Last weekend, Attorney General William Barr submitted a four-page summary of the conclusions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice charges against President Trump and members of his 2016 presidential campaign. The long-awaited report found no evidence of collusion between Trump or his associates with the Russians in 2016, and it provided no indictment on the issue of obstruction of justice either. According to constitutional law and the legal framework for criminal indictments, when the special counsel demurs on an issue such as obstruction, the authority rests with the attorney general, who determined that the president did not obstruct justice by firing then-FBI Director James Comey.
Noticeably, the results of the almost two-year long investigation, despite finally bringing closure to this controversial debate, did little to change the political polarization on either side of the spectrum. While right-wing media figures hailed the Mueller report as a total and complete vindication for the president, left-wing outlets desperately argued that Trump’s suspicious finances, currently under investigation by the Southern District of New York, as well as his personal character, continue to disqualify him from the presidency. However, regardless of your political opinions on Donald Trump, it is important, now more than ever, to stick to the facts, not partisan narrative.
It is a fact that candidate Trump did not collude with the Russians. It is a fact that none of Trump’s campaign associates colluded with the Russians either. It is also a fact that the President of the United States absolutely has the legal authority to fire members of his own executive branch, including the FBI Director. Many liberal critics will argue that Trump’s antagonistic behavior during this lengthy investigation, including his numerous threats to fire Mueller, indicated a fear of being exposed. Ironically, this mentality is completely bogus, because if one were to put themselves in Trump’s shoes, having to suffer a two-year long investigation into a crime that they obviously did not commit, they would be totally frustrated that their political reputation, as well as their approval ratings, would be suffering as a result of this investigation.
Given the positive outcome of the Mueller report, Americans of both political parties should be celebrating the reality that the president did not commit treason with a foreign power. That is a good outcome not just for his administration, but more importantly, for the credibility and national security of the country itself. What is particularly troublesome is the extent to which left-wing journalists and political leaders have invested so much of their energy and time into pushing the Russian-collusion conspiracy theory that, even in the face of reality, they are refusing to accept the results. This shows unfortunately that they are more obsessed with their political futures than they are with putting America first.
Take Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff, for example. Schiff serves as the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and completely rejected the findings of the Mueller report, continuing to claim repeatedly that there is already plenty of evidence that Trump himself colluded with Russia. This kind of irresponsible disregard for facts and truth, prioritizing political partisanship over putting the country first, is everything that is wrong with America’s political landscape today.
Schiff isn’t alone in his wanton peddling of tinfoil hat conspiracy theories. Representative Eric Swalwell is another Democrat so obsessed with taking down Trump by any means possible that he’s repeatedly expressed a desire to run for President, despite serving barely six years in the House. Swalwell claims that simply because Trump and his associates communicated with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign constitutes collusion. Hypocritically, Swalwell was nowhere to be found complaining about “communicating with the enemy” when former President Barack Obama famously told his Russian counterpart at the UN in 2012 that “after I win reelection, I will have more flexibility with the sanctions.” Or, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the notorious Uranium One deal with Russian officials without consulting Congress, and then repeatedly lied about the details of the deal when questioned by these same members of Congress.
Trump’s efforts to establish diplomatic ties with the Russians during the campaign is nothing new, and presidential campaigns have been communicating with their foreign counterparts for decades. In a world marked by widespread nuclear capacity, tensions due to the recent nullification of the INF treaty and relations with Russia souring over the past decade, communication and diplomacy are more important than ever. President Trump should be hailed and praised for attempting to pursue a more peaceful alternative with the Russians rather than the knee-jerk belligerence and pure Russophobia of his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, or other establishment, hawkish Democrats in Congress.
As we finally move on from the unfortunate controversy of the Mueller investigation, a more disturbing picture comes into focus. Some sources have argued that then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton invented the Russian collusion theory within hours of learning that she was going to lose the election to Trump. Given the arrogant confidence that both Clinton and the majority of the mainstream media had in her supposed victory (with Huffington Post claiming a 98.1 percent chance of a Democrat in the White House), it is understandable that Democrats and media figures would be stuck in a state of existential crisis when Trump defied all expectations and broke through the blue wall. What is unacceptable is for a mainstream American political party, as well as half of the entire national media in the country, to refuse to concede defeat and instead invest its time and energy into delegitimizing President Trump with baseless lies and allegations.
On the Russia collusion front, Democrats and the mainstream media all owe the president a massive apology, not just for the political loss incurred by two years of endless slander, but more importantly, for the destructive effect that this nonsense has had in cheapening political discourse and widening the gap between Americans of both political parties. The real lesson that should be learned from the Mueller investigation is how important it is to preserve sportsmanship and decency in American politics. Losing with grace is more important than winning with pride. The inability of the Democrats to do so cost this country a ridiculous amount of taxpayer money and two whole years of wasted time hunting after a nonexistent sinister force.
