Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, their passion and conviction. None of the others so far has stepped up to the plate.
So he just gets away with this? What about the appalling behavior of the GOP Senators and Congressmen who let him get away with being a criminal, but whose plans are thwarted either by incompetence or by his own advisors?
This is NOT satisfactory. I'm sorry. Trump is guilty of obstructing justice, he is guilty of embarrassing the US, he sides with Putin against the US, he disrespects our intelligence services, he trusts Putin more than the FBI, in fact he is now threatening the people entrusted with keeping our country safe - AGAIN, even as his poisonous cabinet destroys the environment, consumer protections, attacks health care and undermines our economy, not to mention the assault on human decency going on at the border.
No. This is NOT ok.
3
By "deep state experts," do you mean properly functioning - as in, law abiding - government employees? You've adopted the paranoid, Trump-apologist terminology of Fox & Friends with the use of this phrase. It appears there is more than just McGahn at work thwarting Trump's worst (or in his case, daily) inclinations.
2
@J Hoban Indeed law-abiding employees. Those employees are possibly the only thing keeping this country from going off the rails.
I am amused when the die hard Trump supporters ask an apostate, a non-Trump supporter, if they are better off today than when Obama was president. That question answers itself.
Trump will find his agenda, and I state that loosely, hamstrung by the House and any semblance of being "better off than under Obama" will be fiction.
Yet, the die hards will rally around the grifter and his grifting courtiers in the White House and continue to attempt to sell us snake oil. Some will buy the lies, many won't.
Perhaps in time we will see the grifting crook from Queens have more of a twitter melt-down and moderate Republicans that still believe in Trump in order to protect the party may head for the lifeboats when the SS Trumptanic begins to sink into the swamp from which it emerged.
In closing, I do ask Ross this-who was the biggest crook during the campaign of hate-Hillary or Grifting Donny?
We have an unwitting stooge of Russia in the White House. He was manipulated and flattered and lied to; he fell for it all hook line and sinker.
In some ways that is worse that if he was clever and competent. Someone clever and competent can make a rational choice to negotiate an arrangement for him to leave with his wealth intact and the ability to resume his business activities. Trump's narcissism is so severe he won't negotiate a face-saving departure.
As the GOP will not convict him, there is no point to impeachment. We have to wait for 2020.
1
Having read this Conservative pundits opinion and all the "readers picks", we the people need to get out the vote in 2020.
Trump supporters are still a statistical minority and with the country 58% against Trump, total numbers will out vote him.
Let's get busy.
,
1
"Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent ... who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders..." Many of those advisors who saved him from himself are long gone. Will the latest group of yes-men (and women) do the same? I doubt it. In the next two years, what violations of law and tradition will happen as advisors and appointees say "yes" instead of standing up to Trump or, at the very least, passing the buck until someone simply chooses not to follow orders. Who will save us when no one is willing to save Trump from himself?
1
He is as bad as everybody thought, he just was not smart enough to prevent his political colleagues from stopping him commit a crime. And this is somehow, in this article, an apology of sorts for Trump. And, it now seems up to the Democrats to dethrone him, but certainly not the responsibility of all citizens, particularly those who voted for him, who can sit on their hands, remain moot and inactive in removing such a person from the highest leadership role in the land. It is not simply the challenge for his opponent on the campaign train, it is the responsibility of every voting American to think and act on the reality that we can and must do better. Ross c'mon.
1
We have been treated to the menagerie of knaves and lowlifes who were perfectly willing to do Donald Trump's bidding but there are also those, supposedly qualified, people who signed on and then felt compelled to thwart or ignore him at every step. Trump was already a known quantity when they walked in the door, so what were they thinking? It's like praising someone for accidentally driving into a demolition derby and only sustaining a dented fender.
1
We have twelve more, ongoing, investigations farmed out from this report, some we don't know about. SDNY is looking into his business practices while others look at his inauguration, his charity and his finances. The Congress will call whoever they want to testify about what they told Robert Mueller and let them elaborate if they feel the need (there's gonna be a load of ex-employees). The Republican Senate will see their majority dwindle as each Senator will have to back the unindicted co-conspirator, individual one. You're announcing a half life on the Mueller report and it's just getting started.
Wow!
As soon as the matter of Trump comes up, the conservative pundits start talking in vague generalities. If was a Democratic President doing the same or even much less egregious things, it is hard to imagine them to be so calm and nonchalant about what has been wrought. Oh they do make some attempts to condemn the behavior of the President, but there heart is clearly not in it, and the fury and the anger that they would have expressed if it was a Democrat in the WH is completely absent.
So, clearly, the rot is not just in the Republican Party, but in conservatism itself. We should be thankful to Trump for laying bare the stinking kernel of a decayed and decrepit ideology that does not seem to have any self-awareness or any set of values on the basis of which it can effectively pass any judgment on the current occupant of the White House.
1
The U.S. Presidency is judged to be the most difficult job in the world. Yet we have had Presidents with a disabling stroke (Wilson), Alzheimers (Reagan) and Trump whose incompetence save in some political judgment is poor. Also he acts and talks like a paranoid demented man. When he is out of office no doubt he will be found demented. Giving a near demented man the nuclear codes is the absurdity of the so called American Democracy. If a demented man can be President and a person with a stroke works as well as a third rate petty crook (Trump) this job must be much easier than anyone imagines or it doesn't matter (a competent President is defeated by the system). Given all the counter evidence we need to revise our popular impression of the Presidency. A man no matter how competent is barred except in exceptional circumstances for doing anything substantially good for the U.S. The search for leadership and reform in the U.S. need to be focused elesewhere.
Do we need to approach the Mueller Expose, Ross? Do the American people need more Fire and Fury and Fear and the revelations of the anonymous Op-Ed by a White House "resister" in the NYTimes (Sept, 2018) and Michael Cohen grilled by the Democratic Congress Oversight Committee 7 weeks ago in front of us, and the Mueller Report? Do we need more proof than we've seen with our eyes, heard with our ears that Donald Trump is a wholly unacceptable president? Chaos, crazy weather-vane directions in our domestic and foreign policies from above, all this and more undeniable truths have driven us to realize that everything Trump is impeachable. By what means (how and when) do we accomplish the repeal and removal of Donald Trump from our American democracy?
It is a shame that: "The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them." It does say something--and it is not good--about our country and its current politics, that you just appear to say "Oh well....[maybe back to reality TV?]."
1
The collusion story seems like a mob story; have the underlings do the dirty work while protecting the boss; the boss talks in examples without giving explicit orders. The tape recordings doesn’t capture the boss demanding a corrupt act and voila no evidence of criminal activity.
It cannot be a coincidence that he is the Don.
1
When George Costanza was confronted with the accusation that he made love with the cleaning lady on his work desk, he asked if that was not allowed and how he wished someone had told him. In much the same way, the clown car that is the trump administration has no idea that assistance from a foreign power is not allowed. Costanza's boss had the good sense to fire him. Senate republicans stand idly by.
5
@steve h
There is something festeringly wrong with Republicans.
Brilliant summary- as bad as he appeared but incompetent not an omnicompetant traitor.
Well, THAT’s a relief.
I was interested in one comment about the Wolf Book- that all. His WH sources doubted Collusion due to Trump’s own and the campaign’s incompetence.
Oddly, I do not recall many questions to Mr. Wolf about that from CNN or MSN hosts.
And Republicans’ responsibility to act? Why end with a discussion of the burdens placed on the Democratic Party? Please add a paragraph, or two, considering the implications for the Republican primary. Have they been “exonerated” too?
1
Trump was saved by incompetence on collusion with Russia as a criminal conspiracy.
It’s a different story on obstruction and even more so when cases coming before the SDNY involving corrupt deals centered at Trump Tower emerge. Once that’s over, NY state justice lawyers will pick at the carcass once Trump is out of office.
2
Yes! The Mueller Report is first and foremost a testament to the value of professional journalists. It confirms what the NYTimes, the Washington Post, and other serious newspapers have been reporting all along. Kudos to the fourth estate!
2
Comparing Michael Wolff, a crafty but flawed writer, to Mueller is akin to standing me next to Tiger Wood on the first tee at Augusta National. I might hit a few fairways but everyone knows who to put their money on. Mueller has vastly more sources, legal acumen and credibility. His report—what we’ve seen of it—has also given Congress and law enforcement testimony and details that are actionable . . . if not now, once the Trump experiment has mercifully ended. Wolff, by comparison, gave us well-written gossip.
2
Let us know when you've gotten around to reading the second volume, on obstruction of justice. Do we conclude that Trump should be impeached for the same offense as Clinton, or that Clinton should not have been impeached?
3
Mr. Douthat you skipped the part where Mueller concluded the Russians interfered in the 2016 election. Whether or not there was conclusive proof of any sort of explicit agreement between the Trump campaign and Russia seems to be in question. I am still left wondering why Jared Kushner wanted a back channel with the Russians. I am still left wondering about why Paul Manafort gave polling information to an oligarch close to Putin. This isn't about some "deep state" conspiracy. I am still left wondering why Republicans are not even interested in the fact that a foreign adversary interfered in our electoral process.
You would have us think that Trump is benign because he is so incompetent. Trump is not benign, he is a cancer on the presidency that no one seems to be willing or have the power to excise. Elizabeth Warren wants impeachment charges to be brought against Trump, but without the Republican controlled Senate on board, that is a waste of time and resources.
At the end of the article you state: ".....we will be back to talking about whether Joe Biden can beat Bernie Sanders and whether Sanders can beat Trump. And that shift will be sensible." Move on, nothing to see here. However, the question still remains, was Trump "secretly treasonous"?
That was not really determined because Mueller lacked proof. That proof most likely rests with those who did not and will not cooperate - Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, for whom pardons for federal crimes are a possibility.
1
Six months from now, a new version of this will be written. The IG in Justice will issue a report that will likely trigger parallel criminal investigations into the actions of the FBI ( leadership ) and role of the FISA warrants. I am not a fan of Trump but his crude actions have some logic if , indeed, he knew he was innocent of the collusion charges and that there was a political bias fueling the investigation. As Barr noted, within this context, he was angry and felt his Presidency was paralyzed. No one would defend him but , for two years, all media ran with the Russian interactions as treasonous. All administrations , new and incoming, set up channels with adversaries and were it not for the charges here, no one would care. ( recall Obama whispering to Medvedev ).
We have come to a time when policy differences are taken as corruption. The reference here to Ukraine is one such. The real story of the Maidan Square uprising is complex and the Russians had a legitimate difference of view in their sphere of influence. The Red Sektor and Svoboda fascist elements are hardly talked about but not hard to uncover if one does a little homework.
We have lost any real sense of fairness. We should want any President to succeed and have a fair telling of policies. There is some merit in the Republican view of health care , cross state insurance, health insurance accounts. But you never hear a rational discussion. We are failing because we cannot be objective about anything.
29
Except that picture anyone like, say, Obama or Clinton behaving that way while investigated? Clinton was investigated far longer and still Trump is calling for her to be locked up. People are responsible for their own behavior. There is no justifying Trump’s behavior or viewing him as a victim. Indeed it was his own behavior that led to not being exonerated for obstruction!
On healthcare, we’re 10 years in. No Republican plan. You mention a few things that sound nice but what would they do? Every state has their own laws and insurance companies would have to comply with multiple states. Is that idea so that someone can move and keep their insurance? If so, that affects how many people? Savings accounts? We already have them. And you have to have money to save money. The only Republican view of healthcare is taking away care. Even their one tiny proposal to not penalize people for pre-existing conditions actually had something in there that would exempt insurance companies from having to treat people. The Republicans have made it loud and clear that they do not want the government involved in healthcare in any way, shape or form, except abortion of course.
102
@Joel Levine The leadership of the FBI is and always has been in the hard conservative camp and your version of them undermining a Republican president is fantasy.
As a tax professional for thirty-six years, I can attest that HSA’s are a joke which benefit only high earning yuppies, are out of reach for the average family and have never been utilized by even one percent of filers. Like everything the Republicans propose for health care, they benefit only private insurers. They set forward no real healthcare policy because they have a bedrock principle against any government involvement. There can be no honest discussion because you cannot debate nothing against something, no matter how flawed.
Finally your statement that you are not a Trump admire or supporter is not credible.
100
@Joel Levine Try claiming an angry belief that you are innocent as an excuse for obstructing justice if you are not President of the United States.
And stop using the term "collusion" in this context. Trump may not be chargeable under the law with conspiracy -- the relevant term -- but if you insist on the non-legal term collusion, there was plainly a whole lot of colluding going on. The Mueller report notes the distinct possibility that they could find no decisive evidence of conspiracy because the obstructive lying was effective. Successful obstruction of justice is the means by which known mob bosses succeed in operating sometimes for decades without being chargeable.
Unfortunately, we don't have decades to wait to catch a President of the United States in the act, with all the "fairness" and presumption of innocence put there to protect private citizens from the power of the state. We need protection from someone abusing the power of the state. The case is entirely otherwise than one for which the high threshold of a presumption of innocence is a just standard. That's why the founders gave us impeachment and the leeway for common sense in "high crimes and misdemeanors."
60
While the findings of the Mueller Investigation has been reduced to bite-sized pieces by the president's loyal Attorney General for consumption by Congress and the American public while giving every possible excuse as to why no one outside of himself and the White House counsel should have access to it -- it still does little to change the impression that there is something to hide.
As if the felonious convictions of several close-standing Trump associates hasn't proved beyond a reasonable doubt that there is something is seriously wrong with this picture.
And while Trump and Co. continue to lambaste Democrats for planning to bring about his "destruction" -- or worse, his impeachment; most have already and wisely, decided to let the chips fall as they may, knowing full well the day of reckoning will come and Trump will ultimately be the Captain of his own sinking ship.
Just hopefully, he won't drag the rest of this country down with him.
2
While the Mueller report does indeed tell us what we already intuitively know, verification is absolutely necessary when one is dealing with an emotionally unstable, out-of-control liar who happens to be the current occupant of the Oval Office. Verifying that we have indeed a problem with this president is the equivalent of confirming that we have in this country and at this moment in time, a person who is a clear and present danger to our national security .
I would say that’s worth verifying on any given day,wouldn’t you ?
139
@RD
And how on earth is such a person able to fulfill his constitutional duties?
7
@RD. What we knew about Trump before the Mueller report was more than intuitive. There was plenty of rock solid evidence to back up any "feeling" we might have had about him, not least of which came from this president's own demonstrable behavior both in and out of office.
12
No, Ross, Trump won in 2016 with the help of Russian intervention. Without their sophisticated maneuvering of our trible affinities, a tactic close to Trump's paranoid heart, he probably would not have won.
Trump the person, less than likable but... he is creating job and wage gains for the lowest paid Americans.Throw the baby out with the bathwater? No.
I think the left really has to think about the most vulnerable in our society finally making small gains thanks to his leadership. Capitalism works, even when the government has an unlikable head.
6
@leaningleft where are the living wage jobs he has produce? WHERE IS THE EMPATHY FOR FAMILIES? Working class families have little opportunity to better their children's lot in life. How can one expect a famly of four with an income of $100k to send two kids to a good college, or live in ab area that has proper funding for education.
22
@leaningleft "he is creating job and wage gains for the lowest paid Americans" is patently false. He is doing nothing of the sort. Most of the job gains are in the gig economy -- the 1/3 of Americans who work as independent contractors with no salary security and no benefits, brought to you by companies like Amazon, FedEx and Uber who farm out contracts to third parties to avoid paying anything reasonable (not to mention their fair share of taxes). Meanwhile, "he" is a threat to our democracy.
59
@leaningleft Wage gains? Lordstown GM plant and Carrier plant in Indianapolis, they receive unemployment checks at best. Puerto Rico suffered more deaths than 9/11 Twin Towers and how is their recovery work going? 45 is not leading, he is riding on the coat tails of President Obama's 8 year recovery from the Great Recession.
57
Disorganization is one thing but that doesn’t necessarily absolve the 45th or his team of ‘collusion or coordination’ per se, no matter haphazard it may have all appeared to Mr. Wolff or Mr. Mueller.
The entire apparatus of this Presidency seems second rate at best and nothing will ever wash away the stain of Russian interference in the most fundamental of exercises in American democracy.
Gratuitous interference by a sworn enemy is still a crime, esp. one that his team and the entire Republican propaganda machine not only failed to report, but also lied and protected for electoral gain is despicable beyond words. But more importantly, it’s ‘treasonous’, no less, which renders the results of the last election ‘null and void’.
A Case in Point is the illegitimate President and sham Presidency.
Case closed.
84
This was an official investigation and carries the power of the justice department. Even Sarah Sanders had to tell the truth and then she went on GMA and lied again. It is a crime to lie to the FBI. The misconduct of the Trump administration demonstrates that the he and everyone in the White House violates the oath of office that I remember him taking on the steps of the capital. I believe that the report proves that this White totally violates the.rule of law dictated by the constitution. I am appalled at how casual the reporting has been on this report. The fact that the entire Trump family and everyone in his campaign enthusiastically interacted with Foreigners who are known to be our enemy and never once informed the FBI that known Russian nationals were trying to use their campaign to influence the election despicable. The bodacious obstruction ordered by Trump is a felony. The fact that some of the staff reduced to carry out the obstruction does not negate the fact that Trump abused his power ten times over. Allowing any president to act outside the ripple of law will destroy our republic and tear up our constitution. Allowing Trump to appoint federal judges who won’t uphold the constitution and who also refuse to defend the rule of law in this country will destroy this republic. I do no understand why everyone in this country as upset and appalled as I am.
136
@Edwina Simmons
I am.
14
Smart analysis, except that it doesn’t give Trump credit for hiring or not firing people who frustrate his will. I think it unlikely that a 70+successful businessman just happens to hire such people. It’s rather more likely that he is instinctively drawn to such people because he is well aware of his own weaknesses. And about his main weakness as a egomaniac; could anything but an egomaniac have withstood the last two years of unremittingly unfavorable coverage that now we know to also be largely unfair? Could anything but an egomaniac be up to the task of taking on basically the whole media and bureaucratic establishment? Why would he want to put himself through that when he has a good life? Because he craves the love and admiration of his countryman, i.e, he is a egomaniac.
1
Trump's generally recognized incompetence is sufficient grounds for impeachment, without looking to his business dealings for evidence of bribery. Incompetence at his level is a high misdemeanor.
The only argument against this view is that Trump was elected to destroy the power of the country's establishment and the deep state, and that what we call his incompetence has this effect. Government offices that demand Senate confirmation, and their occupants, are by definition part of the establishment, and neglecting to fill them leaves the establishment and deep state headless and therefore unable to do its job. Incompetent and/or absent leadership is the most effective way to destroy the establishment's ability to function.
Trump's election is in effect an experiment in what happens if we neuter our present (in reality bipartisan) establishment and replace it with money, patronage, and Trump-style entrepreneurship.
4
An unmentioned yet critically important point is that Trump has now purged himself of those advisers who refused to carry out his illegal and dangerous orders. With the so-called "guardrails" replaced by enablers and toadies, how much worse is Trump going to get?
5
Trump was not secretly treasonous he was overtly treasonous. Using Wikileaks as a go between the campaign and the Russians does not let Trump off the hook.
3
Is a failure by The House to immediately file Articles of Impeachment against Trump and others based solely on just the current evidence within Mueller Redacted Report casting some Democratic Leaders into a dubious and ignoble public light. Are some merely ‘Corporate’ Democrats?
Certainly more evidence and investigations will probably not alter a majority of GOP Senators to vote for Impeachment’s. Yet delays do benefit them by limiting any negative public exposures and ridicule. But delays also give Corp. Dems cover to play a good & bad cop routine without taking a firm stand on what equitable social justice means to them. There’s enough for impeachment proceedings RIGHT NOW.
So what’s the delay? Some claim he’s not worth the time and Americans want to move on to new legislation. Yet that is a non-starter given the partisan gridlock. Maybe Trump and others will Resign and be forced to defend themselves before the Courts at their ‘private’ expense over years. Dems not The GOP spent $30 mil. of taxpayers’ money investigating while their leaders are non-committal to facts in plain sight? Dem’s quit procrastinating and do your unpleasant but necessary duty for the country’s sake! Grow a spine!
2
@Samuel Owen sounds good but the simple fact is Trump owns the republican majority in the senate including McConnell and they will not vote to convict him. Everyone knows this and democrats pursuing an ultimately failed impeachment will only strengthen Trump's base and convince independents that democrats have nothing to offer for their vote.
The best way to beat Trump is at the polls in 2020. It's on policies regarding health care, taxes, education, the environment, etc. that he and the party of Trump is weak to the majority of Americans. Through the primaries and debates the best candidate will be selected from the large democratic candidate field. Yes continue appropriate investigation of Trump's actions but let the democrats focus on the issues and policies that affect American's daily lives to make things better.
2
@P Lock
I agree the Senate will acquit Trump. Yet that high probability should be irrelevant to the House, because that’s on the individual Senators. Filing Articles of Impeachment is a Constitutional mandate when public officials dishonor and show untrustworthiness as oaths. That process puts them on public notice & Record first and foremost.
Further an argument can just as easily be made that Impeachment no matter the outcome, helps Dems more by expanding the public discourse to include ethics along with legislative policy. And since The Senate & Trump will continue to block the latter regardless focusing only on policy is an empty gesture. Filing for ‘I’ is an ethical argument and must be done NOW! Strike while the iron is hot it is a shrewd political action. I Assure Sir, the GOP is unwilling because they are unable to argue ethics and morality—period! And Impeach Pence, Barr, McConnell, Grassley, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh for good measure. They all undermined the US Constitution by conspiracy, suppressing evidence, and obstructing ‘black letter’ law.
1
One of the benefits of continuing Democratic investigation of the corrupt, incompetent POTUS is it will continue to keep him from actually trying to implement policy. An Republicans will continue to defend him.
2
What sane person would take a job working for Donald Trump? Your daily job environment is hostile. You will be asked to do illegal acts for Boss Man, and your odds of going to jail are high. Plus he has a history of stiffing people. Good luck on hiring a campaign staff.
1
Can we step back from the hub bub surrounding the Mueller report as to whether Trump did obstruct the investigation, whether even if his campaign did not conspire with the Russians actively received the fruits of Kremlin hacking and never thought to tell the FBI what was going on and remember that the same fool that sits in the Oval Office is negotiating with North Korea, undermining NATO, trivializing the Federal Reserve and degrading the office of the presidency on a daily basis. Letting Trump be Trump, which seems the default position for the GOP every time Trump does something horrible, such as through "frustration" (Barr's words) obstructus justice misses the point. Trump is a danger to the Republic and America's position in the world, which is to say, to global security.
3
"Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency — but not secretly omnicompetent, not secretly treasonous."
Mueller was constrained because he thinks that the burdent of proof is extremely high. There is plenty of proof of conspiracy, maybe to a lesser standard. Anyone who watched the Helsiki press conference or can put together the dots on "OK Russia you are listening..." can figure out what actually happened. Trump alleged that he had no contacts and Mueller found 140. In my experience, these are smoking guns. If I were the prosecutor, I'd have been bound to take them to a jury. Congress needs to ask about it.
Mueller did not follow the money, probably because that was not his mission. The NYT has done a good job so far, probably better than Mueller, in exposing Trump's achilles heel. Greed.
Congress, if you're listening, please zero in on the corruption.
3
The idea that Trump wanted to commit crimes, but was too incompetent to do so reminds me of what was once written about a restaurant:
The portions are too small and the food is terrible.
5
How is "he's just dishonest and incompetent" not in and of itself sufficient for impeachment?
3
Mr. Douthat, since you agree that Trump is unfit for office will you actually encourage voting for the Democratic candidate in 2020?
Or, will you wait until election eve to reluctantly advocate for 'the devil we know' rather than some 'socialist snowflake'?
2
Not secretly treasonous. Publicly treasonous. Trump held his treason right out there and waved it like a flag. Remember the United States was attacked by an enemy foreign nation in 2016. The Mueller report makes that plain. Trump's actions certainly deserve scrutiny in this context.
A traitor is "whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere..."
Nowhere does the definition say there needs to be a formal relationship with a foreign enemy in order to commit treason. The Trump campaign aided the Russian government in their attempts to attack the US election. That's treason.
2
What about twitter and Facebook? They get off the hook while disseminating reams of false news. Why no judgment for them?
1
So now that the outcome of Mueller Report reveals that there is no longer a rule of law, Congress is lame and the justice system to the USSC is stacked with the dictator’s political hacks, what does this all mean ? It’s the old government run around. It means that now “ they” are reporting that it’s up to the 2020 election to remove Trump. An election that like 2016 will be rigged with Gerrymandering, a corrupt electoral system and Russian assistance.
It also means like in 1938 Germany, it may be time to consider moving to a more sane country, if you have the means.
2
Trump is shown to be a fool. It did not "get" him, but it does make him look bad. Now those who wanted to get him are making the best of ridicule instead.
That misses the point. It misses what has always been the point.
Trump never "won." Democrats lost.
Why? They don't want to look at that.
They need to examine it, so that they don't do it again.
They can win. They could have won. The powers in the Democratic Party just don't want that to be seen.
Why? Because then they'd be turfed out of power in favor of those who could have and should have won.
They want to keep the donors, they want to keep the money flowing to themselves, and they want to keep all the power they can grasp. It is about them, the corporate Democrats and their self interest.
So when we talk about Trump, remember he didn't even win, and the important subject is why this happened -- it wasn't Trump, much less the Russians, it was betrayal by Democrats of their own voters.
It is a betrayal they are attempting to repeat. They say only they can win, when in fact they lost it because they are so bad.
2
Ross, I am not surprised at all that you try to downgrade the Special Counsel report by comparing it to newsy book. Clearly you did not read the report and maybe and not the book. You only suggest that it is something for Democrats to consider in a political calculation. At least you suggest it confirms your negative view of Trump. But you do not take any independent stand on what should be done about him. You are never Trump “lite”.
Ross, you give Trump a pass, as if you've become inured to his vile and incompetent, perhaps even treasonous behavior. He has sided with Putin in repeating Putin's lie that Russia didn't interfere in the 2016 election. And he has done little since to stop or contain Russian meddling. The Mueller report clearly points to evidence of potential "treason, bribery", and certainly "other high crimes and misdemeanors"--the criteria for which Impeachment is a duty of the Congress.
1
The real conspiracy is, and has always been, Republican gerrymandering of the electoral system. They gave us this loser by three million votes as president. Forget the Russians, let's fix the system.
2
"not secretly treasonous" says Ross. Actually the report shows that yes, he is treasonous, as Trump does not care a whit about the country as long as he makes money and is a "winner" The greatest ever in fact. For R's in Congress to ignore this is also treasonous.
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I dug into the Mueller report to review several items which Douthat says do not add up to conspiracy or treason. I guess one could say that all of the relationships and interactions between the Trump campaign and Russians were simply to "improve" relations between the US and Russia.
However, all of it was in the context of improving Russian positions and desires, and of people on both sides making lots of money. We cannot even fit into this complex web other arrangements having to do with Trump visions of real estate ventures in Russia or Russian financial help to Trump.
So many of these contacts and conversations, many of them as yet unknown to Mueller or any of us, are so conveniently circumstantial. What the Russians wanted is so clear. Perhaps "useful idiots" is indeed the appropriate description of Trump and his helpers, who were always in this for themselves, not for the US.
2
“The Mueller report is further proof that Trump has been as dishonest and ridiculous in the White House as he was on the campaign trail, further proof that his administration is filled with leakers, liars, and people trying to protect their country from their boss, and their boss from himself...”
Although the types of people Ross mentions are indeed present in the Mueller report and in the current White House, there is another category which Ross does not mention - those key people like top adviser Stephen Miller, Trump’s new acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, senior advisor Kellyanne Conway and presidential spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders who just “want Trump to be Trump.” By encouraging Trump to follow his worst instincts (does he have any other kind?) or even expressing the belief, as Ms. Sanders has done, that his presidency is God’s will, these people are much more dangerous than ”the leakers and liars.”
1
Trump has systematically removed people who saved him from himself. What do you think will happen next?
1
No no no.
The special counsel report tells us a lot more.
For example it tells us Ross is exactly who and what we thought. Put to the test. Another flunk.
2
OH Nonsense. Had Trump be a private citizen he would have been charged and convicted of crimes. Even now, smart people are not owning Trump, like RD in this article. Had conservatives been faithful to their principles, they would have never have let, as one example, all the propaganda against Obama go down. But no. They abdicated their principles to get an electoral success; and all that accumulated in a Trump presidency. John McCain stood up to the propaganda. Why didn't others? Why do they not do so now?
1
Yep, we already knew he and his team were aware Russia had launched an attack on Trump's political opponents and Trump's team didn't go to the FBI. Rather, it helped Russia.
Time to impeach, and let the other investigations come to a conclusion. We also need to see his tax returns.
Trump is a corrupt fraud and the GOP is covering up for him.
1
Pelosi & Hoyer in terms of Impeachment’s are behaving like McConnell & McCarthy typicality do. Suppress one person = one vote because leadership must delegate subordinates thinking because they’re the businesses top executives know best.
Sorry, my bad I often get confused between democratic governance and a private business enterprise. “No doubt I was advised years ago that, “Government is the problem.”
1
“He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team.”
And a little help from his comrades.....I mean friends. That doesn’t go away.
1
@Padfoot
Significantly and immeasurably assured by the Russian consortium to steal the election. He was not legitimately elected.
1
Sadly. the Democrats have jumped into the deep end of leftist political thinking, far away from the American mainstream. Most Americans are not looking for "free" stuff from the federal government, which all reasonable people understand to have real costs--costs which cannot be covered by pillaging the wealth of the one percent. Most Americans want to pay their own way; they want to stop the heavy taxation on middle class people and the wasteful extravagances of federal spending. Now the parade of Democratic contenders are offering greater and greater movement in the direction of socialism, a system that most adults with common sense know would be a disaster. Sadly, the Democrats have found the formula that has the greatest likelihood of resulting in the re-election of our crooked, narcissistic president.
1
It is one thing to have everyone suspect the president is a sadistic version of Colonel Klink, but it is quite another when it is thoroughly documented by prosecutors.
Odds are that there were some people (say, 5% of Trump voters) waiting for this report to cut through the endless spin or simply maxing out their own plausible deniability. Trump does not have 5% to spare, and he might not have 0.5% to spare.
When one has zero margin of victory, there is no such thing as negative news with "modest political impact". Negative news is either irrelevant or devastating, and it is hard to make a case for irrelevant.
Manafort using the same polling company for Trump as he used to help put a Russian puppet in office in the Ukraine. The targeted polling data helped the Russians manipulate voters is small sectors. This tactic was used for Trump and the Russians used facebook and other disinformation on google etc to sway voters in 2016. And a lot of voters regret their vote now. Trump won by 75k votes in the electoral college. Using the targeted polling data. Manafort ultimately gave Trump the election. And Manafort is the kind of guy that gleefully threw a democratic election to the Russians in the Ukraine for money. What a crook. So just from this fact alone of Manaforts history with helping Russians, I dont agree that Trump didnt know what he was doing. Plus the Trump team actually had facebook staff embedded in their campaign. Which the democrats stupidly declined. Manafort won Trump the election. At some point he will write a book.
1
"He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them."
Are you saying that in spite of his mammoth mendacity, widely observed and documented incompetence, inclination to do illegal and impeachable acts, this vengeful, cruel, thin skinned, braggart is preordained to be the Republican candidate in 2020?
If so, presumably the GOP/conservative political machines will go all out , pull no punches, and spend into the stratosphere, to insure Trump's victory. I think the real challenge is for the Party of Lincoln to grow a spine and do what it takes to deny Trump the nomination for a second term.
2
The last two years have unequivocally proven that Trump is even more incompetent and incapable than forecast by anti Trumper's. His only strength is bluster and it is so obvious that even it is weak at best. Combine that with his lack of decency, morality, inhumanity and fondness for dictators and I find it very hard to believe he has even a remote chance of reelection. Surely four years of maybe the biggest and most careless mistakes ever made at the national level is a guarantee that it won't happen again. Should I be wrong it will probably be safe to say that democracy and sanity are dead in America.
2
America being what America is (has become), America will one way or another, by hook or by crook, re-elect Trump.
The man isn't entirely incompetent. He has a pretty good compass for where his (and his alone) self-interest lies (and, usually, monetary self-interest).
Incompetence is not an excuse for complete willingness to accept help from absolutely pernicious sources, Russia, Wikileaks, Saudi Arabia and whoever else has figured out that the president is a tiny minded, solipsistic, amoral and criminally inclined buffoon susceptible to the most obvious form of manipulative flattery. That, and his refusal to turn over his taxes and to hold on to his clearly barely legal, if legal at all businesses, coupled with the fact that he hasn't been able to get legitimate US financing since the 80's and his admiration of autocrats makes him a clear and present security threat. That goes for his ethics free family, as well with his son in law at the head of the compromised pack.
Then there is his de-institutionalizing of the government, the better to rule by his own deranged hand, and what may be the most corrupt and/or crackpot administration in history, those who remain being the bottom of the barrel. I think when the consequences come home to roost and there is a clear view of the wreckage he has caused, not just the gloaters, but the squeamish enablers might finally come to the terms what their opportunism has wrought and perhaps even feel a modicum of shame.
Douthat implies that Wolfe was disingenuous in his approach, but it should be noted that every biographer of Trump who began objectively came to the same conclusion; Trump is a one man crime spree. It just has more consequences now.
2
Trump was elected because he embraced the birther movement, pure and simple. That's all it took. Once the aggrieved White Nation realized Trump genuinely shared their outrage that a man with and African father and an African surname had defiled the White House for eight years, he could do no wrong. Repeated demonstrations of his incompetence are simply endearing; they reinforce his bond with people whose only claim to status in this country is their whiteness. The Russians had nothing to do with it.
Well, we don't really know the full truth about Trump and his motivations because he was never interviewed by Mueller. That is the fatal flaw that domed this investigation, one that is Fire & Fury 2.0. Had Trump been interviewed, his Presidency would have been doomed. Again, the full truth is not known; thus the lies become history's facts on this matter. So sad!!!
1
The problem with pieces like this is, they neglect one FACT:
Trump, when he manages to get around the attacks and a
sometimes difficult Congress, does what he SAID he would do
during the campaign, and it is good.
Pieces like this are a silly worry about STYLE.
The "there was no conspiracy after all" take depends on at least two things: 1) Trump really did not remember all of the times (over 30) that he told the Special Counsel that he did not remember, and 2) liars like Manafort and evidence destroyers like Bannon and Prince were not actually hiding anything of significance. Note as well that none of this speaks to whether a foreign power (Russia, the Saudis, et alia) have leverage over Trump through financial dealings prior to the election, something the Special Counsel evidently did not pursue.
Mueller produced a report that confirmed what we knew and felt in our heart and gut. Trump and his campaign are corrupt. Trump sees Putin as a model for remaining in power. We have a dictator wanna. What stands when Trump’s time in office ends remains to be seen. A lesson for our branches of government is find methods to more effectively balance the unhinged power of the executive branch. A President should be indictable. In Trump’s case the argument that an indictment might place a burden on the president’s ability to govern fails to hold water. Nothing seems to “burden” Trump as he spends more time on Twitter, watching FOX propaganda and playing golf than governing. Trump cares not for the daily work in the Office of the President.
2
@Mark Jackson Maybe not, but he will want to have a second term anyway, his narcissism demands it. But we must stop him! The survival of our democracy depends on it!
2
A very false comparison, and we do see what you did here. Comparing the gossipy Wolff book to Mueller's report is like comparing Judge Judy to Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Yes, yes, yes. We all know that the sycophant Republicans in the Senate are too cowardly to vote to convict Trump in an impeachment. However, the real danger here is for future presidents and the future of our republic. Will a future occupant of the oval office feel like he or she too can do whatever they want along these same lines, because, after all, Trump was able to do so? Is it OK for future presidents to lie, obfuscate, mislead, order people to lie and commit perjury? Yes, because Trump will escape unscathed for this same behavior? I am fearful for our country.
The Democratic-controlled House will not start impeachment hearings, but they must do SOMETHING. It is too dangerous to let this behavior go unchecked because it would be hard, or they are afraid to anger Trump's base. Don't be afraid. Be strong. DO SOMETHING!!!
1
The argument Doubthat makes reveals and invites the reader to participate in self deception. We are invited to believe that Trump and Trumpism is not really dangerous because the President is a mendacious incompetent who's "fire and fury" has been exposed as a con job. The right wing anti-abortion crowd will say "sure he's dishonest and ridiculous but look at the Judges" while the Oligarchy says "sure he's dishonest and ridiculous but look at the Tax Cuts". Trump now knows that hanging on to the Presidency is his best shot at staying out of jail so we are just beginning to see the damage he can and will do if afforded the opportunity.
1
“Mueller's exposé was backed by subpoena power rather than just sweet talk, but ultimately it delivers the same general portrait: Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness.”
Yet, from Fox News, through the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to the National Review, all too many “conservatives” are busy pretending that Trump is fit to be President.
Why?
1
Leave it to writers like Ross Douthat to masterfully critique the Republican Senate for staring down at their wingtips rather than seeking a remedy to the disaster in the White House.
Oh, wait, did I misread the column this morning?
Hmm. Mueller's Report "will probably have the same modest political impact and media half-life as 'Fire and Fury.'" Yes, thanks to Mr. Douthat and other half-conscious opinion writers.
1
"Wolff wrote that while there might have been “side deals and freelance operations” by campaign hangers-on, “the idea of formal collusion and artful conspiracy … seemed unlikely to everybody in the White House … Bannon’s comment that the Trump campaign was not organized enough to collude with its own state organizations became everybody’s favorite talking point — not least because it was true.”
But here is what few are talking about: Why did Trump make it about "collusion" instead of Russian meddling, possible links with his campaign, and obstruction of justice? First of all, he knew that the collusion angle was one he could win.
Secondly, he didn't want us talking or thinking about obstruction of justice, because he knew he was guilty of it. Third, he wanted to free Russia from being the focus, tus making him responsible toi clean it up. Fourth, by being an obnoxious repeater of "no collusion" he drew everyone into it being about himself, and thus kept the press attention on "standing up to the bully by reporting his every utterance," achieving his aim of maximum distraction.
"it delivers the same general portrait: Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness."
Gosh, Ross, while I love your no-holds-barred talk about this corrupt administration, I'd love to hear you speak so forcefully about the Roman Catholic Church corruption that actually involved despicable acts agains the powerless.
@Leslie
The evil corruption in the Roman Catholic Church does not diminish the evil corruption in Donald Trump, and his attendants.
Trump Is keeping his promises. He is doing good things for the economy, for job creation, making NATO pay, lowered taxes and trying to handle the border crisis.
I don’t exactly see why you call him incompetent. He also cooperated with Mueller so I don’t see why you call him a criminal.
I actually don’t see the point of this article, other than you making innuendos
or, for perspective with a bygone era and a different presidency, roughly two hundred score and seven news cycles ago. . .
Contra Ross Douthat - when a candidate openly asks a foreign government to hack an opponent's communications networks, revels in and encourages that eventuality - they have informally colluded/conspired with that power against the national security and political interests of their society. When read in the light of the various economic and broad financial interests between that candidate and the foreign authorities in question, there are counter-intelligence risks even if the bar Mueller set so high is not reached re: conspiracy.
Trump supports who claim “nothing new here” are 100% correct. Reliable reporters, authors, pundits, columnists Have reported and commented on the dysfunction, narcissism, incompetence, profound lack of knowledge or in learning and basic criminality of Donald Trump.
I’m sure the Russians wanted Trump in the White House and I’m also sure Trump was delighted to accept their help and would have conspired if they asked. I’ve long thought Putin took a look at Trump, Trump Jr., Ivanka, Kushner, et al, and after laughing, realized he could do a better job on his own. And obviously he did and Trump gave him the best cover he could.
We owe an enormous debt to the reporters, et al who told the truth of this White House and to Mr Mueller and his staff who have painstaking and in great detail, left the truth for posterity.
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@Maxie: it’s extremely unlikely that Putin wanted Trump in the White House.... that’s why he helped the Clintons to put together the Steele report. Even the NYT now confirms that likely it was no more than Russian disinformation.
The most damaging action for Putin that a US president can undertake is free federal lands for oil and gas exploration, allow building the new oil and gas pipelines, and re-arm the US military, while dislodging the “political correctness” strand-hold on our military, universities and the government. It’s also widely understood in Russia that a steady stream of the people from the third world into US strain American welfare system to the breaking point, while introducing corruption, infighting and division in the nation.
In short, Trump’s election undermines Putin’s policies and is an existential threat to his regime. This is why the Steele’s dossier was a major russian weapon against him. It helped Putin slow down the reforms that are so needed in this country, and which will undermine Putin.
The 'Fire and Fury' outlined a White House we all expected: sheer chaos helmed by an incompetent narcissistic charlatan. The Report offers that but also more: it catalogues the breathtaking efforts at obstruction of justice attempted on numerous occasions by Trump. He lies. He asks aides and lawyers to lie. He fires. He asks lawyers and aids to fire. Mueller himself was a target. Trump knew that the Russian liaisons of his staff and himself were being scrutinized and he understood where that could lead. It is probably too late to impeach now, so close are we to the next election cycle - but that does mean that these offences cannot be front and center of a concerted national Democratic attack on his fitness to lead. There is basically but one issue in 2020. And that is the removal of Trump.
72
Here in fly over country, nobody is talking about the Mueller report. Those who believe that Trump is blunt and "tells it like it is" continue to admire him. The rest of us who know he is, to quote Michael Cohen, "a liar, a thief and a cheat", remain as disgusted by his behavior as ever. It is clear he did not win because of a conspiracy hatched in the Kremlin. Still the Russians have achieved their objective of dividing Americans and sowing greater distrust of all politicians and the media. Trump has been their asset not by design but by being the Great Divider. Unfortunately most people I know just are cynical and shutting down. To quote my secretary, "they are all liars". The onus is on the Democrats that find a candidate that will appeal not just to the left wing Resistance but to those in the middle who are ready to stay home and are losing hope that the government can function no matter who is in charge.
68
@Forgotten Voter: Hope and faith don't solve complex technical problems.
4
@Forgotten Voter: Well said. Until the Dems take this sentiment to heart, everything they are doing is only increasing Trump's reelection chances.
5
@Forgotten Voter
I love how the onus is always on the Democrats. Why is that? Is it because they are the only party with any integrity, compassion, and reason? Why isn't the onus on the OTHER political party who commits egregious acts, steals elections, lies about everything, and gleefully cons their voters?
15
Too hapless to collude is not quite the total exoneration Trump would have you believe, but that’s about it.
True, the Mueller report doesn’t have new insights, but consolidates what we know: Trump behaves conspicuously around Putin and Russia, he surrounded himself with a number of people who have been indicted, he abuses power, he lies like others breathe.
Trump’s certainty that Mueller’s appointment would mark the end of his presidency raises an obvious question, which wasn’t answered fully, but Donald clearly, and problematically, has skeletons in the closet.
The Special Council had a limited role and he executed it magnificently, despite the political pressure from which he wasn’t naive, and the knowledge that there was a sword over his head. So now it falls upon us, the voters, to render a final verdict. Every day Trump is in our highest office is a shame on our nation. We need not look toward Russia to see gross misconduct. We need look only with our own, open eyes at the sleaziness in the White House and conclude that in 2020, we must do better.
75
We have been fortunate to have a few people in Trump's administration who have not followed orders. We cannot continue to count on this circumstance to continue, as they are being steadily replaced by people who will do as he asks. If we think we're in trouble now (which we are), it will get worse if we don't keep the pressure up.
7
@Sarah D.: Trump is down to career people acting in a political capacity as department heads because he can't recruit people to subject themselves to his torments.
We already are aware of all of this dangerous dysfunction in the white house and in the senate. Now it's time for the democrats to address health care, social safety nets, minimum wage throughout the states, reign in the new and dangerous powers of the individual states, address education, address role of corporations in governmental decision making, amendments to the constitution that is clearly irrelevant in today's world, put an end to the electoral college which as always functioned as a impediment to democratic elections. This is what all citizens want to address and fix, no matter political party.
2
@Ellen F. Dobson Totally agree with you and would add ... impeach him.
Ross, you make it sound as if attempted murder should not be a crime because it is only attempted and not completed. Trump scarcely needs you as another defense attorney; he already has AG Barr.
A careful reading (and understanding) of the Mueller Report leads to the conclusion that the only reason Mueller "punted" on the charge of obstruction of justice was because the D.O.J.'s policy preventing the indictment of a sitting president would have denied Trump his day in court to defend himself of the charge. So, it was only out of a sense of fairness to Trump that Mueller decided to lay out the evidence for Congress (and decidedly not Barr) to evaluate and take whatever action it deemed appropriate.
11
To those who hold out hope that Trump will be indicted if he loses in 2020, it is a false hope. To avoid the perception that we jail political opposition in this country he would be pardoned, just like Richard Nixon was pardoned. Trump knows this and will continue his corruption until his last day in office.
1
I think what gets under Trump’s skin the most in the Mueller report is that no one does what he tells them to, and it was probably that way in the Trump Org, if I were to guess. The old man rails about this or that offense, “get this guy” “get that guy”. Sycophants like Michael Cohen may have run around to “enforce the boss’s orders” but most of the hierarchy both in Trump Inc and, more importantly in the WH, were “meh, let’s see if he feels the same way next week” or “that’s going to get everyone in trouble...pass”. Didn’t Gary Cohen, Bob Woodward’s hero in his book, just remove stuff from the stack of documents to be signed?
The media has exerted far too much effort following the shiny dimes of the latest tweet and letting the actual government process go by the wayside (why ARE there so many Acting Secretaries? Let’s get more coverage and thought on that, rather than the latest insult hurled in the middle of the night).
Michael Wolff’s book was a rollicking good read; the Mueller report naturally has more gravitas. Both paint a portrait of a thin skinned carnival barker.
5
@Mark H Yes, but a thin-skinned carnival barker with access to the nuclear codes. Whose job is it to keep him from his very worst impulses?
I once had a friend who hated work. He was the laziest person I ever knew. When his father tired to enlist his help in the guest house construction project, "Donald" constantly sawed the 2x4's the wrong length. He hammered holes in the Sheetrock, he spilled paint and painted over glass windows. His Dad would blow his fuse and kick "Donald" off the construction site.
That was Donald's plan all along. As soon as his Dad kicked him off the site, Donald picked up his fishing pole and headed off to the lake; happy as he could be. Donald's father was sure that Donald's poor job performance was because of incompetence. He then assumed that the complete lack of caught fish was further proof of incompetence. Donald had gone to the lake to take a nap.
Be careful when assigning incompetence labels.
2
Douthit puts the most generous possible spin on the Mueller report, characterizing Trump and his administration as too stupid to be criminal and ignoring the second section, which addresses obstruction.
Most legal analyses of the report describe this section as a prosecutor's dream for putting the president in jail after the end of his term fr obstruction. Mueller makes factual determinations and lays out the supporting evidence and the applicable law in vivid detail. He reminds us that the president does not have immunity from prosecution after his term ends, despite the administrative determination by the DOJ that he cannot be prosecuted while in office.
This report is a credible story of criminal obstruction of justice, violation of the presidential oath and dangerous incompetence. Every member of Congress should be outraged. If it has a short half life, it is because the GOP is truly corrupt.
9
Ross is right. Nothing new, move on. Trump is just being Trump. His supporters don't especially care about how he gets the job done. They love his direction and the rhetoric he uses. They especially love the results he produces.
The Trump hating media, still evidently shell shocked over his election, will go on manufacturing compulsive criticism for their Liberal audience. But for most of us it will be "smoke and fury signifying nothing".
The Liberal media has missed the hidden message in their Trump horror story. If our country can survive Trump it can survive anything. Cheer up MSM and start helping make America great sgain.
@Michael Dowd You missed Mr Douthat's conclusion: "He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them." If you like Trump's promotion of violence against dissenters, the increase in hate crimes, the children in cages, the massively increased deficit for the sake of tax cuts for the rich, then maybe you love Trump's results. Many people see it as destruction that will be a challenge to repair.
Ross, you spin a good tale, but leave out one enormous truth. We have three coequal branches of government, and there are supposed to be checks and balances. If the Mueller report is reliable, as you admit, then why should the House and Senate get a pass on leadership? Trump is a lying, cheating, malevolent grifter, surrounded by incompetence and other grifters. McGahn looks good because he resisted Trump, but in the meantime he got what he wanted- a right wing Supreme Court and a Judiciary filled with right wing justices, all of which does not comport with the wishes of the majority of this country. The House should bring impeachment to a vote- that's what leaders do. It doesn't matter if the Senate will go for it. The calculation is that the country needs to see that a cheating grifter who is dangerous to our future should not be allowed to remain as President. Leaders need to lead, not wait to see what the country does in the next election about a President unfit to govern. Whether impeachment might be successful or not, the country needs to see that it's not okay to be a liar and cheater and continue to be our President. The country needs some leadership.
5
It is unknowable the Russian social media influence campaign depressed voter turnout in WI, MI & PA. What is known is that Trump still has not acknowledged nor condemned Russian meddling. Trump has already said he would not have respected the outcome of the 2016 election had he lost. Trump might be incompetent, but he spins lies on par with Joseph Goebbels. If Trump loses in 2020 he will claim Russian interference invalidates the election results, even if he was the beneficiary of the interference. Our democracy remains in grave danger for every day that Trump remains in office. It is time for impeachment proceedings.
Republicans in the Senate need to get a backbone. Starting yesterday. Oppose Trump on unqualified nominees and illegal policies.
The definition of “Quagmire” is more than enough to define a cancer called “Trumpism.”
The biggest problem for any sane citizen of the US is “when is too much too much?”
The answer? 2020.
Forget Impeachment. Forget trying to reach out to Republicans. Worse yet? Forget to reach out to his followers. We’re at that hypothetical moment where HE has just shot and killed an innocent passerby in NYC and HE’s going to get away with it. We as citizens of the US do actually have alternatives if HE again WINS in 2020. It’s called New Zealand & Australia. Before you bush me off as a traitor or UnAmerican, pause to consider that I’m over 80. My heart and body just wouldn’t be able to take an additional 4 years of this insanity.
1
Conspiracy was defined to include agreement on a quid pro quo. Of course, Russian intelligence wouldn't do such a thing. Everything is done more subtly.
Wikileaks was considered by Mueller to be a news organization rather than a Russian cutout. Otherwise Don Jr. and Rodger Stone could both have been charged with conspiracy. Don Jr. avoided a campaign law violation by being considered to be too stupid to have realized that agreeing to take a meeting to get dirt on Hillary with Russians was illegal.
On the obstruction of justice side many people claim Don McGahan and others saved Trump from obstructing justice by refusing to carry out his orders. The crime of obstruction is defined as the attempt to obstruct, whether or not successful. So trying to fire Mueller (twice) and attempts to get Sessions to "unrecuse" were, in fact cases of obstruction.
So, Mr. Douthat, where are the other GOP voices of outrage and disgust at the president’s amorality (as chronicled in the Mueller report) coming from? Aside from comments made by Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, all I hear is...nothing. The Republican silence is yet another unethical collusion with the White House.
3
Going back to 2016, were Trump and Hillary the best this country could do? Apparently. Very sad.
@Tom Is your comment intended to absolve Trump of his sins against democracy?
1
I don't need advice, Ross, on how to "approach" Trump's sordid behavior.
I've been there.
Nixon disgusts with Watergate, Reagan with Iran-Contra, Bush 1's pardons, and Bush 2's Iraq fraud.
Same old GOP wine in a new bottle.
2
So if you know a perpetrator is going to commit a crime that is going to benefit you, and the perp knows this as well and would logically expect a favor in return to benefit, but all is done with only a wink and a nod...this is ok?
1
The Report is nothing. Trump is going to sail to re-election. If he makes a big mistake, and his staff can’t protect him from it, say, takes a bribe from Putin, or has an innocent American citizen murdered in America, (he once said he could shoot someone in broad daylight and not lose support from his base), he might fall. But otherwise, he is the most beloved President since Reagan, (no one, but no one has any idea of how beloved) and has effectively changed the Republican Party in much more significant ways than the Gipper ever did.
Senator Warren is correct. The principled approach is impeachment. Even if not removed from office by the Senate, the corruption will be fully exposed and every Senator's vote will be in the historical record. This is process outlined in both the constitution and in Mueller report. Warren has demonstrated leadership by calling for impeachment rather than waiting for public opinion to give permission. The biggest frustration people have with Congress right now is they seem to wet their finger to test public (or Trump's) opinion before taking a position. Trump needs to be tackled head on.
Mueller rightfully focused on Russian influence and matters immediate to that. He did not touch on violation of the emoluments clause nor Russian money laundering, the probable crimes and misdemeanors that need investigating. These were likely included in Mueller's referrals but we won't hear much more about these referrals to other jursidictions this year.
Of course he needs to be replaced in the 2020 election. But by using the election process, Congress is abdicating their responsibility and relying solely on the electorate; Americans and their Russian bots.
1
For someone who couldn’t say enough about being the candidate of “law and order,” Trump clearly is the farthest from it.
3
The problem with having Trump instead of Clinton is with our children.
Imagine, had Hillary won.
"Mommy, I wanna be like her. But I'll give the Russians ALL of our uranium, and they'll give me A BILLION for my foundation"
"I'll give them the copper too, and they'll give me TWO BILLION."
"I'll give them all the minerals, and they'll give me TEN BILLION, more than your foundations put together"
"OK, kids, but now it's time to go to school. Don't forget those envelopes for your teachers' foundations. Else you won't get the answers in advance, like she did!"
Instead we got Trump. "Mommy, I'll be like him, lose a billion while in office, while everyone says I got money from the Russians" isn't even funny.
What will our children dream about?...
@otroad
Or would that be, "Mommy, he's married. Why was he with those other women?" Or, "Mommy, he's the President. Why is he playing golf all the time?" Or, "Mommy, he's an American. Why did his team try to get dirt from the Russians?" Or, "Mommy, why did he put those children in cages?" Or... you get my drift.
If you want Trump to be a role model for your children, then god help them.
2
Ross, thank you for finding the integrity to acknowledge what a self-serving dolt Trump and Trumpism is — that is, as you say, “freelancing and chaos,” “dishonest and ridiculous,” and “Trump as bad as he appeRed while running for the presidency.”
On the other hand, your just “modest political impact” view on the Mueller’s Report is wishful, but unlikely. That report is a roadmap for the House investigations that will, hopefully, tie Trump in knots and persuade us Americans who still have some moral and patriotic fervor to kick this dolt out of office in 2020.
2
Mueller is a career prosecutor of the highest order. Rather than disparaging him, Ross, you ought to heed the advice of your colleague Bret Stevens and thank him for a job well done. You may not appreciate that this crusader of the right has been exposed as an incompetent grifter, but it time to admit that and move forward toward reality. Since it is Easter and I know you are a religious man, please take a break from the Passion and re-read 1 John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
2
Does Trump not have any secret depths? As Douthat notes, the Mueller report confirms that Trump is who we think he is. Greedy, vain, impulsive, but entertaining. He's all surface. Scratch below the surface and he pops - he's a balloon.
Ross,
Accepting your characterization of Trump, conservatives like you have to honostly answer if the American democracy can endure another two to six years of chaos, deceipt and lies!
1
This column makes eminent sense. Trump is too incompetent to have committed high crimes. Let’s get back to building a ground game that will soundly defeat Trump and marginalize the GOP for years.
1
@AlNewman
We need the ground game to defeat, yes. We also need impeachment hearings to expose for all that it's not okay to be a lying and cheating President. Let the country see some leadership from Congress, which needs to fulfill its duty to check and balance the executive suite.
Trump is like the spoiled children of the Hollywood celebrities who bribed admissions officers. As children, they could claim no knowledge of their parent's rotten deeds but were the beneficiaries of their criminality.
Similarly with Trump - he can claim there was no conspiracy but embraced the benefits of an adversarial country conspiring to defeat his adversary.
All is well if someone (or some country) cheats on your behalf and you win - that's all that counts.
What a grim moral universe America now finds itself in.
"Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency — but not secretly...treasonous."
That's flat wrong. He was secretly treasonous, if not in the strictly criminal sense, then in the common sense meaning of the term, which Douthat appears to be using here. Trump praised Putin and promoted pro-Russia policies as a Presidential candidate, while seeking a multi-million dollar payday from Russia. And he lied in denying it, publicly, over and over. He ran for President in order to get personally rich, and was willing to promote the interests of a hostile foreign power in doing so. These are now publicly known facts. In distorting them, Douthat is using his post on the New York Times to clean Trump's dirty laundry.
3
What is missing in all responses from those who
share the author's moral and ideological perspectives is
a form of utter disgust that there will not be ANY primary opponent to trump in the 2020 primaries. There will be not a single well funded opposition voice to surface and attempt to organize into a serious, principled, but surely minority opposition
those who, in 2017, thought that they belonged to a political party and not a personality cult.
Such an opposition movement would seek, above all, to cleanse their political party of the vile stench emitted from all corners of the WH at present. Such an opposition would seek to reclaim some semblance of a moral foundation to its political behavior.
There is no Eugene McCarthy among the entire
pathetic crowd of politicians in what used to be called the republican party, one who, having had enough of abysmal, self defeating, and evil behavior by his president, decided it was
necessary to go to the country and challenge that president's
authority and power to continue doing what he was doing.
Not a single one among that crowd of former candidates or office holders is going to state plainly the need to reclaim some moral
authority for a presidency that has none at present.
This abject moral weakness is something trump realized once
he encountered zero pushback from day 1 of his reign of
truculent idiocy. He knows that people like romney,
flake, rubio, ryan, or sasse, are cowards and weak
individuals.
So few seen to be concerned about the ONGOING national security crisis presented by a president who is beholden to foreign powers. Or did Trump's Russia policy come from his love for Checkov? Did his support of the vile Saudi government arise from his respect for Wahabism?
Self-styled conservative pragmatists like Douthat are harping on the incompetence line to distract from the clear and present danger of a hostage in the White House.
1
So it boils down to this: We should do nothing about the least competent, most dangerous, America-destroying President in our history, and we should allow him to continue his daily destruction of our great nation for the next 2 or perhaps, 6 years, because it might really upset several million hoodwinked Fox News watchers.
No, that's not good enough. This corruption and destruction cannot stand.
2
Douthat writes: "He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them." Good line. I wonder if Douthat is part of that opposition. I think he might be.
I think another facet exposed is that the Liar in the White House often rationalizes (although that might be too important a word, excuses might be better) his lying and scamming by saying, and likely believing that everyone does the same.
I think he felt secure in allowing his underlings to testify because he thought that they, like he, would blithely lie under oath. They didn't and his ire is raised and he threatens retaliation.
He is not only an incompetent - but a dangerous incompetent. His underlings should only hope that he is as incompetent at retaliation as he is at governing.
" .... Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness."
I am forcing myself to read and understand the Mueller Report. Slogging through swamps is never easy. Fortunately, Robert Muelle and his team had infiniely more fortitude and patience in their search for the truth than I. Pieces like this salvo from Ross Douthat help too.
1
Mr. Douthat tells us to forget about the report. What? Become placid pathetic sheeple dutifully following the ensconced Republican oligarchy?
The report [begin italics] does not exonerate Trump [italics end]. The short version is that the report details a trail of evidence that points to possible obstruction of justice but leaves the question to Congress to decide.
Congress, do your job and decide.
No, it doesn't tell us everything we knew.
It doesn't tell us why and how the FBI showed up at Anthony Weiner's door to abscond with his laptop.
It doesn't tell us why the FBI decided to make their speculations about what was in that laptop public through the newspapers and TV.
It doesn't tell us why then the FBI began to react to DNC information on hacking and if the DNC had any intention to notify the FBI before Weiner's laptop contents were examined by the FBI and who knows who else, it doesn't tell us congress had a look.
The contention this told us everything we knew is the kind of misguided reporting that misses the point in favor of a narrative that is meaningless while the CIA and FBI run rampant doing who knows what for who and for why?
Ross Douthat attaches the contentions that have confused this investigation since the FBI was caught with their pants down when their own house turned upside down over an order to raid Weiner's home. Where did that order come from?
The weird thing is, even if Trump is as inept as everyone says he is, our country is doing fine. Perhaps we will discover that we don't really need a president.
@Aaron Adams
Economic inequality, racial polarization, hatred of legitimate immigrants, ignoring climate change, insulting and disregarding our true allies, and tolerating lying, cheating, greed and obstruction in our Executive branch- that's our country doing fine?
1
@Aaron Adams Repeat after me — "Thanks Obama for rescuing the economy that Bush/Cheney nearly destroyed." (Economic trend charts prove this, but you have to really know something about economics other than what FOX News preaches to the rubes.)
1
Forget impeachment.
Dems need to give Trump his wall.
After that, he’ll declare victory and go back to NYC after declining to run in 2020.
Always remember the moral standards preached by Douthat and his ilk in the rightwing noise machine, plus GOP politicians (looking at you Lindsay Graham), concerning Clinton’s suitability for impeachment and Senate conviction. Of course, NOW everything is different.
1
Although this is tangential to your larger point (Yes, Trump is horrible and incompetent and lies), you statement that "we will be back to talking about whether Joe Biden can beat Bernie Sanders and whether Sanders can beat Trump" reinforces where you as a guy sits. Some of us will actually be talking about the women running, not just the old white men.
1
Ah, how we laughed! But we have to defer to the prescience and courage of one American, Hillary Clinton, whose calling out of Trump supporters as Deplorables only get more true by the minute.
3
Here are the facts:
-- The FBI illegally initiated an investigation of the Trump campaign re Collusion based on no evidence. They never briefed Trump on their concerns.
-- The Obama admin ignored Russian meddling(ignore Mitch, Barry was CinChief)
- Key figures in the FBI plotted to undermine Trump's campaign and presidency
- They illegally obtained FISA warrants based on the unsubstantiated Steele dossier
- Obama only acted against Russia after HRC lost and his legacy was threatened
- Obama ordered an intel investigation into Russian interference to be delivered to his office before Trump's inaug. The report conveniently and inaccurately proclaimed that the Russians interfered to help elect Trump (the fact they initiated their activities in 2014 disproves that assertion -- the correct answer is the wanted to disrupt the campaign, hurt HRC the presumed winner. They would have supported any Repub).
- Somebody did something -- leaked the unsubstantiated and salacious Steele dossier in order to harm Trump.
- The FBI entrapped Flynn after eavesdropping on him.
There's more.
Trump had the right to fire Comey. Sessions shouldn't have recused himself. The Mueller investigation was initiated to hurt Trump and was a witch hunt. Trump had every right to counter that investigation and defend himself.
But even Mueller and his crack team of dems couldn't find evidence of collusion.
But there is plenty of evidence of illegal behavior by dems in 2016. Write that.
From your words to God's ear!
Mr Douthat, Your statements about the contents of the Mueller report make me wonder how you can then postulate that, after a while, the report will have only "modest" political impact and that will be,"sensible", because trump wasn't "secretly treasonous".That Trump was too incompetent to actually coordinate a conspiracy is not a valid reason that he should remain as president. It would appear that your perspective about this president has been skewed, much like the Republican congress. The idea that we should continue to "sensibly"accept such an abomination as a president is a form of denial that you apparently share with his die hard supporters.
2
@Diane B Douthat here admits that his moral outrage is a selective rhetorical device used when it suits his politics, certainly not due to any inviolable principles.
It is really horrible that a few crooks and drifters managed accidentally to defeat the Democratic Party and its weakest possible candidate, Hillary Clinton. They were just looking to enrich themselves and were surprised and horrified when they won. The USA is paying for the madness of the Democratic base and the liberals in general, for whom the political correctness and silliness is more important then winning elections.
If everything this article states is true, then an amoral, lying, incompetent man like Trump winning the Presidency of the Unites States of America, I repeat wining a democratic election for the Presidency of the United States of America....Let that sink in....says more about the ethics, morality, character and very soul or lack therefore, of white christian conservative Americans...you know just average American families, the salt of the earth types... than it says about our enemies Russia and China.
And what it says is deeply disturbing.
There is something rotten and broken about our society as a whole and it seems to be coming from the very folks who claim to be decent honest hard working people of faith.
But ain’t that always the way?
Donald Trump is "an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness." This one passage from this column should be block-saved and used in every story about Trump from hereon out. Thank you.
1
Having read an awful lot of the comments to the Mueller Report, I am astounded that they all reflect a one sided groupthink seemingly prevailing among NYT readers.
What happened to the old fashioned American attitude to a fair go????
Does anybody remember that the President was elected in full compliance with the rules of the democratic United States of America??? And that as such he deserves some respect. But it seems to be hard for too many of you to forgive the
@Hans Jensen .....er, no. Many rules, norms and standards were broken, bent, and trampled on during this election. The Report lists many of them.
1
I doubt, Mr Doutthat, what you are saying. You seem to think Trump is merely an incompetent fool to be soon dismissed in the 2020 election. After the continued chaos of the last three years, (and counting), and the continued revelations of Trump’s criminality, the time has come to restore some normalcy to the Oval Office. Graft, nepotism, corruption, mendacity, sloth and abject incompetence are the traits of the current presidency. If we follow Mr. Douthat’s advice, you can add dictatorial destruction of our democracy to that list. The time to impeach has arrived. Now.
1
The conclusion of Brett's column passses the buck to the voters by negating the Constitutional role Congress plays: Impeachment or at least hearings. Mueller laid out the case or map for moving forward.Brett negates impeachment as an option:
He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them.
Encouraging Congress to not fulfil its Congressional duty by skipping to a future election is just plain wrong.
I believe there will come a time when Americans will ask forgiveness, of mankind, for having allowed themselves to be duped by the cheap carnival barker Trump is.
A cheap carnival barker at the helm of our nation, a kind of pied piper, leading us into oblivion, and even as we know what he is, we still seemingly dance along.
Absolutely nuts.
6
The words liar and incompetent are the two threads that weave the robes of The Emperor has no clothes.
For the Emperor, enamored of their powers of mental capacity and fortitude these robes and red tie are the raiments and chasuble of Office.
The puffery and flattery festooned upon the Emperor by his retinue or interlocutors set his vainglorious ego a Twitter. His attention span, light as a feather drifts off to fritter the hours and days away.
Those in need of a deed used guile with gusto to gavage the goose and lay them a golden egg. The handlers indeed made pâte from his scene and bankrolled their fortunes away.
Handlers never had so easy a mark to roll.
4
@Tabula Rasa
An impressive thoughtful observation.
1
@Shenonymous Thank you for the kind words.
Russia interfered in our election to help Trump. Trump welcomed the interference. He then denied the interference. He obstructed the investigation to uncover it. He has done nothing to prevent future interference. He is a cancer on the presidency and our country. He should be impeached and removed from office.
7
Mean, cruel, nasty and STUPID. We elect that to a second term and my country, that I love, is gone....I don't plan to learn to speak Russian or watch another Saudi inspired 9/11 while Trump cashes their checks...
Bob Mueller conducted himself and his people with integrity and dignity. He was thorough, honest and disciplined in his work.
The man in the Oval Office fails on the most basic human behaviors and continues to prove that he embraces sleaze and revenge as his first response to pressure. He is intellectually and emotionally unfit for the office.
Thank you, Mr. Mueller for affirming that for Americans.
5
Must we be satisfied with his incompetence, ignorance, and impudence? By virtue of his birth and his age, DJT is qualified to be our President. However, his woeful lack of character, intellect, and leadership qualities disqualifies him from a second term.
2
@Bruce
Actually, the reality is he was disqualified from a first term.
The "Resistance Industry"? Lovely flippant insult for the people trying to save this country from descending into a plutocratic dictatorship.
Keep the delusion up: that Trump, and the forces he represents, are just relatively malign and incompetent people.
6
"the Mueller report is further proof the trump has been dishonest and ridiculous in the White House as he has been on the campaign trail". We've analyzed the man ad nauseam. What are the answers to why voters thought he deserved to be president and worse still, the support from a GOP congress. For a man enjoying a deranged narcissism, seems to still have a following that supports this illness.
2
@Bob81+3--Most Trump voters will vote for him again if he runs, following the lead of Fox "News". And the republicans in Congress will follow him to hell if he wants them to. Our only salvation is to vote him and his party out of office.
1
"...just as Wolff’s unusual access ultimately produced a more dramatic version of a story that had already been told in piecemeal (and perhaps less fancifully) by White House reporters at the major newspapers, in the Mueller report we get a lot of confirmation of stories about White House dysfunction and dangerous presidential impulses that were published in, for instance, The New York Times.
For me, this is the real redeeming quality of the Muelller report. It's the scene in "Gaslight" where Ingrid Bergman realizes that what she has seen and heard actually happened and what the oh so smart and self assured Charles Boyer was telling her were lies. Yes, we now know that what we read and heard in the NY Times, WAPO, CNN, etc., properly sourced by reporters, was the truth and that the Fox News reporting based primarily on responses to those stories by Trump worshiping flaks were, and continue to be, lies, evasions and rabid counterattacks.
Yes, Ingrid, the light has finally come back on and you can read or listen your favorite mainstream media and apply your own skepticism as needed and not have Charles Boyer or Fox News tell you that you are crazy.
3
Republicans should thank the Russians for sparing Trump solid conspiracy connections. There was an article in the Times a couple of days ago about the nature of spying. Among the principles of spying is always have plausible deniability. It would have been very bad for the Russians to have direct and obvious culpability in direct collusion with Trump. They know what they are doing so they avoided that. Trump is a chump as far as their operations are concerned. Like tricking a 3 year old.
The report shows Trump et al ready and willing to conspire. But they were manifestly too incompetent, too unaware of the profound depths of ignorance they labored under for the Russians to conspire with them. Being more sophisticated, the Russians realized they didn't even have to do any cloak and dagger spy stuff to manipulate and debase both Trump and our elections.
Rather crow about no conspiracy, Republicans should eat crow and thank the Russians there was no conspiracy. That's how pathetic the report shows Trump to be.
1
Amen. DJ Trump is the petty thief in the Oval Office. He is the small time crook who looks at himself with a magnifying mirror but still doubts his self worth. That he does not want the public to see his personal finances has overtones that he has grave doubts about his adequacy.
1
Taking comfort in the fact that the President and his cronies are too incompetent to commit high crimes and misdemeanors provides very little solace.
2
And we are stuck with him. Illegitimately.
1
@Tim c
Only until we legitimately unstick ourselves from him as soon as possible!
1
Trivializing it in hopes it will go away – right out of the playbook.
Will the last patriotic Republican please turn out the lights when you leave the room.
1
Don’t downplay it Mr Douthat: there was masses and masses of despicable collusion with a foreign adversary and Trump and the Republicans should be deeply ashamed. The Special Prosecutor merely declined to prosecute for a criminal conspiracy. Afterwards, Trump appears to have obstructed justice. It is all extraordinary and sickening.
“Fire and Fury” was as fake as the whole notion of Russian Collusion. Why on earth would Douthat even bring that up?
My goodness. How desperate has this media become?
hmmm...The Mueller Report's truncated window of investigation cannily was too short to capture the probable genesis of the 'Russia backs Trump' deal...if there ever was any deal. Too many organized crime and espionage stories contain the phrase, "We will not meet again after today..." once the handler has given the top level instructions to their asset. Was Trump a dupe or a 'useful idiot'? Either way, he comes off as too willing to gain office by depriving Americans of a free and fair election. And by their willingness to out Director Comey's private letter to his oversight chairman, the GOP appear to have a hand in the theft of a free and fair election. And by okaying and cutting checks to Stormy and Karen, Donald Trump had a second role to play in denying the nation a free and fair election.
That's enough 'strikes against' for me. How many principles of democracy does Donald Trump need to bend or break for Americans to get it?
2
Please don't dismiss tbe crimes committed by this president under the fog of chaos.
Obstruction and witness tampering itself is serious enough. What is still not settled is the question - why does Trump grovel like a weak dog in front of Putin? Mueller hasnt yet looked at his financial dealings.
2
All conspiracy theories feature improbably competent and devious conspirators to explain imagined or real misdeeds. In a way these theories betray a grudging admiration that amounts to a backhanded compliment. We all believe that, disasters should be the handiwork of evil masterminds, but close examination finds mainly stupidity, chance, laziness and greed.
When films will be made about our fraught times, the stories will be farces and the actors cast as Trump will be comedians.
The President we all grew to find a fool remains as such. Don McGhan saved him from Impeachment as did others that failed to carry out the stupid missions. Had they not done so Trump could be Impeached now.
So now Don McGhan is a villain when he in fact saved his own hide by not being part of the scheme that was not fully baked and salvaged the President as well.
Don McGhan was a good lawyer. He helped stack the deck on judges for the Party and got no thanks for it - Trump standard procedure!
So, if we could start proceedings on evidence like "Ah did not have sex with that woman." it is just plain as day we have to do something with this guy. Even our grand kids will say, “Huh, you did nothing?”
2
To read the Mueller report esp. the section on obstruction and not see a lowlife criminal and his minions in action is impossible.
Every person with a scintilla of decency, morality and love of country should be sickened by the depths of lying, obstruction, and criminal behavior rooted in this White House.
Trump is a cancer that is killing democracy and still there are so -called "religionists" like Douthat willing to turn away from the awfulness of it all.
3
Yes, it's up to Americans to vote Trump out. But it's also up to the Democrats to follow their constitutional duties and vote to impeach Trump, even if the hypocritical Republicans won't let it go all the way. If Democrats don't, they can claim little higher ground than Trump and his lackeys and, at least in my view, will be regarded as political cowards.
3
"Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency . . ."
I've read the Mueller Report myself, in its entirety. My comments are thus based on my own reading, not second-hand reporting.
Part of Douthat's concluding assessment, quoted above, is many things to me: puzzling, absurd, concerning, and laughable, to name a few. Anyone who has read the report with any semblance of objectivity should agree it portrays President Trump not "about as bad as" candidate Trump, but rather much, much worse.
Candidate Trump was a blowhard. A narcissist. A liar. A manipulator. A puppet. A bigot. A womanizer. A snake-oil salesman. A racist. An incompetent. A chauvinist. And much more, absolutely none of it good.
Trump remains all those things, but also, as the Mueller Report illustrates, someone absolutely dismissive, disrespectful, and even ignorant of our country's laws and other relevant governing/social norms. He is a textbook sociopath. Thus, nothing Trump "appeared to be" while campaigning has been shown inaccurate, nor has it changed. Instead, the Mueller Report makes abundantly clear that all those traits, plus some even scarier ones, now motivate the decisions/actions of the President of the United States of America.
I'd say that thanks to Mueller, we know that Trump as president is far worse than he appeared while running, regardless of Collusion, obstruction, perjury, or any other specific allegation or offense.
3
Ross, I do not understand the reactions to the Mueller Report. One would think that such damning confirmation of what so many had already come to believe, the utter corruption and amorality of Trump and his team of scoundrels, should awaken his supporters including Republicans in Congress. The mere fact that MAGA supporters are more tenacious in their blind support and that the McConnell gang are downplaying the results tells us that Trump is not the only problem with this nation. Proving that a foreign adversary so egregiously interfered with our democratic right to free elections, and Mr. Mueller all but providing a road map for follow-up into likely obstruction of justice, is moot, is irrelevant to thousands of Americans. Yes, Trump is the trigger to this decay of ethics and morality. Yes, he himself is soulless...and heartless. Yet all he had to do is willingly and purposely unlock Pandora's Box to let loose all the hate, bigotry, racism, and greed which was not dead but just napping and awaiting for its Dark Knight to come along.
2
If you hate non-fiction, there is always fiction to hang onto.
Non-fiction does not quite satisfy the way a good fiction does.
Democrats have chosen fiction. It’s easier on their brain.
Oh please. Nothing in the Mueller report is fiction. Are you telling me (a) you’re okey-dokey with all of it, and (b) you’d be okey-dokey with all of it if you replaced the name “President Donald J. Trump” with either “President Hillary Clinton” or “President Barack Obama”?
Please.
1
Wait a minute, Ross! You said in a recent podcast when asked, parroting Trump yourself, "no collusion" and that it was all a "witch-hunt".
So what is it, a non-colluding innocent rogue's gallery of incompetents, unencumbered by intelligence or central leadership...or, truly an immoral treasonous nest of vipers who when given the chance, have betrayed our most cherished ideals and institutions just to give their dear-leader an ego massage?
I guess it just depends on your definition of collusion. Right?
3
What a defense: Trump is to incompetent and disorganized to colude. Really?
1
Cast him out- impeach - bring multiple charges against him.
Then lock him up. He’s exponentially worse than Nixon- who at least created the EPA and never sold the USA out. Even in its redacted form the report shows clear obstruction. If you asked someone to commit murder or obstruct justice then you’d be committing an illegal or impeachable offense. What’s the difference? Why can’t our congress and senate free the American people of the incompetent, hateful criminal in the Oval Office?
1
And there you have it: a president and campaign amoral enough to entertain Russian assistance and attempt obstruction of justice, while simultaneously possessed of an autoprotective level of bungling incompetence. Inspector Clouseau would be proud.
1
As far as I can tell, Russia rigged the election to put a useful idiot in the White House and avoid all the problems they would have had with an intelligent Democratic administration. And nobody cares as long as Trump didn't "collude" with the Russians. How are we going to protect out voting system 18 months from now to avoid more foreign interference. We still don't know.
3
I hate to say it, but Ross Douthat has the most clear-eyed and mature perspective on the Mueller report I've yet seen.. There's really nothing new here, nothing criminal, nothing treasonous..and certainly nothing impeachable.. --Trump is a puffed-up narcissist, with a knack for unscrupulous behavior..and that has been true and clearly evident for years..
---And if Democrats can not beat him in the next election, it really says something about their own incompetence and inability to come up with a compelling candidate..
50
Nothing treasonous? Really?
We have different standards for treason, apparently.
25
@mike
If trump..."a puffed up narcissist with a knack for unscrupulous behavior" isn't beaten in the next election, I believe it really says something about the people who vote for him.
15
You are way off base. I'll just cherry-pick one of the 10,000 things Trump has said and done that should disqualify him from holding the office: telling McGahan to fire Mueller. That single event should have landed him in front of a federal judge to answer for the crime of obstructing justice. There could not be a worse example of that crime, a president obstructing an investigation into his own conduct. Ten years in prison, no parole, that is what he deserves.
14
Uh, Ross, you seem to have forgotten about the counterintelligence investigations. The incompetence does not mean djt is not compromised by the Russians and trying to do their bidding.
5
Just to clarify: Cohen did not fly into Prague with a suitcase of money to meet, on the plane, to pay a Russian -- correct?
2
@NotKidding
In case some people are parsing their language, as a way to be "truthful", let me rephrase that question: Did Cohen, sometime in 2016, fly to an airport near Prague?
Follow up questions would then be: Did he leave the plane? Did someone meet him on that plane? If so, who was that person?
Ross, you helped put him in office.
10
Knowing all these things that Trump did seems to confirm the image of a white collar crime boss confirmed by his admiration for his mentor lawyer Roy Cohn who taught him to operate as a mafia don who Cohn represented . If we re-elect this morally bankrupt president he will feel free to act his role as Putin's puppet and allow his family and himself to amass a vast fortune accessing the world's national banks in return for political favors ,what else would a crime boss but enhance the fortunes of his clan and cromies. Hello kleptocracy perhaps a TRump dynasty appointing Ivanka as our next president without an election which are suspended by executive order. GOP says oh well conservative judges will uphold it all.
4
It's important to not be distracted by the shiny Trumpian cherry on the corrupt Republican cake and to remember that Trump is just another layer of ongoing Republican corruption of this country.
The elevation of this reprehensible Birther-Liar-In-Chief to the pinnacle of American power was not just a matter of the 2016 Russian invasion, but was part and parcel of decades of rigging the vote by any means possible for oligarchic victory.
Trump remains wholly unqualified for any public office, and there he is, a Republican 'star' shining brightly like a proud national tumor in golden right-wing glory, a tax-dodging, draft-dodging, prevaricating, philandering cretinous archangel of the greedy, 'religious' American right, hellbent on enriching the rich, trashing the sick, the poor, the weak and the environment and proclaiming the religious sanctity of guns and bullets.
Meanwhile, functioning governments around the world pave their roads, hold free and fair elections, protect the environment, respect science, respect female sovereignty and pass gun safety controls to protect their citizens from angry white male Christian terrorists.
But not in America, where our thoroughly corrupt Republican electoral system demands a steady 0.1% welfare-insulin drip while the masses are encouraged to bankrupt themselves on healthcare, college and living expenses.
This right-wing Republican dystopian American nightmare deserves a spectacular 2020 punch in the political face.
Wake up, America.
51
Funny thing Ross (or not so funny if you actually care about whether a criminal is your president), you say nothing about the obvious crime of obstruction of justice that is detailed in the report. You say nothing much New was revealed. You don’t think learning for the first time that your president directed his lawyer to lie to investigators is an important fact. In any other presidency I believe that would be its end. It should be. And yet you and other so called reasonable apologists for this administration can muster no more than a “meh”. The fact that Trumps criminality may arise more from stupidity than any other factor makes it no less criminal.
6
Again, it’s the Mafia for Dummies. From Money Laundering to
“ presidenting “, it’s all about the MONEY. Glorious, glorious CASH, in Tax-Free Trump accounts, here and abroad.
PERIOD.
3
The man is a nut job and everyone knows it.
If I was in the business of printing ballots for the 2020 Presidential election so as to insure a result truly reflective of the attitudes, ideals and opinions of the American people, I’d skip the names and ask “Do you think we’d be better off keeping the nut job or giving the job to someone saner?”
The election -- I'm certain -- would go down to the wire.
5
@A. Stanton Agree. That is what is truly crazy. People admit that Trump is deplorable but believe he has done "great" things for the country. Apparently, end apparently justifies any means.
2
It’s so much fun to realize that Trump & Junior were actually too dumb to collude with the Russians.
But he woulda if he coulda.
But he’s still not as dumb as the Democrats who are knocking each other to reach stage-left.
He’s going to win again.
3
Newsflash ***The Mueller report did not absolve Trump from high crimes***
What a disingenuous column. Douthat has dressed up his exoneration of Trump as an objective hit piece. The real point of his column is this passage: "Mueller's exposé was backed by subpoena power rather than just sweet talk, but ultimately it delivers the same general portrait: Donald Trump as an amoral incompetent surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children, who is saved from self-destruction by advisers who sometimes decline to follow orders, and saved from high crimes in part by incompetence and weakness."
2
Trump is bad but the GOP is worse. They need to be eradicated.
2
"...not secretly treasonous."
But publicly treasonous in Helsinki siding with Putin over our own intel. And on the campaign trail asking Russia to hack HRC's email. And in the Oval Office bragging about secrets to Russian diplomats. And by liftng sanctions for Russian oligarchs for no appropriate reason. And, by not defending us from further election hacking in 2020.
5
I disagree. The challenge for his opposition is to impeach Trump! Trump is the infection that destroys democracy; The process to expunged Trump must start ASAP!
1
McConell and the freedom caucus along with trump enablers should be indicted for high crimes and misdemeanors.
trump should be arrested as well.
Whatever legalese yu want to call it. This voter says .....start the proceedings just to rankle their confidence and egos and criminality.
Biden and Bernie should go away!!!
Every presidential candidate running is way talented in their areas of expertise. All are gaining funds and traction.
Do not attack each other please and
Whoever wins those crazy unfair primaries!and goes against “foul mouth “just remember how you all stood up to the school yard bullies.
And if by some slim miracle of a chance the Dems. Win every candidate is best for the cabinet appointments. No one really loses .
Schumer start pressuring McConell with whatever it takes to remove his bloody racist caucus.
Mueller was not our political savior against this aberration caused by dumb voting laws and gerrymandered districts.
Vote 2020. Vote young candidates.
Biden and Bernie have ego dementia.
2
The mueller report teased my gag reflex all the way thru my reading of it.Volume 1 established w/o any doubt that the Russians attacked the 2016 election.Trump,his family and his adoring deplorables condone this attack.When trump swore on the bible to protect the US and the citizens therein from just this kind of attack vs our democracy,he lied.He has known about the
russian meddling since 2016 and to this day has done absolutely NOTHING about it.I care not one wit why.He has committed treason by putting us in harms way and for that should be impeached.Get the clean mueller report ASAP.
4
The republicans aren’t going anywhere, their licking the lips for a potential 7/2 Supreme Court.
Many more hardcore conservative judges in the lower courts.
2
OK Russ--you have now convinced me that you have a very low opinion of Trump. Still--you're getting more conservative judges--who will be in place for decades--than you ever dreamed possible. So--why quibble?
3
David Brooks, for all of his weaknesses, saw the light. It is really hard to see any light when your blinders preclude it, Ross. The only way that you will qualify as a pundit is if you engage in saying many puns. But you can't.
3
The Trump Organization has been exposed as much less efficient and focused than any of the fabled infamous legendary Five New York City organized crime families.
A plague of locusts is a much more apt analogy for the Donald and his mates and their spawn. Mindless relentless rampaging misguided supreme amoral stupidity.
Who knew?
Among the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump in 2016 was 58% of the white voting majority including 62% of white men and 54% of white women.
Among the 66 million Americans who voted for Hillary was 92% of the black voting minority including 88% of black men and 95 % of black women.
3
Ok, Ross you never addressed the 2,000 gorilla in the room - do you favor impeachment and removal from office? Your column was just like Mitt Romney's tweet. You gloss over the Mueller report or parody William Barr's gaslighting and say what an incompetent, despicable, corrupt person Trump is. Well??? Do you support impeachment and removal from office or not?
2
Oh.
So we kinda sorta knew a lot of this stuff.
So Trump was kinda sorta doing crimes in plain sight.
So it's kinda sorta not a big deal, right?
We see what you did there, Ross.
Nice try.
Your boy is going down.
2
If this report means he was "saved from high crimes", then the Constitution is waste paper.
2
Trump maybe the least moral person to hold the Oval Office. His campaign the most corrupt, 100 charges, 30+ indictments, and 8 convictions. His charitable foundation closed. He is creating a ballooning deficit from increasing spending and decreasing revenues through a terrible tax scheme. He is trying to dismantle the Supreme Court tested ACA that hurts the sick and the pour. Yet, there is not bipartisan support for him to go. In fact his party's approval ratings are high. The fiscal hawks wings are clipped, the religious right overlooks his moral failings, some are sycophants, the rest shrug. Moral and patriotic keepers of the Constitution are demonized. I myself are crestfallen and nearly hopeless. We don't even agree that white supremacist, fascists, and Nazis are really all that bad. I mean, they can still vote and if their votes are for DJT, there is obviously some very fine people in their midst(extreme sarcasm). My point is, though there is a good enough case for impeachment, it is a political dead end. What is there left for the left to do? 1. Americans want all foreign interference in our elections stopped, start there. 2. Let's be the authors of the next healthcare legislation that DJT promised in his campaign, the right doesn't want to do this. 3.Provide fair and workable immigration policies, deport violent criminals, have better visa security & enforcement, and migrant workforce supply and rules. 4.Create better trade policies for Agriculture and business
3
Lovely too see Mr Douhat so blasé about Trump and the Russians. I’m sure he was outraged about the Lewinsky affair and Obama’s tan suit.
Typical conservative hypocrite.
3
The 2018 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting went to the New York Times and Washington Post “for deeply sourced, relentlessly reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation’s understanding of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the President-elect’s transition team and his eventual administration.”
For years the two newspapers and other news media outlets relentlessly flogged the false narrative that Trump campaign members and Trump associates colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Now that the Mueller report has proven them wrong, one might expect the Times and Post to apologize and return the prizes; instead they have launched a new media onslaught designed to convinced the public that the president’s efforts to defend himself against their false allegations constitutes obstruction of justice.
You didn’t read one page of the Mueller report, clearly.
No apologies are required TO the Trump Administration / campaign staffers / clown show.
Apologies ARE required FROM Trump TO the American people, however, who he’s striven to lie to and deceive from Day One (aka the Descent of America Down the Escalator).
1
@Jenny Cook
The Muller report says no American colluded, conspired or cooperated with Russia's efforts to influence the 2016 election. There was no connection between the Trump campaign and Russian interference.
It comes down to a simple, sad fact: Trump is a fraud who ran to further his brand and ego. He never expected to win and since he's a juvenile sociopath who is terrified of being exposed as the loser he is, stayed in office to keep the con going. The only people who don't seem to be in on it is his foolish, aging base. They are indeed the rubes to this gutless snakeoil salesman.
2
Wonderful! We don't need to worry about the POTUS committing any crimes because he is too incompetent to do so. I'll sleep better tonight. Oh wait, doesn't he have the power to order a first strike?
3
In 200 plus years of American history, there has NEVER been a president who is more deserving of being removed from office for being unfit, than Donald J. Trump. Except for the undereducated, halfwits in the Trump cult, the Mueller report has only confirmed this.
What is important to remember, is that GOP senators who have kept Trump in office, abandoned the country a long time ago. A fascist regime is fine with them, as long as it is a White fascist regime and they are rich and in power. For them this country SHOULD be for the .01 percent. Their goal is to get as many extreme right wing policies and right wing judges appointed before the Trump dumpster fire burns out. Shrewdly, GOP senators are playing the long game and they have decided that they are worse off if they abandon the "Stable Genius" now. They believe it's best to role the dice and see if Trump can keep "The Con" going and can pull off another win in 2020. Even if they lose in 2020, the GOP still thwarted the will of most Americans for four years, and even that's an impressive "win."
4
Mr Douthat does a Barr here. He tries to play his lawyer and tries to exonerate him.
2
There’re not enough cakes of Ivory on the planet, Mr. Douthat, to get your paws anywhere near to clean on this one, scrub as ye may.
You’ve praised the Lord and passed the ammunition to pretty much the worst in Amerida for two decades, and now a very fat pigeon has come home to roost.
Own it; don’t try to pin this on anybody else.
3
Neocon Douthat seems somewhat calmed (numbed?) by the report that his Republican president is not "as bad as he appeared..." What a sad low bar he has accepted. Were the writer truly horrified that his party has succumbed to the will of a thrice-married, draft-dodging, morals-less, race-baiting, tax-cheating lout who is the poster boy for malignant narcissism disorder, he would be calling for his impeachment on his unfitness to serve and his obvious attempts to obstruct justice.
2
The context is the the ethical heroes of Mueller’s report all happen to be Bush loyalists and McConnell continues to stock the judiciary with Bush loyalists by the very the process devised by McGahn...oh look a squirrel!
1
Ho hum, says Mr. Douthat. The president is a crook. Nothing to see here.
2
Any daily reader of his Tweets will see the truth of what you say. The man is simply--there is no better word for it--too stupid to be nefarious.
If he is a traitor to his country, it is only because he does not really have a country, only himself and his family. He is Sonny Corleone in that wonderful Godfather scene, when he attacks his brother, Michael, because Michael has enlisted, "to defend my country."
"What kind of fool are you?" the incredulous Sonny spits back.
"You fight for your family."
And it is that baseline value which drives Trump, slightly modified to "Me first, and, when it suits, my children."
Country to this mob mentality, is a con for suckers.
3
Alas, it is hard to prove conspiracy from an incompetent nincompoop egomaniac as Individual-1 is. How ironic he attempts to portray himself as a all-knowing master when the proof is the daily dumpster fire known as the White House operations; which are more attempts to spin Individual-1's inane tweets, and idiotic prattle into some sort of policy. Impossible. Individual-1 is unqualified for even a space holder at the Oval Office. Any sane Cabinet would have employed the 25th Amendment to remove such an unqualified and unstable person but this Cabinet are boot lickers.
1
Douthat rarely clarifies reality given his religious and political fantasies but he nails it here. The President of the United States tried to commit a felony, obstruction of justice, but lacked the competence to accomplish it. His campaign was actually too disorganized, lubberly, and doltish to collude. What is worse? A White House that won't fulfill the directives of the President or one that will? The rest are a bungling, lying, grifting crew of ingrates and idiots. Half of America cheers. And that is the real problem.
2
Thank for the most sensible piece I've read on this subject. However, what consistently eludes this dialogue, to our detriment, is what is most important - policy.
2
My favorite character in the Mueller report is "professor" Mifsud whose appointment was at the London Academy of Diplomacy, an organization whose life was just long enough for Mifsud to claim a relationship when he met with Papadopoulos.
My take on the first half of the report is that as Trump neared power, the scent of his gravy train wafted around the globe attracting every grifter in the world. Every one of them then tried to get on board to participate in the big con. That is what all the various contacts between Trump associates and others were about.
2
McGahn, in protecting the president from himself, has done a grave disservice to the country. He has provided time for enablers like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham to incrementalize.
We have found, over and over, that what would have been unacceptable in January is defended in July and, we are expected to believe, common practice in September.
At this point, the majority party in the Senate has spent so much time, step by step, defending continuing worsening corruption, until they have no conscience and no credibility, and have nothing left to focus on that maintaining the corruption so as to maintain their power.
Perhaps, if people like McGahn had allowed Trump to be Trump from the beginning, they would have had to act before they had been so debased. But then, they may have been this debased from the beginning. I guess we’ll never know.
5
Stop asking how could these serious establishment figures continue to buckle to Trump. The Republican Party decided post Watergate that the WORST outcome was Nixon's impeachment because it cost them power beyond a bad 4 year term. They covered for Reagan in Iran Contra and covered for Bush II with Cheney and war. Faced with Trump.... they have managed to call up an old guard and have them hold their nose in order to prevent Trump from being impeached. The bull pen was deep... McGahn got their judges approved and stopped trump... Now Robert Barr is playing defense for the rest of the term. Sadly this power play works.
6
Seems like conservative pundits have two reactions to this report: 1) Furthering Barr’s spin of ‘nothing to see here; move on’ and 2) We already knew he was nuts and too incompetent to be a successful criminal; move on.
They keep forgetting that Trump committed a FELONY that Michael Cohn was sentenced to jail for, So there’s that.
With that said, I tend to agree the best way to beat Trump is to focus the narrative away from his ‘strongman’ mythology and toward the truth that he is the most incompetent boob to win the presidency. His anger at this latest expose is that it depicts him not as a criminal mastermind, but as a weak pathetic clueless fool. He knows Americans would rather put up with criminality than weakness, Why else would he be so obsessed with his transcripts and taxes? They expose him as a fraud.
8
Absolutely, He is an incredibly incompetent Idiot. But those of us with at least a three digit IQ already knew that, long ago. Now, explain why so many of the GOP are still his enthusiastic Collaborators. Please. Go ahead. Please proceed, Ross.
Hello ???
4
@Phyliss Dalmatian The enthusiastic collaborators, and enablers are grasping the handrails of a sinking ship.
They GOP are possibly not aware the House, a legislative body quite different from the rubber stamp cabal headed by Ryan, will not be rubber stamping anything from McConnel/Trump. And Trump will further sink into his fetid swamp as an imperial president, the same thing he accused Obama of becoming.
Then when the realization hits that Trump's agenda, such as it is, and when not golfing on our dime, and Trump becomes more unhinged, they may cease any support and just let him fade into the abyss.
1
Will somebody( and you too, Ross), please explain Trump's nauseating obsequiousness to Putin? Is it love? Is it fear? Is Putin his daddy? Is Trump really that stupid, that vain, that demented, that in need of a friend? If the answer is yes to any of the above, then he should be removed from office by any legal means at the disposal of Congress.
2
Bottom line: too stupid to collude and too inept to obstruct.
We should give him a second chance to improve.
1
Very interesting. But the point on Ukraine is one that is raised repeatedly. The reason that the Russians annexed Crimea was because of an anti-Russian coup in Kiev. Led by anti Semitic followers of Stephan Bandera, a well known WW2 Nazi sympathizer. Russia controlled all of Crimea but it strangely was part of Ukraine. It houses Russia's largest naval base and had 67% Russian population. The new Ukrainian regime basically wanted to turn Russians into second class citizens and erase any aspect of their culture that had Russian taint. A referendum was held in Crimea and not surprisingly the citizens there no longer wanted to be part of Ukraine. Trump now wants to supply Ukraine with offensive weapons and withdraw from a long standing European missile treaty with Russia. Trump has been nothing but hostile with Russia. Putin I'm sure longs for the return to the days of Obama with the Iran nuclear deal.
Let us remember why the Mueller Report is a nothingburger - Republican officials who quake in their boots, soil their own nest, and put their careers and party over their country in service to the 80% of Republican voters who continue to worship the ground Trump walks on.... and the trail of slime he leaves behind, and the evangelical leaders who embrace this anti-Christ to preserve their perks of Gulfstreams and mansions, enabled by their deplorable sheep. Mueller and Wolff both told us the Monster-From-The-Id was too incompetent to even collude with a porn star, too insecure about his own legitimacy to surpass the attention span of a flea, and is the poster child for the Dunning-Kruger effect. But at least Mueller took a few dangerous criminals off the street.
1
Yes, Trump is a buffoon. Yes, he is too incompetent and disorganized to pull off a conspiracy.
But Putin and his henchmen are more than competent enough to mine the chaos of the Trump white house to their own advantage. Russia is capable of doing great harm within the hole that the Trump Presidency has punched in our democracy.
Which of has been the real problem from day 1.
5
I agree. So what happens now? Are we really stuck with this idiot , just because he’s too incompetent to actually commit an impeachable offense. George Orwell and frank Kafka are laughing themselves sick up there in literary heaven. Shakespeare too. “Oh what fools these mortals be”.
1
At what point of time we will see articles on the Mueller Report. It is a 400+ page report and I am sure there will probably 10000 times more pages written about that!!!! Yawn!!!! By the way, to be frank, I didn’t read this. Nowadays all you have to know the author’s name and you wii know what is in the article.
Still defending him in a back handed sort of way. The Steele Memo was accurate. Trump didn’t win, he was promoted by the tin hat boys, Mercer, Kock, Adelstein et al.
The electoral college was set up to defend these parasites, to make sure the oligarchy continues, Bushes as the prime example of hereditary authoritarianism.
Treasonous is as treasonous does despite the smoke and mirrors.
1
Those who love our country and oppose Trump should speak with one voice - that a hostile foreign state, Russia, helped install him as THEIR, not our, president. Do we really want Putin making our electoral decisions, and a President who is clearly beholden to the Russians in every policy announcement he makes? We must link Trump at every opportunity to Putin and Russia. He is their useful idiot and lackey. Make a vote for Trump un-American and unpatriotic.
4
a president who was understood by everyone around him to be unfit for the job.
The Republican Party continues to enable him and protect him and you continue your mad love affair with the Republican Party. Where does one separate oneself from all of this filth?
3
Ross's commentary highlights the fact that Trump was and continues to be the poster child for the term associated with the Soviet era—a useful idiot.
5
Whether it is "Fire and Fury", the Mueller report or any of the other books, countless press reports and editorials, we all have been bombarded with accounts of Trump and his associates.
I have been horrified since Trump descended the escalator in Trump tower.
Everything, Mueller report included, comes off as rather unsurprising pieces in a quilt that depicts an ignorant, grasping, insecure, amoral narcissist out to puff his own ego and line his pockets --the nation be damned.
The question that burns in my mind is how roughly 63 million Americans could vote for this guy in 2016. Even more shocking to me are the recent polls that tell us that 48 million voting age Americans would vote for him again today.
What is going on in the minds of those millions of Trump supporters? Now there is a book that might shed some light.
5
It takes years of being spoiled rotten and many millions of dollars to create a colossal New York jerk like this. Been there, tried to work with them, and they just don't hear you. All they hear is the evil humbug music that boils up from their own ego.
3
The Mueller report confirmed that Trump is a bumbling, inarticulate liar and imbecile who has no business being within 10 miles of the oval office.
5
That “Trump is too stupid to collude” is good enough for Trump’s base.
Which kind of follows a twisted logic that borders on the sublime:
• Putin refers to Trump as “my useful idiot in the White House”*
• Trump refers to his votes as “the poorly educated”**
*from the Book House of Trump House of Putin by Craig Unger
**from campaign interviews as aired on CNN
1
If people want to comment on the Mueller Report then they should read it. And I wonder if Douthat read the entire report.
To compare Mueller's report to Michale Wolff's tabloid tome does a great disservice to the American public and impugns the integrity and work of Bob Mueller and his incredible team.
Shame on you Douthat.
I have just finished the Mueller Report and my armchair analysis is that it is a thoroughly damning account of the man in the Oval Office and several of his corrupt cabal, grifters and congenital liars.
Now Congress, the American voters and ultimately independent prosecutors will in due time have their jobs to do.
This report is a blue print for obstruction of justice, witness tampering and possibly other criminal acts.
Oh and not to forget, Bill Barr is a stone cold liar and enabler.
5
And Bill Barr is flacking for Trump, who in turn is flacking for Putin, which means Barr is also flacking for Putin, by the commutative property of flacking.
The question we all still need to ask ourselves is, why?
1
Russia did nothing then. Nothing to see here and nothing further to do. Trump is super tough on Putin like he lies he is. My take is that like Comey, Mueller is a Good Republican...giving a wink-wink to all Republicans.
It just further 'exonerates' my decision to go all "America is mediocre" and "America is only a rich male billionaire's gambling paradise". The further suck is that America is the best place in the world...when the best place in the world is a mediocre gambler's paradise...Beam Me Up.
1
Digger deeper into details, Mr. Douthat.
Trump and his Campaign aides may not have criminally conspired with Russians but, the Trump Campaign benefitted from Russian interference. Trump has been expressing his gratitude to Putin ever since.
No one in the Trump Campaign, not Trump, Manafort, Junior, Kushner, etc. did the right and patriotic thing: Alert the FBI to the Russian attempts to infiltrate the Campaign. Not even after the FBI warned the Campaign. Not only did they not do the right thing, they actively covered up the contacts.
Had just one of them called the FBI, the Mueller investigation would not have been necessary. There would be no hidden links with Russians interfering in the election to investigate. No lies, no conflicts of interest to investigate.
The FBI, on receipt of the Steele Dossier, would have been able to tell Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham, “No worries. Trump has already told us about the Russians.” And consider this: Steele contacted the FBI, Trump and his Campaign did not.
And Trump could be fulfilling his duty as Commander in Chief to investigate the Russian meddling unimpaired by “anger and frustration” as per Barr and to take steps to defend the country.
How convenient for Trump supporters to sweep all of the awfulness of the last two and a half years under the rug of emotional immaturity and bumbling incompetence. Not so fast. Too much of Trump’s connections to Russia and his actions remain unexplored.
6
I have read the redacted report and it seems to me there is more than enough evidence for Congress to start impeachment proceedings. In my opinion, it seems Mueller did a thorough job and Congress just needs to study the materials, start the hearings, get the testimony they need and vote.
If they do not, I will have as little respect for them as I do for Donald Trump.
5
@gpickard The problem is that impeachment will go nowhere because the Senate will not have 67 votes in favor. To date, only one Republican, Mitt Romney, has publicly spoken out against Trump's actions as revealed by the Mueller Report. The rest are hunkering under their desks, waiting for it to go away - because they, too, have been guilty of obstruction of justice. So the Dems would do a lot better to go on with the public hearings to get out more information, but focus on healthcare and the huge economic divide exacerbated by Trump and the Republicans instead of futile impeachment. What's important is that Trump is defeated at the ballot box.
2
Like Mr. Douthat's characterization of the Mueller report, his column tells me nothing that I did not already know. Unlike the investigation, his column does not add any further insight. Isn't there something more than "it adds to a well understood reality" that he could have said.
No, this report will certainly not fade from the center of attention as did so many other reports, columns and books.
5
@William Mayer Ross can't take sides... he's been a journalistic coward and a GOP apologist his entire career. He claims to be a moral juror yet he can't convict. Pathetic, frankly.
3
Douthat is saying that everyone knew from the start that there was no collusion and not saying that still the leadership of Justice, FBI, CIA, deep state, whatever went ahead with an investigation {with the media cheering them on}. And Trump is the threat to our democracy?
What an odd takeaway from the Mueller report / Douthat Op Ed.
Didn’t you wonder why so many Trump campaign operatives were so cozy with Russian officials?
1
@Zeke27,
No matter how you choose to spin it Mueller found no collusion .What is interesting is that all this occurred during the Obama Administration. The FBI spied on the Trump Campaign specifically for the purpose of establishing a Russian connection and came up empty. The Steele Dossier was a deliberate attempt by the DNC and Clinton is to discredit Trump.
2
I often disagree with your philosophy, Mr. Douthat, but always respect the thoughtful scrutiny and depth of your columns. This one is a gem. Thank you.
1
Was "Fire and Fury" fiction or nonfiction? Ditto for "1984," "The Manchurian Candidate" and countless more. Whether the truth is
thinly disguised, veiled or fully exposed, it eventually reveals itself.
Even if there had never been a Mueller Report based upon a Mueller investigation, Trump's entire life had already revealed itself to be less than worthy of following a reputable career let alone leading a remarkable democracy.
Perhaps we should all forgive yet not forget what happened. But first we must make sure that the cause of true justice is served.
Vote.
8
Ross, the never Trumper, does not provide any insight in this article other than his opinion as a Trump hater. Yes, Trump's campaign was chaotic, but he won. Yes, Trump's administration may be more chaotic than others, but he has achieved and is achieving better results for American people. The yard stick is not how smooth the process is, but the results. In both cases Trump is unparcelled in American history.
4
@Alex E He won? He achieved? At what cost to (a) our democracy in particular and (b) our future, in general? If the ends justify the means, as you appear to suggest, we've not yet seen the 'ends.' Buckle up. Many of us have seen this movie before.
11
@Alex E, please spare me sir. I rather reap smaller benefits and still have a country ruled by laws of which not only I but generations to come will be proud of instead of a “lot of winning” in a country ruled by an amoral man with autocratic impulses.
Here praying that the better angels let us see the light and finally convince us that while temporary benefits are good the survival of this experiment we call the USA is indeed the biggest reward.
9
@Alex E
Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral college- a "win" by an antiquated system that doesn't represent we the people. His chaos is dangerous for our country. His policies have helped nobody, but his spin seems to sound good to the uninformed. Impeachment would teach the country about facts, truth, and Presidential behavior that is elevated to what we should expect from our leadership. The result, whether or not impeachment is successful, would be to fully lay bare the danger and immorality of this Administration. It's something the country needs to see from Congressional leaders. Let the GOP in Congress show us with their votes whether or not the think a corrupt Administration is good for the country.
8
One facet of this column is true. Nothing has changed. Those opposed to Trump see the report as a roadmap to impeachment proceedings in the House on obstruction. Those supporting Trump see the report as vindication of their hero. Trump remains the lead story in most news cycles. Democrats better get their act together because Republicans have money and messaging skills that have millions hypnotized into voting against economic interests. Sure the Russians helped Trump. So did Comey whose over analytical but honest mind impelled him speak out when he should have been silent. Trump is a two-bit con man, a dime a dozen boaster from the big apple. I worry more about the people who fawn over him and ask at least once a day, "WHY?"
16
@Al Singer
It all depends on whether or not you actually read the report. If you read it, you see that it is in no way a vindication of Trump.
4
@Al Singer
James Comey. The honest mind.
You may have taken one too many of those psychoactives.
Having only read the first 80 pages, I’m overwhelmed by the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 elections—dividing Americans by race through social media, dividing Democrats, infiltrating boards of elections, etc...
Then you have a whole cast of characters from Trump Jr to Eric Prince to Manafort to Flynn (can’t even begin to name them all) who sought all sorts of shady dealings with equally shady people.
Then there’s Julian Assange, his determination to prevent Hillary’s election, and his work with Guccifer to release the emails at specific times to benefit Trump.
All of this and so much more in just 80 pages.
It’s quite disheartening that Douthat, a journalist whom I respect, is so blase about all of this because ‘we’ve heard it before.’
I encourage all Americans to read this report, rather than listen to the analysis of others. It’s up to each of us to be informed and to vote with our conscience in order to make America the country we think it should be.
23
Anything any Russians might have done for '16 could be well done by Americans for '20. Then our entertainment will be investigating ourselves and not some set of shady eastern European folk. We yankees are not that tough to mislead.
3
Don Shipp and Mark Holmes in their comments have made it abundantly clear what lies ahead. I have great concern that the "Trump base" will continue their support despite the painfully obvious flaws. 2020 become the most important date before us and the large group of Democratic candidates needs to thin out and consolidate . . . and soon!
10
@Steve There may be no particular rush for the thinning. Anyone considering any of the dem hopefuls would likely never vote for the trumpster.
Trump did not win in spite of Russian efforts. What the net effect of those efforts was, we don’t know, but to deny any effect takes a mind dominated by principles that do not prioritize democracy. Douthat's article reminds me of some of my schooling when I was a teenage Catholic. They tried to teach me some rhetorical techniques. I was a poor student: I preferred the style shown by my people during winter discussions around the fire at home or in vigorous summer discussions among my father's siblings. My people were not sophisticated enough to swirl two different arguments together. Douthat tells us that Trump “… won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team.” Let's avoid conflating that truth with this: “Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is…not secretly omnicompetent, not secretly treasonous.” We are told this by the POTUS, by Fox and Friends and fellow travelers, but we learn no such thing from Robert Mueller. He told us in detail what we already knew: Trump’s people connived, over and over, with Russians who were close to Putin, who also interfered in our election with the stated purpose of advantaging Trump. The fate of the Mueller report is decided by the loudest propaganda, which controls voters' minds, which in turn, control the consciences of our law-makers.
14
@Des Johnson Yes. The Mueller report details an elaborate set of connections between the Trump campaign (and presidency) and Russia. The Russians were wise to keep everything tacit rather than formalized, but, for a former intelligence officer, the forest of cases is compelling. Putin exerted substantial influence on our 2016 elections, perhaps even determining the outcome. And, by every indication, Trump is still under his spell. This has been particularly obvious to me since Helsinki, where Trump said he believed Putin over the US intelligence community. Moreover, Mueller makes it clear that if Trump were not president he would be indicted for obstruction of justice. He has invited Congress to take the case under consideration and has set the stage for prosecution of Trump and others after his presidency has come to an end. For all patriotic Americans, bringing his presidency to an end must be the #1 priority.
25
One thing I don't understand is, if the rationale for not indicting a sitting president is that it takes up too much of his valuable time, wouldn't preparing for an impeachment trial in the Senate take the same amount of time? If so, can't the DOJ policy be challenged?
11
The most important take-away from the Mueller Report is this: A foreign adversary tampered in, and successfully influenced the 2016 Presidential election.
What does the US do with that information to prevent it from happening again?
There is an election in about 18 months from now. Use the time left to do the work needed to protect our elections.
As for the disgrace in the White House, hold hearings to bring out every last bit of truth, but calling them impeachment proceedings will only harden the Trump base, and will not result in removal.
23
@JE We also know,or are reminded, that the Obama administration had persuasive evidence of Russian interference on our elections in 2014, but chose to do nothing about it (because of other policy concerns - mainly keeping Russia on the sidelines while the Iran nuclear deal was being struck). It is curious that this fact is being largely ignored in the context of what the Russians did in the 2016 election.
3
Mr. Douthat offers a masterclass in how to normalize the suppurating boil that is the Trump presidency.
nothing to see here,
move on, been there done that, on
Republican watch
18
To my tired eyes, the one thing revealed in the Mueller report is that there is a compromising videotape of Trump in existence, and that some people are asserting that it "may be" fake.
My guess is that the tape - and possibly numerous copies - still physically exists, and that Trump has seen it, and that Putin and others will keep it around as a way of assuring that Trump will continue to support whatever Putin says, even when Putin's statements about interference are completely destroyed by the Mueller report.
Who else has copies? MBS?
23
I have read several although not all of the books that have been written about Trump since he was elected.
" Fire and Fury" was promoted for its salacious content, although that was a relatively small part of it. The most interesting part was about the 3 factions of Republicans that came into the White House with Trump and how they jockeyed for power and influence. All the books have covered much of the same ground although "Trump Revealed" had a lot of fascinating historical detail about Trump's parents' and their families (note I avoided saying "origins") that help understand how Trump became Trump.
The Special Counsel's report should surely not be treated as just another piece written for public consumption and titillation, even if it confirms what the many books have reported. It is a serious legal document produced at taxpayer expense.
It is a disgrace that this Justice Department will not pick up the ball and and do what needs to be done, but we have to hope that Congress will not shirk its responsibility.
However, the biggest responsibility rests with said taxpayers who must digest the information they paid for, and be armed with that knowledge when they go to the polls 19 months from now.
41
@Mary Counting on Congress to take meaningful action is folly. The current no-guts, Republican-led Senate will never do anything to undermine the president's blindly loyal base.
I do not recall reading in the Special Counsel’s report anything abound President Trump being investigated for being “secretly treasonous”. I suggest Mr. Douthat reread (or actually read) the Special Counsel’s report. Note, Donald Trump is not a target mentioned in Volume 1. Suggesting Donald Trump exonerated for something for which he was not even investigated is lying, Mr. Douthat.
Individuals directly and indirectly involved in the Trump Campaign were investigated for possible criminal acts aiding and abetting Russian cyber intrusions/dissemination of stolen, hacked data, and investigated for aiding and abetting the Russian intelligence operation using social media to target Trump supporters to elect Russia’s favored candidate.
In addition, one cannot conclude from the report there was no “secret” conspiracy. As Vol. 1 points out, there were gaps in the investigation that could not be filled because witnesses lied to federal investigators, witnesses destroyed communications or used encryption apps during the time period under investigation, and the report states it does not dismiss the idea these gaps could be filled in the future.
Being unable to prove a crime does not mean there was no crime. Being unable to prove a crime does not exonerate.
28
It's astounding to me that there is still so much die hard Trump support out there.From his rallies to his adoring Fox Nation. The Hyping of the No Collusion No Obstruction Mantra without looking at the whole picture shown in the Mueller report is similar to what's happened all along since the Primaries. A downplaying of the negative aspects of the Trump Administration and a willingness to overlook the chaos and confusion and let's face it, the borderline and over the line illegalities. Remember there are matters referred to other agencies by Mueller . Can it be true so many of us would support someone who claimed he could shoot someone and not lose support? Someone so rude they would publicly criticize the Handicapped,Gold Star Families,POW's etc.? Well many of us already did and not only elected him but still endorse him! The only explanation is that too many of us like it this way. Pretty sad case for our Democracy. The books published ..including Fire and Fury...and the Mueller report should cause us all to ask ourselves..who are we endorsing here? Trump has had too many enablers including some in his Administration ,Fox News, and the GOP !! Those who would excuse his bizarre behavior are not going away any time soon or even after he's gone. Thank goodness Voting put the Democrats in charge of the House. The impending investigations will continue even after Trump leaves office.The American people are the Popular voters! Yet there are still far too many unpopular voters !
23
Less than 60 seconds of Fox News at any time, tells you what Trump followers (who avail no other source of information) are fed. It’s the exact opposite of what we know.
1
Ross, 45 indeed is "not secretly omnicompetent, (nor) secretly treasonous." You failed to make the point how is the country best served. This administration reminds many of the gang who couldn't shoot straight! 45's administration bears no resemblance to the administrations of FDR or IKE. You label 45 as dishonest and ridiculous. Agreed. How does that reflect on our country and democracy? You noted earlier many like Don McGahn "saved 45 from himself" by not carrying out his orders. What happens if we have a crisis like the "Cuban Missile Crisis"? JFK sent Dean Acheson to France to inform President Charles De Gaulle about the missiles in Cuba and what action America would take to stop the missiles from coming into Cuba. When Acheson wanted to show the pictures, De Gaulle said "I don't need to see the pictures. I trust his word." World and national leaders cannot trust the word of 45! Furthermore 45's aides may choose not to deliver his message. So, his word is untrustworthy and his aides are unreliable! And the Republicans in Washington for the most part are silent co-conspirators focused on blaming our present national state on the DOJ, and particularly, the FBI.
43
The irony is the the existence of the Mueller investigation— as politically inspired as ITV was — was a blessing in disguise for the Trump administration: it kept Trump from running into further problems and will help him get re-elected. So, as someone who wants Trump to be re-elected, I thank Hillary for the Steele dossier, Comey for maneuvering Rosenstein into appointing their pal Mueller, and Rod for exhibiting his usual spineless behavior.
5
@Uysses
What are you saying to your kids?
How do you justify a vote for chaos, fraud and a diminished future to them?
4
Why? What is wrong with your heart / brain / integrity / conscience that you want this unrepentant, inveterate self-promoter, reality TV star, and con man / grifter re-elected? I understand that you may like his judicial nominees or his tax policy, but how can you support this unqualified man to lead our once great nation?
Also, why doesn’t it bother you that this man has never said a true word? He lies as easily as he breathes, and nearly as often.
4
@Uysses: If one bad apple spoils a barrel, what are the effects of thousands of bad apples in America and Russia? You want Trump to be re-elected. So give us an unvarnished, un-whitewashed reason why.
2
"... shall we say, unencumbered by qualms about collusion."
I love it!
He won, barely, with Russia's help. Let's not forget that minor detail.
19
With Russia’s help and the support of an alarming number of selfish voters with the equivalent of bone spurs of bogus patriotism.
1
I have no special insight into Trump - just what I have seen and read about him - and I, too, came to the conclusion that he is completely lacking in competence (and, yes, intelligence) to conspire or collude about anything . . . but, here's the thing, all of this isn't rocket science. It was obvious during the campaign - that he wasn't the brightest and was and is totally unfit for the WH, but tens of millions voted for him - and still believe in him and support him. Now, will someone explain that to me please?
37
@PS
You can thank fox news, facebook, and a total lack of curiosity and critical thinking skills.
3
@PS...Thank the Koch Bros. the Mercer’s and Rupert Murdoch. That’s who owns the Republican Party and has been systematically deconstructing the structure of our Democracy for 40yrs. making way for the holy grail of Republican Orthodoxy......”free trade” ...makers and takers ruled by makers. DT was an easy “get” for them, the great branding machine who slipped right into the divide and conquer strategy. Trolling every cultural schism in our increasingly diverse society creating victims to be corralled into a voting base continually stoked by the Murdock, Mercer, Koch media platforms.
2
What a wishful misleading of his own party's base. Trumps vices are attractive to his supporters; or at best, venial sins to be tolerated for sticking it to liberals and the corporate news media.
The "opposition", to use Douthat's term, has to win on issues: meaning, popular "socialist" (liberal) programs like fully funded education, universal access to medical care, higher taxes on wealth, a vast and long over-due infra-structure program and strict environmental and financial regulation.
In other words, everything Douthat and his fellow Republican elites hate.
9
It takes a certain amount of intellectual coherence and discipline to conspire with someone. It's not for beginners. The Trump gang may perhaps reasonably aspire to someday being capable of conspiracy, but in 2016 and 2017 it was still a reach. The three year old child and the drooling puppy are both looking up with yearning at a piece of chocolate cake on the table. Are they conspiring? We have all made the grievous mistake of suspecting rational calculations and complex behaviors from people who are capable of neither.
With Bannon banned and McGahn gone, does that leave Barr to guard the door? He is now Trump's somewhat frumpy and sensible mistress. But can he operate as a guardrail from his perch outside the White House? Maybe he and Bolton can come to some sort of working understanding. Quarantining Stephen Miller would seem to be a priority task.
12
Mr Douthat seems to trivialise much of the malfeasance of Trump and his administration. Incompetent Trump et al may be, but they are still malfeasant. Don Jr, Kushner, and Manafort may have "unencumbered by qualms about collusion", but that doesn't excuse them. Especially since Manafort, a veteran of many campaigns attended, and he ought to know the rules about that. Weren't we taught ignorance of the law is no excuse?
Mueller's conclusions are wanting, not in the meticulous work his team did, but in his unwillingness to connect the dots discovered. Given Trump's disregard for the law (and anything other than himself), as well as what is at stake (eg, Trump's lack of interest in preventing more Russian interference in 2020), Mueller was much too timid. He set the bar for both obstruction and conspiracy so high, that future candidates/presidents can and almost certainly will engage in similar practices; let's hope Congress addresses this issue ASAP.
18
What the repot tells us is that Trump was beyond angry that he was being investigated for a crime that was not committed.
His fury reached a point where if he could had stopped Mueller he would. What we keep coming back to is the fact that there was no collusion. Had Mueller found evidence of Trump's collusion with Russia, the obstruction charge would have merit, but given there was no collusion,
3
@George
Mueller found evidence that trump and his gang coordinated with the Russians in numerous instances and lied about at every opportunity to report the contacts. He was unable to establish CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY.
Attemped obstruction is still obstruction, which Mueller also established.
The Barr Report exonorated trump. The Mueller report did not.
9
The challenge for America is to defeat the forces of greed to extend education and welfare to the extent that our population understands the importance of knowledge and competence to good government.
7
@Ron Bashford: Agreed, but I'd add this thought. "America" will not do it. Individuals and groups might have some success over generations. But generations from now, will there be an America?
2
The tone of this piece suggests that it is no big deal a to have "an amoral incompetent [person] surrounded by grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children" as President of the Unites States. Douthat has said more than once that it's not really a problem because Congressional Republicans have kept him in check. My own view is that the Mueller inquiry itself has kept Trump and the Republicans under control. Mueller has given the country a chance to get rid of Trump. But if we don't, and he wins another election, who will control him then?
I just don't get why Mr. Douthat shrugs his shoulders about Trump but gets apoplectic about Pope Francis.
17
What we have known for some time is that Trump asked Russians to hack Clinton and, later that day, they did. We also know that Trump was surprisingly accommodating to Putin thereafter and lied about it all, repeatedly.
What we learned from Mueller is that this behavior does not meet the technical definition of conspiracy.
So, Mr. Douthat, please don't hide behind that. You know perfectly well he invited Russian interference in our election. What descriptor would you apply to that behavior? I think treasonous works.
25
This tries to move the goalposts. What many of us suspected was less of an overarching conspiracy than a grossly inappropriate willingness to engage with and encourage help from a foreign power whose principal goal was obviously to weaken the country, followed by a clumsy and probably illegal cover-up. This appears to have been exactly what happened. Laywers can debate the extent of crimes committed, but regardless there's no way it's acceptable for an American president to behave this way. I suspect the MAGA crowd, when they're not rallying and cheerleading, realize that deep down.
13
"He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them."
It seemed to me rather than he won because of his vices, not in spite of them. Though the "resistance industry" has been successful in making people believe that a man with 2nd grade speaking & writing skills has the competence necessary to organize an international conspiracy, the Republican media industry has been just as successful in convincing people of the even more improbable theory that journalism is lies & literacy a liberal affectation, while corruption is democracy & bribery is speech. Who wants to debate goals & policy when misguided anger is so profitable?
Yes, the Democrats might win the presidency by convincing the 10% of persuadable Republicans that Trump really is as foolish as he acts, or even by convincing them that voting for universal health care is not half as radical as voting for health care for the rich alone. But there is simply no possibility for a resurrection of democracy in this country unless we deal with the politics industry that killed it.
8
Not one word, Ross, concerning Volume II of Mueller’s report, Forget Russia. The amoral incompetent, as you refer to him, certainly committed obstruction of justice on multiple occasions. And for that he should be impeached, whether the Senate votes to convict or not. We’re looking at our allegiance to the rule of law here, and if this amoral incompetent isn’t held to account for his obvious criminality, 240 years of democracy in this country will be well on its way out the door. Forever.
6
I believe Trump doesn't matter. We need to vote the republicans into obscurity. They have been bad news since WW2 ended. They love war spending, oppression of poor people and living on credit to support their greed operation.
14
One of the things most of us whom are guided by reason do not comprehend is why Trump's actions were not treasonous merely because he was not secretive about his treason. Is it merely because we lack a law about bloviating incompetence? I mean how is there no crime committed if there is public execution of intent?
Cheaters are allowed to prosper when the judges (or AGs) do not do their jobs. Can Barr be impeached for whitewashing the Mueller report?
7
As Mueller says in his report, conspiracy couldn’t be proved because so many of the people involved lied to him.
3
The Trump presidency is an indelible stain on America, the image it projects to the world, AND its image within as its citizens' trust in the institutions and the politic is withering away.
Of course the GOP is complicit and for many the leading culprit, but its failure to acknowledge and act upon the Trump villainy debases all we stand for.
The underlying question is why did Mueller punt and how much did he punt in the expectation that the institutions would pursue his mission?
I fear these questions will remain unanswered and a far greater poison to the national fabric than a divisive pursuit of the process - how will history reckon such inaction in other terms than "this is as ugly as we can be".
No Ross Douthat, this cannot be resolved as you say in your closing argument : "He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them." for we cannot accept the notion of this normalized, we cannot expect a future more of the same.
7
NYT opinionists, even those who normally pass for conservative, are falling all over themselves to explain that while Mr. Trump is not guilty of crimes, he's bad. Well, if you're not guilty, you're not guilty--and he's not bad. You don't have to like him personally to understand that he's devoted to making the economy work, reduce our foreign commitments to some reasonable level, get control of our borders. Do his opponents propose doing any of these things? They propose free everything for the feckless, upending the economy to completely change the nation's energy regime to something totally inefficient to get control of the world thermostat (worth a laugh), and open the borders to uncontrolled immigration. Get ready for 4 more years of Donald Trump!
4
"He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them."
So, Mr. Douthat, will you actually be part of "his opposition" as you claim to be?
In order to be a true part of ALL of the forces that led to Trump's win, you must:
- Acknowledge that the forces that led to Trump (and Trumpism) didn't begin in 2015. Rather, they began within the Republican Party 25+ years ago, dating back to Lee Atwater (the politics of personal destruction) and Newt Gingrich (destroy the functionality (and the trust) in government).
- Acknowledge that the Conservative Media Cabal has promoted lies, divisiveness, and outright hatred over the past two decades.
- Acknowledge that Republicans in Congress have cynically and unethically used obstructionism and the breaking of rules/norms (e.g. Merrick Garland, gerrymandering) to undermine our democratic system and maintain power.
- Acknowledge that Conservative pundits (like yourself) hypocritically sat in complicit silence while all of this happened, simply because you didn't care as long as "your side" was winning.
- In other words, stop wringing your hands, and admit that you, your colleagues, Republicans in Congress, and the Conservative Media Cabal all contributed to Trump/Trumpism.
Simply voting against Trump in 2020 isn't enough to earn absolution for your sins. True absolution requires heartfelt confession and an actual change in one's soul.
10
Just because Trump is incompetent doesn't mean that he didn't attempt to coordinate with Russia, nor engage in treasonous behavior. Just because he didn't actively coordinate the many meetings and communications between people who work for him and Russian operatives, doesn't mean he's innocent, or "exonerated".
Excusing all of his crimes and misdemeanors because all of his plans didn't work out (although the one plan that DID, was a huge - winning the election), isn't really a defense.
There may not have been an "active, directed conspiracy" proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, but there were certainly conspiratorial activities, publicly urged by Trump himself. What more proof is needed to show that he's guilty of at least "high crimes and misdemeanors"?
But perhaps you might only see his guilt if it were framed in this way: imagine that Trump were a Democrat. Do you really think that given Republican control of Congress for his first two years that he would not have been impeached and convicted on far less than what the Mueller Report proved? Trump remains in office ONLY because Republicans have refused to do what they so eagerly did to Bill Clinton with far less reason.
Impeach Trump 2019.
7
The 2016 put into positions of power "leaders" of a totally corrupt Republican party whose only goal seems to be creating an oligarchy-like economy similar to Russia's. Paul Ryan, despite his reputation as some sort of knowledgeable policy wonk never functioned as more than the Vice-President of your high school Republican club infatuated with Ayn Rand and Mitch McConnell who is more corrupt than Trump himself in his goal to take us back to preCivil War America. If Putin wanted to allow Trump to build his gold lame monstrosity in Moscow, he would have done it years ago. He knows the best way to control Trump is to hold the fantasy of even more money as a carrot to keep him in line and doing his bidding.
6
Yes. The Mueller report is an expose of what we knew. It is also a road map to impeach the President for obstruction of justice. It is the impeachment part one because Mueller did not want delays trying to get the President to testify personally.
With this Congress that might change. Senators up for reelection next year might change their votes. It would not be enough to beat Trump out of the WH next year. Trump should not get away with obstruction of justice if he did it. Congress should make Trump testify personally. Before the next presidential elections.
4
The Mueller report may be best described as an affirmation of and official confirmation of Bob Woodward's book, Fear. The Russia thing and incompetence aside a Congress adhering to its checks and balances role would move swiftly to articles of impeachment.
5
What this entire episode tells us is that there is a cohort of diehard partisans who believe they are entitled to pick the president, and when denied their "right" they will obstruct and impede and simply claim he's not the "real" president.
We know that they will engage in almost anything, including subversive intelligence behavior, including leaking false information to the press and then claiming they are free to speak about that false information because it's already out there.
We know that despite an exhaustive investigation by a professional, they will ignore the results and claim whatever it is they believe. The special counsel has found no collusion, but they will cling to every "connection" as though it's "evidence", despite repeated denials by that special counsel that evidence was found.
We know that people are seriously blinded by their animus and nothing will move them off their trajectory of hatred for the president who "stole" the presidency from them.
That's what this has shown many of us.
5
@AACNY
What it has shown the majority of us is that the President happily accepted help from an adversary, sided with Putin over our intelligence agencies, and actively tried to squash the investigation, not just into him, but the entire investigation into the Russian interference. The extreme partisanship is on your side and has set a precedent that the President is above the law.
10
@AACNY
As a trumper may say to a Dem....."You just do not get it."
2
If only Don McGahn had fired Mueller on Trump's orders, or Jeff Sessions had unrecused himself and fired Mueller, or Trump fired Sessions and Rosenstein fired Mueller.
Too many do-gooders have protected Trump from himself.
Perhaps the best thing that has happened for America is that there are no people with even a modicum of ethics remaining in Trump's administration - Kelly, Mattis, Cohn, McMaster, McGahn, Sessions, Tillerson, Haley, etc. have all left.
Along with Miller and now Barr, Pompeo, Bolton, and Kudlow won't stop Trump from criminal activity based on abuse of presidential powers. It's already started in the immigration arena.
It's risky but all we have to do is wait for Trump to take a step too far for even the Republican Congress to ignore.
16
@Mimi The Republican party will ignore each and every crime Trump commits, no matter how terrible or obvious. The reason is that Trump's amoral base of brainless goons will do the same and pull the lever for them. Pretty sad, isn't it?
1
@Mimi...the do gooders as you call them..should have publicly sounded the alarm ! If someone mentions they would like to hire a hit man to take care of someone. It's reported to authorities. A sting is created and an arrest is made. Going to court and saying no one was hurt in all this wouldn't matter. As they say it's the thought that counts !!! Trump's intent has never been good ! There are plenty of people in jail for crimes they didn't actually commit.. but wanted to commit !
The lesson we learn from the Mueller report is that McGahn, McConnell and many others have been willing to enable and protect (often from himself) a president who puts all of us at risk. In exchange they are getting what they want- a judiciary packed with preapproved Federalist Society judges, a $1500 billion tax cut and deregulation (when and where it is to their financial benefit).
I know who is guilty.
58
Trump didn't expect to win the presidency. He thought he was playing a different game that would enhance his brand and result in more towers bearing his name. He wanted that Trump Tower in Moscow more than he wanted to be president.
When he won, by accident mostly, he, as Trump does, leaped to the conclusion that it was because of his brilliance. The shock of the outcome helped cement that idea in his brain.
Anything that those who opposed him did was because they couldn't accept he won that election. His supporters signed on to that message with assistance from Fox News and the alt-right media.
His attitude to James Comey might have been the result of Comey's "contribution" to the win rather than anything else. Once you start thinking about that, you begin to realize that Comey had to go because he wouldn't swear fealty, but also because he was a constant reminder that many factors led to that accidental victory in the electoral college.
Trump's history of messing things up and leaving it to his lawyers to clean up continues. Now, he has a platoon of political appointees to repair the damage he does. The fact that he continues to make their work difficult continues.
If the Mueller report makes the news media take a look at themselves and how they report, there may be hope. This is not a normal presidency, so don't try to make it appear as one.
19
The challenge for America's enemies will be to precipitate a major crisis to fully reveal Trump's incompetence before we have a chance to replace him.
8
Again, the Democrats who didn't vote on Nov.8, 2016 will not make that mistake again. And many of those who did take a chance on Trump will not do that again. And even Trump won't be able to side step the total lack of promise keeping he has accomplished. Everything from the Women's March to the Mid Terms have been screaming he'll go. And this time his rallies should be just the thing to drive him off the rails.
16
@Richard Mclaughlin
Loser Democrats deserve Republican leaders like Trump. Loser lefties who pull out the circular firing squad to admonish any and all good ideas...I waver of this because at times I think the Democrats are simply the Washington Generals - paid to look like there is a choice.
Ross says at the end that Trump "won" in 2016, but he doesn't mention that this was due in large part to Russian interference, in the opinion of many election experts and our intelligence community.
And, I don't concur that the Mueller Report will have "the same modest political impact, the same media half-life as prior, less-extensive exposés". I think it will have a rather large impact, and a rather long shelf-life as a "story".
We have only been shown a redacted version. Who knows (besides the White House, of course) what we haven't been told yet?
The counter-intelligence investigation is ongoing.
Along with numerous other investigations into Trump, his family, his foundation, etc.
As Rachel Maddow is fond of saying, "Watch this space!"
31
@SCarton I'd point out that the intelligence agencies all agreed that there was Russian influence or interference in the 2016 election. But they did not say it was determinative in electing Trump.
6
@Paul Bertorelli Of course this is impossible to know for sure. We only know that Trump won by a squeaker in the Electoral College. 80,000 votes. So even if the Russian influence was minor, it can't be dismissed. It was a factor.
20
@Paul Bertorelli
Based on a preponderance of the evidence, it is clear that Russian interference lead to Trump's election. Manafort, as chairman of the campaign, provided polling information citing Clinton weakness in key battleground states. The Russian government executed a targeted campaign to influence the electorate in those states, leveraging key GOP talking points. Russian entities, through cutouts like Wikileaks, released stolen information that Trump then used to attack his opponent.
Trump won those battleground states by slim margins.
Anyone who thinks the Russians had no impact on the outcome is engaging in active denial. History will get this right. Trump's presidency is illegitimate. He was helped into it by a foreign power. And he welcomed the help.
12
It mostly tells us there was no "there" there to have a special counsel for the purpose of investigating collusion. Never should have been commissioned.
6
@2observe2b Even if you accept the conclusion of "no-there-there" (which I do not), to say that the investigation should never have been commissioned is simply illogical. The only way to determine whether "there" vs. "no there" is the more accurate is to do the investigation.
Also, the investigation was not about "collusion." It was narrowly defined to determine whether the legal standard of conspiracy applied. That is an important distinction. In the end, the report concluded that by the strict standards required to prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that no conspiracy was entered into by the Trump campaign
By a looser understanding of "collusion", it is my opinion that the campaign not only was aware of Russian attempts to help the Trump effort, but that it actively sought out that help and lied repeatedly about the contacts between Trump campaign staff and Russia. Plenty of "there" to launch an investigation.
43
@Jeff Laadt Actually, Mueller was charged by DOJ to determine whether the Trump campaign "coordinated" with the Russians. As with collusion, there is no definition of that word in the federal code. Mueller explains in the report that he decided to apply the conspiracy statutes to determine whether crimes were committed.
7
@2observe2b
Mueller didn't indict him for obstruction of justice only because there is a rule about doing that for a sitting president....the evidence is all there laid out that he is guilty.
5
The Mueller report only confirms what was already known: Trump is owned and operated by Vladimir Putin who bought him years ago with a sea of Russian laundered money.
In 2016 Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million. He won the electoral college with a mere 70,000 votes spread over three key states targeted by Russian trolls spreading lies about Hillary. In this carefully planned effort they were able to use Republican polling data received from Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort. The Republican Party willingly accepted massive help from the Russians to reach their political goal. Like Trump, they still deny the role of the Russian digital warfare in Trump's election.
In addition to Russian electoral intervention the Republicans had already put in place systematic nationwide gerrymandering and voter suppression. As a minority party they know they can only win by trickery, deception and violation of the Constitutional founding principles of our nation.
In order for our democracy to survive, the Democrats will need a unified party and a charismatic leader with broad appeal to independents. If not, we will face another Republican right wing coup - and Putin is standing by in the wings to help them yet again.
54
“A charismatic leader with broad appeal to independents.” Better lower the eligibility age for candidates. Then appoint AOC as the candidate! I wish!
3
Your opening sentence says it all.
When the history of this American tragedy is written the Mueller report will serve as an incomplete road map. Future generations will wonder how we could have elected Trump in the first place, then how we could have allowed him to stay in office.
The report will help them understand the end of Republican party, but with the lingering question.....Why couldn't party leaders stand up to Trump? Since clearly he was a cancer on the country first and the party second.
57
@John P. I want to believe what you propose is true, but do you honestly see enough evidence to allow yourself to think that Americans will come to their senses? I’m sorry to say that I do not.
2
When this investigation began, I felt that in the end it was going to be a question of money, the primal motive of Trump's life. It seemed clear that Trump was unlearned, amoral, essentially too convinced that the achieving of great wealth is the essence of success and self worth, for him to think in political terms. Even now, from China to Iran, from Mexico to North Korea, his strategy is not to create stability and order but the desire to win. It is this mean and narrow view of life that renders him so unfit to lead a great (or small) country and it is the same sentiment that leads him to illegal and dubious enterprises.
44
NO. It shows something else. Trump publicly called on Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing," a reference to emails stored on Clinton's private server. On page 51 of the report it states "within approximately 5 hours of Trump's statement, GRU officers targeted for the first time Clinton's personal office." Although this section is heavily redacted, a few snippets quote Gates as stating Trump was frustrated the emails weren't getting released, and expected them to be. Barr stated that Trump's plan to coordinate with Wikileaks wasn't "collusion", because Wikileaks only published material, didn't hack it. But Trump's public request wasn't directed at Wikileaks. It's clear he expected Russia to do the hacking, which they did.
This doesn't rise to conspiracy. But it does to another law, incitement. Incitement is constrained by the 1st amendment. It must have intent, imminence, and likelihood. Trump urged Russian agents to break the law, intent. Their immediate response, and his frustration when Clinton's emails weren't quickly hacked, shows he expected it to happen within a time-frame, imminence. Likelihood isn't even arguable, given Russian capacities. Incitement carries a sentence one-half of the actual crime. Hacking can bring 10 years, so incitement to hack can be 5.
Not only has this not been in the public discourse before Mueller's report, it barely has been explored now. Barr is clearly worried it will be.
114
@Brian--Very interesting theory. Strange that it has not gained more traction elsewhere.
5
@Brian Your assessment attempts, as most these letters do, to smear the President while missing the fact that Hillary was negligent in having a private email server that was capable of being hacked. Oh, I forgot - she was absolved if any blame by Comey with an “investigation” that dropped that indictable descriptor to something less damning.
You lefties still cannot understand why she wasn’t coronated. The President couldn’t believe it himself. We had a chance to nominate more suitable candidates but big money and unbelievable hubris got in the way.
The Mueller report shows massive evidence of Trump and those close to him damaging integrity of American government institutions and elections, helping the main adversary nation and corrupting the idea of the president serving for the good of his people, rather than his own. Rather than acknowledging this, Ross Douthat focuses on chaos and incompetence, dismisses the report findings as largely old news, and totally omits the obstruction part, which Mueller makes clear did not result in an indictment solely because of the DOJ rule preventing a prosecution of a sitting president. This essay is a sophisticated, intellectual variety of a conservative deny-and-deflect spin on the Mueller findings - maybe more palatable for some who find the crude demagoguery and lies of Giulliani on Fox News too rich. What both kinds of take have in common is a total lack of honesty.
27
Ross Douthat acts the part of a conservative disgusted by Trump but nearly always comes comes around to his defense or support. He is the Susan Collins of conservative opinion columnists.
2
Mueller all but indicted Trump on 10 counts of obstruction. The reason there were no such indictments is that he decided to respect Justice Department policy that a sitting president can't be indicted. The reason he didn't just say this in his report is that he also decided it's not fair to accuse someone of a crime if they won't be given an opportunity to defend themselves in court... and Trump couldn't be given that opportunity because he couldn't be indicted. And so the report scrupulously avoids accusing Trump of obstruction. But it clearly implies he would be indicted if he weren't president.
59
Why didn't he just put that in the report?????
"It mostly tells us more about what we already know to be true"
Well, judging by the responses from Donald Trump, the majority of Congressional Republicans, conservative media and those still working for Trump, the Mueller Report is a hoax full of nothing but lies. Their collective deflection/distraction defense continues to circle back to the infamous Dossier and Mrs. Clinton's missing emails as the only real crimes. And of course, President Obama for failing to stop the Russians and punish them leading up to the election. Most likely, a majority of Trump's base who voted for him think the Mueller Report is part of the Deep State conspiracy to bring down their orange-hued savior. All US intelligence agencies and their employees, including Robert Mueller (and formerly James Comey), the Trump faithful are told, are part of the Deepest State yet.
So, careful about that reckless broad use of "us," Mr. Douthat unless you are referring to regular NY Times readers only.
Apparently, Robert Mueller's report couldn't find enough criminal intent on the part of Donald Trump and those working for him, including family members, on the issue of Russian collusion. The report did however, document lots of Team Trump contacts with Russians along witha pervasive collective amnesia experienced by everyone, including Donald Trump about any meetings & discussions with Russians. The lies, conflicting stories & denials about anything Russia-related, illustrate far more than incompetence.
24
Based on multiple articles it appears that the 2 major parties in this country are headed for a repeat of 2016 in 2020 because of a flawed nominee selection process by each party:
The Republicans have lost control of their party and the Democrats are over controlling their party
6
Douthat is once again engaging in pro forma moralizing to have plausible deniability against being charged with supporting the monster in the White House, while backhandedly giving Trump a pass on a larger matter under discussion. In this case it's lazy use of the "well, he might act poorly, but he's not a crook" narrative.
There are at least 10 cases of Obstruction by Trump outlined in the report that would very likely yield convictions if he was a private citizen. And from looking at what's redacted, as well as the indication that the investigation was hampered by a wide range of people associated with Trump, many of the questions regarding collaboration between Trump and the Russians remain to be investigated.
42
'He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them.
I'm not sure this is the best strategy.
I think back to Pastor Franklin Graham as he made the rounds in the fall of 2016 [post Access Hollywood tape] telling thousands upon thousands:
"Hold your nose and go vote...this election isn’t about Donald Trump’s behavior from 11 years... This election is about the Supreme Court and the justices that the next president will nominate.”
Trump was the vehicle, the conduit, to an end. And now, two-plus years later, nothing has changed, as Mr. Douthat points out.
Trump is still Trump, a known quantity.
His approval ratings remain steady.
Supporters and Rs in office
have certainly not risen up in the last two years
to condemn their President’s behavior as
unconscionable or wrong or harmful or illegal or a threat to democracy -- and they don't seem to be flagging the Mueller report as some guide to impeachment.
The big picture is still the goal,
the one Graham underscored,
It has not changed, it is the driver.
On the political eve of 2020,
Trump remains the vehicle,
the conduit, for his party, to an end.
Voting for him will not be about exoneration or approval,
it will be pragmatic and pointed,
and again, noses will be held,
in a vote for lifetime appointments
And a lifetime impact
On
just about everything.
I hope Dems stay clear eyed in their fight to defeat.
40
The Mueller report has taught us again how dangerous the situation in the White House has been. It is not a problem only for the U.S. but also for all over the world. It is hard for the people of western countries to rely on the President of the U.S any more. The publication of the Mueller report will encourage the world to be independent of the U.S.
29
Everything was going well until the last paragraph, when this sentence appeared, "He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team." The whole point of the rest of Mueller's report is that Trump won by cheating. He lost the popular vote, but he won the electoral college only because a rather small fraction of votes in three states tipped in his favor due to the intervention of Russian agents, backed by Putin. Trump will be forever known as an American freak, someone who was not destined to become president, but did so anyway. Sadly, for all of us, it's going to take far too long for our democracy to recover from this catastrophe.
71
@Stop and Think
Comey helped.
Help please. "[Trump] won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them."
I request to be educated in how anyone, with an average IQ and basic concern for fellow Americans, can continue to have a positive opinion of Donald Trump. I am truly baffled. How does his support stay so high? I grew up with a great love of this country, its ideals, and for the people who populate it. I have also studied business and economics, and I believe that private industry increases our wealth and standard of living, generally improving life for all of us.
How can people not see that Trump cares neither for America, it's people, nor its future - only for himself, his family, some close business partners (until he is done with them!), and for himself (again). People, including apparently intelligent ones, continue inexplicably to stand alongside this man. I seem to be in an alternate reality, like a twisted, sick dream or nightmare that won't end.
Please help me understand how this is occurring. I truly cannot comprehend.
119
@Mark Carbone Fox News and the money behind it. Then listen to Randy Newmans song "It's money that mattters"!
5
@Mark Carbone
Cultural conseravtives hate liberals. Donald Trump hates liberals and makes them angry. QED.
4
@Mark Carbone
"I request to be educated in how anyone, with an average IQ and basic concern for fellow Americans, can continue to have a positive opinion of Donald Trump."
There, Mark, right there is where you make your mistake. Millions of his supporters see what a rank, vile, disgusting, bigoted, racist, xenophobic, sexual assaulter he is, and tragically, that's what they like about him.
9
This is a first-rate essay.
Why perseverate over conspiracy theories that were always dubious and now are all but debunked, when so much that is so bad is on the public record? What more could one want, if one opposes the Trump presidency, than what's in plain sight?
13
If Douthat is really sincere in his characterization of Trump's behaviour he should call and advocate for a strong republican challenge to Trump candidacy in 2020. I believe (I hope I am wrong) that almost all Republicans and majority of the conservatives have made a deal with the devil to support the corrupt president who should be indictment if it was not for Barr's expansive theory of presidential powers, so that courts will be filled with right wing ideologues, the 1% to get their tax cut, all regulatory systems to be destroyed and to encourage white nationalism. Not only trump is hoping and will try everything to win in 2020 to avoid facing justice, conservatives like Douthat are helping him to achieve this goal.
27
@Hoshiar
Faustian bargains tend to not end well for the Faust character.
4
Ross wrote: "But because it adds to a well-understood reality, the report will probably have the same modest political impact, the same limited media half-life as prior, less-extensive exposés, and we will be back to talking about whether Joe Biden can beat Bernie Sanders and whether Sanders can beat Trump."
The parallel between "Fire and Fury" and the Mueller report worked up until that assertion: The Democrats did not have subpoena power when "Fire and Fury" came out. They now have subpoena power and, in Mueller's report, they have a roadmap to impeachment. Therefore, whether "the [Mueller] report will probably have the same modest political impact, the same limited media half-life as prior, less-extensive exposés..." is not a forgone conclusion: House Democrats may surprise everyone and decide to uphold their oath "to protect and defend the Constitution" and kick-start the impeachment process as a prelude to holding Donald J. Trump accountable to the American people -- the message that Mueller clearly meant to send to them through his report.
With Mueller, Bannon, Hicks, McGahn, and many others testifying before various House Committees, but especially before Rep. Nadler's Committee on the Judiciary, we would NOT likely "be back to talking about whether Joe Biden can beat Bernie Sanders and whether Sanders can beat Trump."
What we would be talking about is up to the Democrats and, as of now, all bets are off.
G'day!
15
@Dikoma C Shungu As a lifelong proud democrat I have to add that the democrats in Congress are as unlikeley to be able to coordinate a potent attack on Trump as he was to lead a competent presidency.
A very cogent argument except for the last part. Is this report going anywhere? I think it is. I think prominent Democrats feel a strong obligation and desire to impeach Trump. Hearings that include testimony from Mueller himself and perhaps some of his deputies should light the fires in May and June. At that point, after we add what we know from the fourteen Mueller criminal referrals, or whatever can be leaked or squeezed out of the Justice Department, the momentum to impeach should be fairly unstoppable. But we shall see.
15
Have ANY conservatives read the Mueller report before their deadlines?
The only thing Mueller did not find because his remit was narrowly focused and, as Mueller states, so many people lied to him is that he could not find the "contract," the agreement between the campaign, the transition team or the new administration and Russia that is needed to prove admissible criminal conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt.
The Mueller report is as damaging to Trump as the Watergate tapes were to Nixon.
BTW, Ross, there IS a volume Two to the report. I don't think you are aware of that.
And don't forget those redactions.
And, finally, lack of omnicompetence , like Bill Barr's "frustration" defense, does not mean he did not do it.
24
The major flaw in this column, indeed much of the Republican-friendly discussion of the Mueller Report, is that it ignores the elephant in the room, the "why" for the attempted obstruction. Mueller says he is unable to "establish" the existence of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign (including Trump) and Russia. That's legal term. But surely we can infer one, much as we can infer the existence of a black hole from the way light is distorted by its gravitational force. Sufficient evidence of conspiracy could come with the testimony of either Manafort or Stone or perhaps others. This is why the pardons dangle. But really, if there were nothing with Russia beyond the public record, why would Trump have been so focused on shutting down the investigation?
33
@jng Because many of the investigators are hell bent on inventing a reason to remove Trump from office. Do you trust the CIA? They’ve started another war in Syria. Trump has gone along with that but at least he wants peace with Russia and China, our two biggest competitors from a geopolitical perspective. Worrying about the real intentions of adversarial members of the government is a genuine concern. Just look what happened to Kennedy. Were I a Congressman, I wouldn’t press for impeachment even if it were proved that Trump blocked part of the investigation. Since the people pressing for such an investigation are the very ones who should really be investigated and prosecuted. Lock her up!
@jng
My guess is that Trump has some shady finances hidden in his business dealings. His "my presidency is done" comment when he found out a special prosecutor had been appointed probably was out of self-reflection of his past than anything Russia related. Trump's skeleton closet is the 'why'.
Bravo! I'd been thinking about the "Fire and Fury" book all through this mess. The Trump campaign was too disorganized to collude with anyone. As "Fire and Fury" makes clear, Trump never expected to win. (Some parallels to Watergate here: Henry Kissinger held Nixon together, especially on foreign policy.)
5
The Republicans leadership has been very quiet since the release; have they finally realized it may be time to sanction their president?
17
@Stephan
Actually, in his tweet yesterday Mitt romney sounded like he was ready to flip and vote for conviction.
One down. Nineteen to go.
2
Very good. Except he did not win the presidency. The Russians delivered it to him. He may be seen now surely, as a fake President to borrow his favorite phrase.
49
@Jeffrey Field
Exactly! Hillary Clinton won 3 million more votes than Donald Trump, a larger margin of victory than a number of US presidents, & she would have won the EC if not for the interference of Putin/Assange & Comey!
It is a serious error to underestimate Donald Trump. His goal all along has been to reduce checks and balances, do away with authority other than his own, and reduce truth and objectivity to purely subjective standards. In all these things he has succeeded, in large part because he has the passive support of the Republican Party and the rabid loyalty of well over a third of the nation. Anyone who thinks Donald Trump isn't a dire threat to the republic hasn't been paying attention.
124
45 is a pawn & a means to an end. The real threat comes from the Freedom Caucus & the Republican Party. It is the ultimate power grab that was planned & has been taking shape for decades through gerrymandering, voter suppression, out-and-out obstruction, etc. 45 lacks the level of intelligence needed to even plan an exit out of a paper bag & is so manically egotistical that he actually believes he is restoring America’s “greatness.” He repeatedly shows himself to be mentally ill & extremely delusional. I believe that the Republicans see him as a godsend on one hand & a necessary evil on the other. 45 is a ready made instrument for their purposes & as a surprise bonus he brought along some extremely vile characters with him to actually implement their agenda. Steven Miller tops that list.
I do not believe the Republicans chose 45 by any stretch of the imagination. But they definitely took what they were given by the primaries & have been adapting ever since. Why else would they be aiding & abetting 45’s erratic, outrageous, & criminal statements, behaviors, & policies? He is a necessary annoyance to the Republicans. They have blatantly demonstrated this time & time again.
The Republicans are the ultimate “I’ve got mine” party. Too bad for the rest of the world.
9
@Eric Caine
And the way conservatives get around that, while keeping their own skirts clean, is to say Trump is too incompetent, too disorganized, to be that dire threat.
As Douthat does here.
3
@Eric Caine Right On! Martin Niemöller said:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
2
Mr. Douthat, you assume that it will soon be back to politics as usual in D.C. That will only happen if the House takes a very long nap. The House can investigate what it will, unencumbered by the kind of restrictions that limited Mueller. Mueller was the warm-up.
According to Mueller's report, Trump was saved by aides who blocked one bad and illegal decision after another. Many of those aides are gone, and Trump hasn't been hiring the very best people. So who is left to save him from himself now?
34
@writeon1
In order to answer: "Who is left to save him from himself now?" The Democrats must rationally conduct a campaign free from the overeagerness that only plays into Trumps mendacity. Impeachment now is not the answer, allow Trump to destroy himself; he is half way there already.
10
@writeon1
"So who is left to save him from himself now?"
Well, there is Kellyanne
1
Excellent summary. The report is still evidence in support of impeachment instantly.
We're back to the two basic problems facing American politics:
(a) a totally irresponsible Republican Party - bordering on being treasonous
(b) a 40% irresponsible electorate still unable to recognize incompetence and malevolence even when it yells at them
Keep Donald in the race as long as possible so that the Republicans are tarnished as completely as possible and pray that the citizens of this country relearn civic duty.
36
Douthat comes to the same conclusion that most conservatives seem to come to: the report should be ignored and people should move on. But decent people are still absorbing the horrific contents of the Mueller report. Trump's behavior is not normal and it is not acceptable. Don't normalize it, Mr. Douthat. Don't let it be acceptable.
220
@Evelyn
I tell those people who want to move on, OK, let's do that.
Now, let's start the impeachment of Trump for telling his assistant secretary of DHS to break the law and then dangle a pardon before him.
Done in full view of witnesses, so no investigation needed.
15
Ross,
Do you believe in the Rule of Law as called for by the Constitution of the United States?
If so, the only path that is available to Congress to fulfill their oath and responsibilities to the American public is a formal Congressional trial to determine the President's innocent or guilty of an impeachable offense.
A trial to determine if the underlying facts of the President's actions as outlined in the Mueller report are true is not a political decision but a fundamental responsibility of our form of governance.
44
I wonoder at this stage of the game who Mr Douthat would vote for in 2020. Being a loyal conservative, would he vote for trump because he's fulfilled the hopes of committed religious people to appoint conservative judges, including SCOTUS, to deal a fatal blow in the country's culture wars? Or would he see all of trump's awfulness as enough of a reason to vote to save our democracy from a pathological demise? The supporters of trump will have to decide where they stand on the great moral divide that may ruin us as a nation thus giving Russia what they've been pining for since the cold war ended.
55
I wonder at this stage of the game who Mr Douthat would vote for in 2020. Being a loyal conservative, would he vote for trump because he's fulfilled the hopes of committed religious people to appoint conservative judges, including SCOTUS, to deal a fatal blow in the country's culture wars? Or would he see all of trump's awfulness as enough of a reason to vote to save our democracy from a pathological demise? The supporters of trump will have to decide where they stand on the great moral divide that may ruin us as a nation thus giving Russia what they've been pining for since the cold war ended.
6
Ross misses the point that, now and henceforth, after the Mueller report, everything we already knew is suddenly no longer "Fake News."
From here on, no one, neither media commentators nor political candidates, ever need refer to what happened with the qualifier "as reported by the New York Times", "as reported by the Washington Post," as reported by the Wall Street Journal," the New Yorker, Buzz Feed, Politico, etc.; nor "as told to Michael Wolff."
The Muller report, upon which Trump must rely to claim falsely that he has been "completely exonerated," establishes in the realm of fact what Trump has long relegated to Fake News. He can go on about Witch Hunt, but he has been deprived of a critical, much used rhetorical tool of his demagoguery. Without that tool, without the ready wastebasket of Fake News, the facts, as Mueller has established them, may very well prove more corrosive than either Trump's defenders or detractors expect over the course of the election campaign already underway. Facts, once conceded, do have that way about them, slow but sure.
Mueller cannot be dismissed as a journalist peddling a book. The Mueller report is far more and far more dangerous to Trump's con game than "a more rigorous, capacious version of 'Fire and Fury.'"
131
@RRI
I would agree, except for...Fox News devotees live in an alternate reality, and the facts outlined by Mueller and others are not nearly as persuasive as the conspiracy theories shilled by Hannity.
5
@BC Note that FOX News viewership, though large, falls well short of the number of Trump voters. The facts, as disturbing as they are, only need to be understood for what they are by as few as 5% of Trump voters to be politically catastrophic for Trump and the GOP. It's a serious mistake to write off all Trump voters as unreachable by reason based on the liberal stereotype of the FOX News audience. Many of them know better, but are reluctant to admit they have been had. The ones I know are growing tired of making excuses for Trump at each and every turn. He's not the heroic champion they wanted and wanted to be proud of. That counts as progress.
5
“Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” This statement has been widely misinterpreted to mean that Mueller didn’t find enough evidence to conclude guilt or innocence. This is NOT what Mueller is saying. The report doesn’t conclude guilt because Mueller precluded a guilty verdict a priori: “We will not apply an approach that could potentially result in a guilty judgement”. Mueller’s logic goes like this: The Office of Legal Counsel has determined that criminal charges can’t be brought against a sitting President. The report should therefore not conclude guilt, since the President would not have procedural protections to defend himself: “Fairness concerns counseled against potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought”. But it’s pretty clear to any impartial reader that Mueller thinks the President is guilty. The report describes his misdeeds in sickening detail and matches each deed to the statute it violates. The implications are large. First, nothing Mueller could have uncovered would have resulted in a guilty verdict. Second, by extension, no future Special Counsel can find a President guilty. Finally, and most importantly, it's up to the American people and their representatives to follow “normal constitutional procedures for addressing presidential misconduct”. According to Mueller that power doesn't reside with the office of a Special Counsel – nor should it.
51
Your are too quick to dismiss the first major embrace of Putin.
J D Gordon caused a change in the Republican Party platform regarding arming Ukraine against Russia. He admits doing this to reflect the Candidate's policy as he understood it from previous discussions.
The question remains: why would Trump hold this policy? Why did he then cause the Republican Party and later the country to change its stance on Russia?
Was it a serious foreign policy consideration? Was it just because he wanted to build a hotel in Moscow? Was there some other motivation?
The Mueller report tells the narrative of how the change at the Republican Party convention was executed but it does not address why - and so the basis for the "conspiracy" theories remain. And, note, these questions were outside the scope of the Mueller investigation as they do not pertain to the election interference.
We can only hope that Congress will now follow the money.
41
"The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of (his manifold vices)."
I'm slowed today by my risk-taking and my carelessness. I have no one to blame, but myself. People who I've offended or marginalized - might still be happy to see the best version of myself.
Humbled to be alive and still well, I see 2019 as my challenge.
2
Trump's base sent him to the White House to be exactly the person revealed in the Mueller report. They did it because the status quo wasn't working for them and they wanted it torn down, not changed or tweaked or readjusted to work better for everyone, but destroyed so that it works for no one. That makes Trump and his supporters radicals and even terrorists of a sort. They aren't strapping on bomb vests and martyring themselves yet, but they are doing very much the same thing to the planet their grandchildren will inhabit and to the weakest and poorest people on the planet, through such things as repealing the conflict minerals laws in Dodd-Frank. They seek nothing less than the destruction of our republic.
242
@Jack
I agree that they seem to want to destroy the whole shebang. I don't completely agree as to the rest, based on the studies reported here in this paper. Trump's 2016 voters were relatively well off. They made on average $10 thousand per year more than Clinton voters. The status quo has worked for them. They voted the way they did because their strongest motivation was racial resentment. My own take is that they will do anything to keep their unearned white entitlements, including deep sixing democracy. And if it looks like if they cannot get what they want they are willing to pull the whole thing down on top of themselves.
16
@Jack
"They did it because the status quo wasn't working for them and they wanted it torn down, ..."
Not quite? As the studies tell us, Trump's 2016 voters were pretty well off. They made $10 thousand more per year than Clinton voters. In other words, the status quo was, on average, working well for them. Moreover, as the studies also tell us, their votes were motivated most strongly by racial resentment. I agree that they certainly do appear to want to destroy everything in sight. But their thinking and motivation have to be something else. Something for instance like this: They would sacrifice a great deal, e.g., our democracy, in order to keep their unearned and unmerited white entitlements and prerogatives, and in order to make sure nothing ever good happens vis-à-vis those other people (brown people). If that doesn't work, they'll blow the whole shebang to smithereens.
3
@Jack I think you have assessed this situation correctly. So what does this say about our fellow citizens who actually want this? These people are proud to identify themselves as Trump supporters. These are also our neighbors and coworkers. What next? A torrent of solid data and verified information attesting to the deep corruption of the republic is not enough to sway Trump voters. They were conned and want the con to continue.
11
"Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is ... not secretly treasonous."
Come on. We don't know that. We know Mueller could not find sufficient evidence within the narrow particular scope of his inquiry. We know Mueller did not interview the primary target Trump. We know Trump is out-in-the-open treasonous, in the everyday sense of that word. We know it was a conspiracy, in the everyday sense of that word.
186
@Ro inbert
Yes! Yes! Yes! And yes!
4
Ross Douthat picks up the exoneration flag of the press-agent-Attorney-General, William Barr, and Douthat waves that flag with even greater skill than Barr, whose arrogant belief in his own obfuscation talent got in his way.
The fact is that collusion – an imprecise Trumpian term for conspiracy – took place in candidate Trump’s inner circle and in President Trump’s White House on a weekly basis. The conspirators do not have to fully succeed to be culpable.
It was Donald Trump’s good fortune that the investigative team was led by Robert Mueller, a good man who felt bound by the DOJ rule against indicting a sitting president and let that rule melt into failing to force Trump to sit for an interview under oath by F.B.I. agents on the Mueller team.
The can was kicked down Pennsylvania Avenue to Congress, where Democrats will use the roadmap of the Mueller report.
Whether in Congress or in the Southern District of New York or in the District Court of the District of Columbia, this fight is not over – much as Donald Trump, Bill Barr and Ross Douthat would wish.
And, the fight may well be won not only on obstruction of justice (which seems like a layup shot), but also on the “collusion” front.
The results of the counterintelligence aspect have not been disclosed yet, nor has the collective verdict of the intelligence community been revisited. Donald and Vladimir ought not to count their jointly owned chickens yet.
Thinking that this will hurt Democrats in 2020 is silly.
85
What comes loud and clear in the Mueller's report is that Trump's obsession with his own brand is so extreme that he will forsake the best interests of the country for personal gain. The fact that most Republicans put up with this kind of presidency shows that they are not that different from Trump. It is all about what is in it for me. Hopefully, we elect those who care a bit about the country before enriching themselves instead of ones who are just in it for personal gain.
64
@JJ While your statements are self-evidently accurate, I do quibble with the concept of Trump's "forsaking" the nation's interests, for to do so he would have had to have once held them dear, or at least had them on his mind. No such principals or sentiments were EVER held by Trump, so there was nothing for him to forsake.
42
@marklee That's it exactly. It doesn't sound right to call Trump treasonous, because treason implies a betrayal of one's country. Loyalty of that sort is meaningless in Trump's universe, since the only going concern in his world is Donald J. Trump. It would be like one of those weird medieval trials in which a goat was found guilty of murder.
1
While I can't disagree with anything in the column per se, I do wonder how the tone, intensity, and degree might have been different had this all occurred under different party labels.
43
@Paul
I agree with you. Mr. Douthat would be openly critical and calling for war had this occurred under different party labels.
36
@Paul
That's an interesting question. Let's suppose a far left, wacky conspiracy-believing group promoted a candidate who was a reality TV star. Do you really think that such a candidate would get far in a national election? OK, let's imagine that the Democratic support splintered in the primaries and such a candidate won. And the opposing Republican candidate was very objectionable to Democrats. So this wacky Democratic candidate won the presidency. What would Democrats do? At first, prop up the presidency and pursue a Democratic agenda. However, if this theoretical president behaved as Donald Trump has during the last two years, I can confidently say that Democrats would work hard - just as intensely as they are now - to remove this president from office. Without a doubt... because this is a very dangerous situation.
11
Mr Douthat also leaves out the serious national security threat posed by Trump, including the still unresolved question of precisely WHY Trump has repeatedly denied Russian interference with the election, despite being so advised by the U.S. intelligence community -- most conspicuously, Trump's embarrassing public repudiation of such intelligence services in Helsinki, and his blind belief in Putin's denials.
This presents at least circumstantial evidence that Trump is more than just a hopeless incompetent when it comes to "Russian collusion." We can only hope that the real truth on this matter will finally emerge.
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@Don Davis
So true. Douthat only references FIRE AND FURY but the scarier more startling scenarios are prefaced in Bob Woodward's book FEAR!
3
@Don Davis Maureen Dowd's column today provides an answer to your question. Trump is backed into a corner...if he admits Russia interfered with the election to support him then it makes his claims to having legitimately won null and void.
The Mueller report does document many of the Trump misbehaviors we have become accustomed to.What it does illuminate to a greater degree is the absolute intent of the Russians to insert themselves into the United States electoral process.They had troll farms working around the clock trying to insert disinformation into our social media.The fierce determination of the Russians is scary-the incompetence of Trump is fraught with peril.
40
I really don't get it. I know you know better. Trump WAS NOT cleared of collusion as that term was meaningless to the Mueller team and the report DID NOT EXONERATE Trump of conspiracy.
It's clear by any reasonable standard the president committed obstruction.
And now, of course, like all "reasonable" conservatives", Mr. Douthat writes we should move on to 2020. This from the man who wrote in Nov. 2017, "It may be that the conservatives of the 1990s were simply right about Clinton, that once he failed to resign he really deserved to be impeached."
The fact that you mischaracterize the Mueller Report, seem rather unfazed (or, at least, bored at this point) by our president's open corruption and possible compromise (I am baffled that no conservatives are concerned with the BLATANT national security implications in the Report) and are waving the "let's move on" banner, just tells me you are another Republican more concerned with your team than the rule of law.
I have had it up to my chin with "anti-Trump conservatives" who keep excusing this president because of his "incompetence" and coming up with feeble reasons for why we should just accept this constant lawlessness and wait for the "American people to decide in 2020".
If you believe that Clinton deserved impeachment, you should be exhorting your fellow Republicans to call for Trump's resignation every day of every week.
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@Christopher I never got why we became hung up on "collusion" or, to be more precise, conspiracy. Putin doesn't collude. Putin blackmails. Like J.Edgar Hoover. Like, apparently, Robert Moses did to get a road placed where he wanted it; he threatened NY Mayor Wagner with exposing his extramarital affair. Blackmail is so much easier than some sort of cooperative conspiracy. Trump is too untrustworthy to be a good candidate for trusting him to conspire. But good, old fashioned blackmail? He is a sitting duck. Putin probably has a big fat file of dirt on Trump.
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@Christopher....Hear, hear!
6
Very little is mentioned here about the the convictions, indictments and pending district court investigations. There’re still Congressional investigations on the “follow the money” issues, which may very well lead to collusion. Although, Democratic donors seem to be telling the party to just concentrate on defeating Trump in 2020. The Golan Heights and Jerusalem gifts are something, which may very well guarantee Trump’s re-election.
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True, but more importantly the report is revelatory in that it demonstrates just how vulnerable we have become due to horrible leader who only cares about his own money.
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So you agree with the Trump gang that obstruction of justice is a big
“nothing burger?”
Paul Manafort lost a plea agreement for attempting to obstruct justice by witness tampering. Clinton was impeached for perjury over a sexual affair. But for Trump these would be “nothing burgers.”
Look at the Oath of Office Trump took.
He tries to break laws rather than enforce them. He doesn’t preserve or protect anything but his own personal interests. He views the Constitution as something that GETS IN HIS WAY.
Trump is held to a different standard:
none.
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@SCZ
Democrats refused to remove Clinton from office over his impeachment. It was a nothing burger to them at the time. Clinton was impeached on several counts of obstructions of Justice and lying under Oath. This is why slick will lost his law license.
And yet, knowing all this, I would still not change my 2016 vote, even if I could. Not due to overlooking the well-documented incompetence of Mr. Trump, but due to the unctuous competence of his opponent, whose misdeeds remain largely hidden from official scrutiny.
6
@Hugo Furst
Then the question becomes this, Mr. Furst:
As you would not change the vote you gave to Trump in 2016 given your unwillingness to vote for Hillary Clinton, will you vote against Donald Trump in 2020?
I did not vote in 2016 as I could not vote for either candidate. In choosing to turn away, I voted for Trump. I will not make that mistake again.
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@Hugo Furst
And those would be...??? If you want to scream “Lock her up” at every mention of her name, it’s about time you presented some real evidence instead of letting loose with a bunch of spittle-spewing absurdities.
4
@Hugo Furst What? Republicans, up until three months ago, held EVERY lever of power. The President of the United States of America would love to put Hillary in jail for something, anything that would detract from his own legal problems. Alas, Ms. Clinton has been investigated ad naseum for over 30 years. Never arrested. Never indicted. Never put on trial. At some point you need to realize that you have been lied to and that you are now the one spreading lies. Engaging with people like you seems useless at this point. It's like trying to convince a rock to understand something.
3
An unasked question, Mr. Douthat, is why the 25th Amendment is not invoked and Trump removed for demonstrated inability to exercise the oath of office.
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@San Ta
Nobody but nobody has the guts to invoke the 25th.
Don’t tell me you think Pence would.
@San Ta
Because that would be a coup and lead to civil war. That’s why.
The Mueller report documents numerous contacts with Russian actors and middleman. While these cutouts enabled the Trump campaign to elude charges of criminal conspiracy with the Russian government, it’s a distinction without a great deal of difference.
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Ross, you finally convinced me: yes, Pelosi is correct that not impeaching may be politically prudent, but no, Congress cannot ignore its duty here, regardless of what awaits in the Senate.
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Actually, the Mueller expose is much more important than simply a chaotic administration. It is a call for Congress to ascertain whether the crimes and misdemeanors committed by Trump and his coterie call for impeachment.
What's lost in all of this is that impeachment is a Constitutional process to ensure that the president is not abusing the powers of his office to the detriment of the country.
The Mueller report established that the Russians used cyber-warfare to sway the US presidential election.
The Mueller report explicitly did not clear Trump of obstruction of justice. It explicitly stated that it provided the evidence with which Congress could pursue the appropriate political solution. It is up to Congress to do so.
The issue is whether Congress will countenance a political party and its candidates to encourage a hostile foreign power to interfere in our system of elections and governance.
The Russians wage cyber-war against the US and Europe. They, like China, Israel, N Korea and, quite frankly, ourselves, to influence political outcomes in foreign countries. This is a fact of life and portends what we should expect going forward.
The issue Americans must decide is whether such communications and encouragement should be countenanced. Even if sufficient evidence for an indictment is not overwhelming and even if the DOJ policies argue against an indictment.
The process for providing Americans with that information with which to judge Trump is evident.
19
Ross, Mueller all you need to do is read the introduction of the Mueller report to see that he doesn’t clear Trump of conspiracy. He states point blank that failure to establish proof isn’t the same as ruling it out. Indeed, he says his investigation was hindered by witnesses who lied, took the fifth, implied promises of pardons, witness intimidation, or were inaccessible because they were in Russia.If you look in the very back if the report, you can find Trump’s evasive, incomplete answers to the questions posed by Mueller, replete with phrases like “I have no recollection”, “independent” recollection, or “present” recollection. A careful reading of the Mueller report establishes that he failed to exonerate the President on either count.
Granted, it does seem preposterous that a Keystone cops operation would have been able to pull it off without leaving a a more definitive trace, but it’s important to distinguish conspiracy from treason. Even, in the absence of an explicit or tacit agreement, if he was simply currying favor with the expectation benefits would follow, he must have known he was acting contrary to the interests of the US by offering Putin a $50m condominium, leaving him (and us) open to blackmail. Keeping it secret from voters was an unforgivable abuse of trust.
48
unforgivable abuse of trust is Trump's stock in trade.
1
Mr. Douthat's conclusion would be better stated: "The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because they offer a credible platform that addresses the electorate's unmet needs." The point Douthat makes earlier in this essay: "Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency" reflects that the President's supporters already factor his modus vivendi into their calculus--and still support him.
The reason the President will either hold or lose office in the next campaign will have little to do with any judgment of his personal behavior. The 2016 defection of vast swatches from the Democratic Party's traditional base was due to a perceived breach of the Post WWII contract between that base and the party's political leadership for a better life however that was defined over three generations.
If the Democrats expect to regain hearts and minds by ad-hominem criticism of the President--whether is is factually observed or vituperatively conjectured, then they have learned nothing from the 2016 election or even from the present political mood. They must not presume too much from the House gains in 2018 to the point where they lose focus of the real, hard work ahead.
However, if they can make the case for better opportunity and care of the electorate they hope to entreat, then the personal scorecard only needs to be political "lagniappe," as we say in Louisiana.
14
many have posited that Trump never wanted or expected to win the election, that the whole exercise was an effort at brand building as his TV dodge wound down. I don't have any insight as to whether or not that's true, but it makes more sense than Trump possessing the mental and emotional discipline to make an advance deal with the Russians to be their Manchurian candidate. how would Sherlock Holmes parse the Trump enigma?
13
The electoral college still exists. Millions of Americans don’t trust facts and believe Trump. The country is messed up despite the Mueller report.
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Thanks, Ross. What a ringing endorsement of our fabled democracy. (Not.)
12
It’s infuriating that conservatives give interference in our elections by a foreign hostile power a pass. In this case, Douthat makes no mention of it. Russia in fact tipped the scales towards Trump in 2016. Instead, Douthat chalks up Trump’s next win or loss to the strength of his 2020 opponent (both old white men in Douthat’s opinion).
Foreign interference is a serious issue as we approach our next election. Who will act to protect the integrity of our elections? The GOP has been silent on this score. Where’s the outrage?
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@MissyR Must be there is no "outrage" for Republicans to have if they benefit from the egregious conduct! Liars, cheats and thieves all! I guess! What else explains their manifest lack of patriotism?
5
@MissyR: Sorry, MissyR, it was happening while Obama was POTUS. As usual, Mr. Yes We Can did nothing. Yes, where is the outrage that Obama let it happen.
1
@MissyR ... Tip the scales of the 2016 election? I give credit for that one not to the Russians, but to James Comey for his late October reopening of the Hillary email investigation. Regardless of which candidate won, Comey's job security was on thin ice.
1
"He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team."
Yes, and if the Russians helped him win by doing things that are hurtful to American democracy, shouldn't we be trying to stop them from ever doing that again? And why isn't our executive branch leading the fight to stop them?
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@Howard
Ask Obama why he did nothing when he knew about it? When Romney in his campaign said that Russia was the biggest threat Obama and Clinton laughed in his face, the NYT and other MSM did a hit job on him and that was that.
Who said the current administration is doing nothing to prevent interference in the next election. Was there interference in the 2018 election?
Trump wasn't POTUS in 2016.
@Mr Chang Shih An The answers to some of your questions have been revealed in copious MSM reports over recent years.
1) Obama, far from doing nothing, imposed sanctions on Putin's cronies when interference was revealed but he was "persuaded" not to reveal possible American "collusion" investigations because of pressure from McConnell. (I agree with anyone who thinks he should have ignored that pressure.)
2) Romney's prescience about Russia is easy to gloat about with 20/20 hindsight but at the time of the 2012 elections, Putin was sharing power with Medvedev and it was prudent and strategic to try to maintain good relations and encourage democracy in Russia (a sentiment DJT shares, even with Putin's autocracy, no?).
3) Yes, the U.S. intelligence services have always acknowledged Russian malfeasance and are probably working diligently to counter it (in, of course, mostly covert ways). I seem to recall some reports about 2018 dirty tricks, BTW.
If you believe that Romney was right, why are you giving a pass to DJT after all his statements, tweets and press conferences indicating a quasi-love affair with Putin? Please.
3
Ross, I’m not even going to ask how Michael Wolff’s “Interesting tactic” was any different than a lie for obviously if the righteousness of the Left cannot even entertain that they themselves are capable of something, it’s pointless. Yesterday we saw Sara Sanders get hammered mightily over one, it’s probably not a good idea then to build one’s case against her side on one today.
5
@John Doe: It's called giving Trump a taste of his own medicine. The guy lies constantly. And if you work for him and want to keep your job, you'd better be ready to tell lots of outrageous whoppers, too.
Did you know Donald J. Trump had the largest inauguration crowd in history? As a Republican, you must be so proud.
Lying obviously doesn't matter any more. The GOP has chucked it out of the Ten Commandments. Adultery no longer seems to be a big deal, either.
1
"Thanks to Robert Mueller, we know that Trump is about as bad as he appeared to be while running for the presidency — but not secretly omnicompetent, not secretly treasonous."
I'm not sure about the "treasonous" part. According to what we knew, corroborated by Mueller, Trump seemed to have zero problems with responding to many of the numerous Russian overtures his team encountered.
That the campaign never ever contacted the FBI--something that, even if Trump didn't know the law, certainly other campaign operatives did-- -tells me they were more than willing to conspire with Vlad's squad, if only things had worked out.
Which is why I find it so astounding that Trump's main fear, per another columnist here, is having his election attributed to Russian help.
If he really wanted all the credit for his huge win--even if he didn't think he would--why would he have accepted so many Russian overtures?
Or could it just be that Trump always wants folks to think he's self-made, when the truth is anything but?
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@ChristineMcM - Isn't it treason not only to fail to do anything about past Russian interference in our elections, bit also to fail o do anything to prevent future even worse interference?
3
@Len Charlap it may not technically be treason, but see your point. A crime of omission more than commission when it comes to preventing future episodes. That said, the real crime is failure to uphold the constitution and protect the homeland.
2
It should be pointed out that the reason we know much of this to be true is due to excellent reporting by several news sources, the NYT among them. And this report never would have seen the light of day if Republicans had maintained control of the House in 2018.
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@RandallP, and you'll note that Mr. Douthat, unlike the people he excuses for their behavior, does not call his own employer "fake news." Hm.
2
Mr. Douthat, before we all breathe a sigh of relief now that we know Trump is "not secretly omnicompetent, not secretly treasonous" but just an "amoral incompetent" who has committed multiple acts of obstruction of justice, is too much to ask about that he stop the openly treasonous behavior?
Many seem to be forgetting that Russia did in fact attack our election process, that Trump as President, did in fact side with Putin in denying the attack, and to this day the Trump administration has done nothing to stop the ongoing Russian attack on our democracy.
Trump not only denys it he almost certainly welcomes it. And we can't count on the "grifters, misfits and his own overpromoted children" in this administration to do anything about the ongoing attack by a hostile foreign power.
The main problem with Trump is not the crimes and anti-American actions done in secret, it's the ones he does in public.
The ones conservative pundits, even some Never-Trump ones, too often seem willing to give him a pass on.
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Democrats, please don't waste time with impeachment. We know Trump will be found not guilty by the Senate. Patiently wait for the moves of the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. That is where Trump will fall. Meanwhile, Democrats should be addressing all the issues the vast majority of Americans care about: crumbling infrastructure, good and secure employment, wider access to higher education, climate change, rampant opiod addiction, a fair tax code, etc. Presenting a vision that is broader than simply bringing down Trump will resonate with the critical slice of voters that ultimately decides the elections. Pelosi is right.
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@John Snow
Maybe so about the Senate. but those in the House would be shirking their responsibility by not moving to impeach.
31
@John Snow
I do hope the Southern District nails Trump. Then again, they have had years to go after him and did not. Trump has been living off the winks and nods of New York's powerful political, social and financial elites for years.
In reflecting on his time in that office, even Preet Bharara has admitted that he regrets not having gone after Trump years ago.
There not many second chances in real life. So, to the Southern District of NY, here is your second opportunity. Make the most of it. Don't blow it.
28
@John Snow At this point it is the duty of the House to initiate impeachment proceedings sometime soon. Not doing so informs future presidents they can do what they want. Truman deemed it only necessary to "inform" Congress about starting the Korean War and presidents have been taking advantage since. Congress must stop ceding its powers to the executive branch or we will have the imperial presidency the founders loathed.
11
As Chris Cristy has often publicly remarked, his buddy Trump has much to fear from federal prosecutors other than Robert Mueller, particularly those in the Southern District of New York who purportedly are assiduously investigating the pre-presidential Trump’s alleged copious business related criminality, including money laundering and fraud. The cessation of the Mueller probe merely signals the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end. Trump’s worries are hardly over. The “best” is yet to be.
44
I want to second Ross Douthat's last point in this column. Despite increasing conventional (political) wisdom, which holds that the Democrats should not make Donald Trump a primary issue in 2020, they need to do exactly that. The Mueller Report opens the door officially into the issue of Trump's character - his manifest pattern of lying, disregard for inconvenient facts, and chaotic style of management as the nation's Chief Executive. With the carefully sifted Mueller facts at their disposal, Democrats should make a drumbeat of the question: "Is this really the kind of man you want to be president of the United States?" Which is not to say that they should avoid presenting a strong, competent alternative of their own
33
Why is there no challenge to you and others in his party to push back on him for all of his blatant malfeasance? It seems ensuring the national interest isn't the job of just the opposition, it's just become so because the Republicans have shriveled from their duties.
198
@Steve, as long Trump continues to allow McConnell to control judicial appointments using McGahn’s process Republicans will support him. Remember, Kavanaugh was Bush’s right hand man and Bush personally called Collins and urged her to support him.
36
"Fire and Fury", just a book based on a journalists interviews, has nothing to do with The Mueller Investigation and Report which is a legal document laying out the law, marshalling facts, and detailing Trump's malfeasance and criminality. It's the culmination of a legally mandated process in which Special Counsel Mueller's team has indicted or received guilty pleas from 34 individuals and 3 companies directly working for, or in tandem with, Trump. It has spun off approx. a dozen more prosecutions.
The GOP and William Barr are deliberately ignored by Douthat who insists everyone move on. He exonerates them for their parts in destroying our republic.
The Mueller report states that authority rests with the First Branch of government, (meaning Congressional Republicans), not the Special Counsel, to hold Trump accountable for his crimes as a sitting president cannot be indicted under current DOJ guidelines.
Congress, not the judiciary, is the institution created by the Founding Fathers to exert vigorous oversight of the Executive Branch in order to prevent the rise of an authoritarian despot. The GOP refuses to exercise that authority while acting as the primary weapon of a despotic Executive. That's autocracy, not democracy.
The GOP is eviscerating Federalist 51 which mandates checks and balances so as to protect our republic. The GOP in constantly protecting Trump is advancing authoritarianism while destroying both our tripartite government and the separation of powers.
415
Roughly 4,274 talking head confabs and pundit editorials ago, we first learned that we must put up with a president who is criminally unfit for office. We see it daily on cable tv and in print.
Not one of these professional "people of opinion" have the gravitas of Robert Mueller.
This inexpert wisdom continues here.
Mueller's grave report details a dozen acts of obstruction.
We already knew this? So what?
We've waited for the results of a dispassionate governmental investigation that had tools no reporter had.
Waited for an impeccable source that is not vulnerable to the president's violence towards the press.
It has arrived and every scribe in the country says we should ignore it.
The report says the president obstructed justice.
By pure coincidence, its the job of the Congress to impeach a president who is unfit for office.
Its shameful that pundits, addicted to their own politics, can't support the conclusions of the report and advocate for his removal from office.
583
@Eric
The report also says that there were numerous contacts between campaigners and Russians. Those contacts failed to meet the legal standard of conspiracy, perhaps because of ineptitude, but they ought to be disturbing to all of us.
Will enough people be drawn into the web of the "spying" alluded to by AG Barr to defuse the damage the report ought to engender? Will people fall back on the belief that the Clinton campaign's relationship to the Steele report was the original sin?
We know how Fox News will swing. They, and many Republican politicians, resort to the mantra that Trump was "exonerated." Except he wasn't. Not even of the "collusion" charges.
18
@Eric
"It has arrived and every scribe in the country says we should ignore it."
Huh?
4
Imagine if Trump wins a second term: he will no longer feel obligated to maintain his roughly 40% support, which is composed of many demographics he clearly would have had no respect for in his ruthless "businessman" days (beyond their bizarre fawning over him at his rallies, of course). A second term Trump would be free to indulge his narcissism and vindictiveness at levels previously unimagined. He has already sent his handful of levelheaded advisors packing in exchange for the most craven of loyalists--and thus reduced pushback. In a second term, he won't have to feign concern for the kinder/gentler side of Fox News' viewership (who briefly sank his approval numbers during his prolonged government shutdown stunt). A second term Trump will have cleared the final hurdle as a politician, and his id will be free to rage and self-glorify.
I watch the roll out of Democratic candidates with great hope and concern--any one of them would be a monumental improvement over the current president. But the realization that whichever individual prevails will have to work extremely hard to defeat this national embarrassment is profoundly depressing.
655
@J. L. Weaver
Agreed. The fact that he now knows that he will not be indicted while in office will be a driving force in his efforts to win in 2020. He is literally fighting to maintain his freedom from prosecution. Based on what he has already shown himself to be capable of, I expect more of the same and worse in the lead up to the election. It is indeed profoundly depressing.
126
@J. L. Weaver I think he stands a strong chance of re-election. Look there are about 300mil americans. 100mil children. So about 200mil voters. Only 53% i believed voted in the last election. So 100mil voters decided. Granted these are sweeping generalizations. Trump won by 75k voters in the electoral college. So around 50 percent or 50 mil americans decided this election. So Trump is down to a 37% approval now. So vote everyone. I think Obama had 58% of voters out in the last election.
30
@J. L. Weaver Don't just watch JL, get with the effort to rid ourselves of this monster by working with the Democratic party in your area or an Indivisible group to register voters, get people to the polls and rip town, county and state elected offices from the grip of greed mongers, racist and tax cranks.
11
Ho, hum, nothing to see here. according to Mr. Douthat. How about the fact the a foreign adversary interfered in our election with encouragement from the Trump family and campaign?
We have no idea how secure we are for the next election. Certainly Trump will do nothing to stop the Russians from continuing to meddle. After all he's president.
290
@HM
A foreign adversary will be attacking our next election, and the one after that, and the one after that.
Neither Trump nor any who follow will change that fact.
And, as the Democrat I believe you are, you should train your gaze on Comey and the brilliant minds that fanned the collusion narrative and took Hillary Clinton down in November when it was the Democratic Party who should have taken her down in June.
Both parties have outlived their usefulness, and I vote for the least bad on offer each election.
1
Go back and read the Steele Memoranda--also known as the Steele Dossier by cloak and dagger fans.
As we know, the memoranda were raw intelligence, not confirmed by Steele, little more than hearsay or gossip.
Reading Steele's work now in light of various Mueller filings and his Report, it is amazing how many items have turned out to be true, or, as the FBI and CIA prefer, "True with a high degree of confidence." Some have become less likely true.
Many items remain no more or less substantiated than they were when we first read them; many we will never get to the bottom of, like what Russian leadership's thoughts were on a subject.
But, as far as I can tell, only ONE of Steele's twenty-odd major points has turned out to be false: Mueller accepts that Michael Cohen did not meet anyone in Prague regarding the campaign.
93
Impeachment would mean there is an accusation, which means there would be a trial. The trial would take place in the Senate, currently a majority Republican body with Mitch McConnell in the driver's seat. Chief Justice Roberts would preside over the trial, and he would likely be impeccably fair, but I think it would be difficult to find even two or three GOP senators willing to vote for conviction.
So ... is it worth it? The time? The expense? The rancor? Of is it better just to gear up for the election scheduled to take place in just over 18 months? I don't know. I just don't know.
63
@Boneisha
The GOP Senators are as tribal and spineless as possible. Meaning the chance of convicting Trump in the Senate is close to zero.
Without a conviction impeachment is likely to improve the odds of Trump winning re-election in 2020, a prospect too terrible to contemplate for long.
Instead, the House of Representatives should investigate Trump's finances and bank loans and establish his bank fraud and tax fraud, and violations of the Emoluments Clause from foreign countries.
Then the House should formally censure Trump in detail.
Democratic candidates for 2020 should show how they will help Americans get lower cost universal healthcare, like most of Europe, no tuition public college, free or subsidized childcare, family leave, environmental protection, infrastructure, end trade wars and sensible immigration reform and border security. Democrats should also prioritize making our elections safe from pesky Russians and others who would meddle in our elections. More and tougher sanctions, disabling their electric grid, blockades and military actions might even be in order to show we are at war...
50
@Boneisha wrote "So ... is it worth it? The time? The expense? The rancor? "
Yes it is worth the effort. Nixon resigned when he learned that a congressional committee was set to recommend impeachment for obstruction. Clinton was impeached for obstruction and perjury; that he was acquitted in the Senate? Please. That's a dog that doesn't hunt.
trump's transgressions as documented in the Special Counsel's report demand nothing less than a reckoning. That he may escape removal by the Senate doesn't in any way get around what's at stake here. . .the viability of our democracy. . .a nation of laws and not men.
To give trump a pass because of weak knees will set the stage for even greater transgression by a future president.
Why should a future president respect the constitution if we the people do not?
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@Phil Hurwitz
Not only that, but a failed impeachment proceeding, as were the two before it (remember, Nixon resigned rather than face the music), puts a permanent asterisk on Trump’s so-called achievements. Those who think impeachment proceedings now will help Trump’s chances in 2020 seem to be missing the fact that he couldn’t tolerate that asterisk.
28
"He won in 2016 despite the manifold vices chronicled by Mueller’s team. The challenge for his opposition is to make him lose in 2020 because of them." So I guess we can assume he still has your vote.
41
The primary reason given by many leading Democrats for not impeaching Trump is based on a faulty application of history. The fact that the Republicans’ decision to impeach Clinton redounded against them in the subsequent election does not mean that a decision to impeach Trump would have the same consequences. The two circumstances of impeachment are only superficially similar. Under the surface they are substantially different and this difference is likely to produce a different result. The transgression that led to impeachment charges against Clinton for perjury and obstruction was a consensual sexual affair with a willing intern, whereas Trump would be impeached for the numerous serious material violations of his Oath of Office -- a virtual assault on the law, its institutions and leaders -- as set forth with specificity in the Mueller Report.
While the Burden of Proof Principle of History places the burden on those who say that the impeachment of Trump would not hurt the Democrats in the next election as it hurt the Republicans after the impeachment of Clinton, it is a burden that the Mueller Report makes possible to handle. Trump’s violations of the presidential Oath of Office are so much more serious than the charges against Clinton and so clearly set forth in the Mueller Report that it is likely that the electorate would overwhelmingly support impeachment and reward the Democrats in the 2020 election for doing so.
29
@John Cahill. No, the argument is that it will hurt the country by continuing to not govern, accomplish little because the Senate won't convict, and hurt chances in 2020 by ignoring issues. Equally importantly, it lessens the chances that Trump will see jail for in 2 years as he should. This a reasonable argument, although there is the other side.
12
@31today - Er, ya think that the country is being governed today?
@John Cahill
Wait a minute. The impeachment process was initiated in December of 1998, after the election had been held. So how on earth did the "fact", as you say, that the Republicans' decision to impeach him redound against them in the subsequent election?
If you remember, in the next election, George W. Bush was elected, not Al Gore. Where was the "redounding"?
Ross is probably right that we will have to wait until 2020 to remove Trump by voting him out. But if our government were functioning as it was designed, lawmakers would have begun impeachment procedures as soon as Mueller’s report was read and digested. It’s clear that the report lays the responsibility to check this unfit, lying, divisive, and criminal president in Congress’ lap, and rightly so. The U.S. was founded on the idea that no one, not even a head of state, is above the law, and for Congress to shirk its responsibility to check a truly impeachable president sets a bad precedent for the the country. I fear the potential backlash Democrat could face at the polls, and what that could mean for the country, but also I tend to believe that the law and the Constitution are more important than politics. We need leaders to step up and do their jobs instead of worrying about politics and their reelections. If such responsible political behavior were normalized, people would probably be a lot less cynical about government, and we would not be where we are now.
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@Chad I suspect the House of Representatives would eagerly impeach Trump, if only they could ccount on a conviction on the impeachment charge by the craven majority of Republicans in the Senate.
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@Sylvia
Cntinue the investigation.
There will probably be increased reasons to begin impeachment.
If so, vote on ipeachment no matter what the likely outcome in the House or the Senate.
It's not whether conviction is likely, it's whether the evidence supports an impeachment vote andvwhether the process will bring more truth to light.
Is it reasonable or does it look totally political.
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@Geo
Would McConnell simply not hold debate and a vote on impeachment as he did with Garland?
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Unlike many of me fellow Liberals, I never thought that the report was going to be the end all be all.
Even if there was irrefutable proof of such and such, the republicans in the Senate were never going to convict. Even though there are impeachable offenses right now in plain sight (such as the Emoluments clause of the Constitution being ignored by this President), the Democrats in the House are probably not even going to take a vote. (at least for awhile)
What the report is, and always has been, is a template, and STARTING POINT, for all of the other investigations (especially at the state level) to refer to and to subpoena. (especially the authors) Democrats have only had a few months to get anything going, and even now, many republicans are ignoring them, as they have been doing for the first two years of this administration.
Impeachment is a process, and not an end result, so AT LEAST there should be up an up and down vote on it, and that can be used as a template and sounding board for the elections in 2020.
To not do so would be to hand republicans 4 more years.
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@FunkyIrishman
I would like to see Trump be impeached and convicted. However, the probability of the Senate convicting him is negligible. An impeachment resolution by the House, and subsequent failure to convict by the Senate, would give the Trumpists enough of a boost that he would be a likely shoo-in in 2020.
The Mueller report, damning as it is, did not and will not convince Trumpists -- not even those few who have the intellectual capacity to read and understand it. There isn't much I can think of that would convince them. What really scares me is that his comment about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and not losing votes may be one of the few accurate statements he has uttered.
When you analyze the Mueller report the most dispositive facts are that the President of the United States had the intent to commit a felony, obstruction of justice, but lacked the competence and control necessary to accomplish it. If that surreal circumstance doesn't cause defections from his base, and his Republican enablers in the Senate, the United States faces a most ominous future.
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@Don Shipp. - Yes, exactly. I've been saying for years that Donald Trump is the symptom of a much greater disease. The job of 2018 must be finished in 2020 - the Republican Party must be brought low, losing the Senate and the White House, and hopefully many state Houses and Governorships as well.
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@Mark Holmes
Are you imagining a scene from a science-fiction movie wherein a mysterious fog covers the country and overnight every adult gains 10 IQ points? Spanky's followers are apparently impervious to anything that reflects badly on him. They're the minority, but I haven't read of much evidence that they're giving up on the adoration they felt 2 years ago.
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@Don Shipp.
Agreeing with ASG 21. We're living in a most ominous present. Douthat himself is evidence. This column in effect shrugs at the dispositive facts you cite from the Mueller report.
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