It has been nearly two years since Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel to investigate President Trump for evidence of collusion during the 2016 presidential election and obstruction of an FBI probe in early 2017.Hundreds of hearings, subpoenas, and warrants later, and the Mueller investigation has come to an end. We have not even seen the full extent of Mueller’s report, and already, many have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time. Much of this dismissive attitude stems from President Trump, who has done and said almost everything in his power to invalidate the investigation and turn his voter base against Mueller. Using alarmist rhetoric and abusing his power as President, Trump’s attacks on the special counsel have eaten away at the legitimacy of our democracy.
It is no secret that Trump lacks any semblance of respect for Mueller’s investigation. He has fought the special counsel’s team every step of the way, including putting pressureon his then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to fire Mueller, and eventually replacing himwith William Barr, a man who referred to the special counsel’s investigation as “fatally misconceived.” Trump has even attempted to fire Mueller indirectlythrough his White House counsel. Although the President has been unsuccessful in blocking the special counsel’s investigation, his attempts to remove Mueller reveal a rather alarming disregard for democratic values. Trump appears convinced that he can bypass our country’s system of checks and balances by threatening others. It is likely he will continue trying to undermine American democracy by abusing his executive powers to get his way.
Furthermore, the President has also been quitevocalabout his distaste for the special counsel. From the very beginning, Trump has denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt” and an attempt by Democratsto erode his credibility. He has produced a litany of furious tweets calling the investigation a hoaxand claiming anyone involved is corrupt and out to get him. Trump’s delusional and hyper-paranoid rhetoric is an essential aspectof his brand and a large part of the reason he was elected: he is the poster-child of a new kind of paranoid stylein which his targets are anyone and everyone who do not agree with him. Trump’s relationship with mainstream media has always been antagonisticand troubling, but his claim that the special counsel’s investigation is fake newsis a frightening attempt to manipulate the American public.
By planting seeds of a Democratic conspiracy, he is purposefully casting doubt on not only the Department of Justice but any branch of the government not directly run by his administration. He vilifies all Democrats by portraying them as corrupt liars seeking only to further their own gains. Both of these tactics only deepen the polarization between the political parties. This is the side-effectof exclusionist rhetoric and paranoid style—there is no room for compromise when Trump is telling his supporters that they are choosing between absolute good and absolute evil. Furthermore, Trump’s refusal to accept Robert Mueller as credible creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that is toxic to a democracy. A country can’t survive when half of its population trusts an investigation and the other half believes it to be a conspiracy.
Just a few weeks ago, Mueller’s team delivered a nearly 400-page reportto Attorney General Barr. In turn, Barr released a four-page documentto the public in which he outlined the findings and conclusion of the report. Unimpressed with his summary, Democrats in Congresshave been relentless in demanding the full document. Although they have been met with some concerted effortsby Senate Republicans to halt the process, it seems likely the public will ultimately receive most, if not all, of Mueller’s report. But the question remains: will it matter? Has Trump convinced enough of his base that the investigation was a farce, and if he has, what reason would they have to believe any of the report? And if they don’t believe it, why would their Republican delegates make any attempts to penalize Trump if it turns out he was indeed colluding with Russia?
There is a clear issue here, and one that is not easily resolved, because if the Mueller report finds Trump guilty, Congressional Democrats may attempt in some way to punish the President. If they do, it is likely Republicans will not play along, given their recent history with the Mueller report. When members of one party view the other as a direct threat, cooperation and communication between parties break down and citizens lose faith in their democratic institutions, they turn to more radical and undemocratic methods to assure their party’s power. Trump is himself a radical method: fringe, populist, and with a history of ignoring democratic principles. It is not entirely unlikely that he would attempt to solidify his power and control if he believed he could get away with it.
Overall, I think you pose many interesting insights here! Polarization, especially when one party views the other as an existential threat, as you suggest, brings great danger to democracy. In this case, Trump’s refusal to accept Mueller during the investigation process, as well as his mockery of any and all those who cooperated with Mueller, is gravely dangerous for American democracy. That is, his lack of respect on America’s checks-and-balances, the tools by which he himself can use to legitimize his rule, suggests that ‘who wins’ matters more than ‘how can we protect democracy.’ So long that we do not hold him accountable to his violations, thus, democratic erosion is inevitable.
Barr seems to be a controversial figure in the current political landscape surrounding the Mueller report with only 13% of Americans believing his summary accurately described the report according to Buissness Insider. Now with Congress intensifying their attacks on Barr and asking for the full Mueller report to be released, is it possible that it will be only a matter of time before Barr gives into the pressure and releases the report in full, without redaction, to Congress? Barr was recently Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, but I honestly don’t think that helps his creditably, especially since Barr told Congress that “spying did occur” on Trump during the Obama Administration, which has been completely debunked. What this means is that either Barr actually does believe in all the statements he has made before or he is in the hands of the President trying to downplay the report. We will know if and when it is released. But this does set a dangerous precedent for democracy, due to the Department of Justice’s history of being an impartial and independent organization, but from what we have seen, it seems to more align with defending the president then protecting the people which is abusive.
The Mueller report was the answer to the question “was their collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign”, the answer was no there wasn’t any. I also would like to see the unredacted report, however being that a lot of the information is classified, odds are it isn’t happening. I don’t believe that this report is the end of the alleged scandals claiming foul play on the Trump campaign, but it put to rest one of the biggest. Trumps mockery of the Mueller investigation wasn’t unique, it comes with anything that’s critical of him or his campaign. As stated in the blog, Half the country expected findings of collusion, half believed the investigation and the claims of collusion to be conspiracy, since the investigation ran its course and no collusion was found, was it a conspiracy?
My post isn’t about whether or not Trump is guilty. It doesn’t matter if there was evidence of collusion or not. What matters is that Trump’s response was inappropriate. You are right, Trump mocking something that critiques him isn’t new, but there is a difference between calling an SNL skit about him “a hit job,” and attempting to invalidate a federally-sanctioned investigation. One is a sign of someone who can’t take a joke. The other is an attempt to undermine fundamental procedures in our country’s judicial institutions.
The special counsel’s investigation wasn’t a conspiracy, it was a justified, legal inquiry into whether or not President Trump and his team were involved in the Russian interference in an American election, as based on testimony and evidence from James Comey. Just because there appear to be no claims of collusion does not invalidate the investigation’s premise or its legitimacy. For Trump to claim that it was a conspiracy breeds dangerous levels of cynicism and distrust within his voter base towards democratic and legal institutions. We have seen how this kind of civilian skepticism encourages undemocratic or even anti-democratic rhetoric, preferences, and policy measures in our readings. That is what my post attempts to discuss, not whether or not Trump is guilty.