The idea of attempting to inflate the eight-year-old Uranium One deal into an issue is that Mueller was in charge of the FBI at the time it was cleared. Republicans have no evidence that Mueller did anything wrong at the time, they’re just looking for an excuse to call him as a witness. Repeatedly. And to argue that Mueller “can’t lead one investigation while he’s the target of another.”
In addition to the Uranium One deal, Republicans are also making a run at Mueller’s investigation from other fronts.
Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has introduced a resolution demanding Mueller’s resignation because he was running the FBI at the time the Uranium One deal was originally investigated and Mueller, according to Gaetz, acted to protect Obama and Clinton. Gaetz was back on Fox this week, pressing the idea that the FBI “deep state” hates Trump.
Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) introduced legislation to limit the length of Mueller’s investigation to six months and prohibit the investigation from looking at any information from before the day Trump announced he was entering the presidential race.
Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC)—the head of the Freedom Caucus—demanded an investigation into the FBI over how it proceeded on the Hillary Clinton emails and how it launched its investigation into the Trump–Russia connection.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) reversed his earlier support for a bipartisan investigation, sent letters to the FBI demanding information about their investigation of Uranium One, and sent letters to both the FBI and the Department of Justice demanding information about an FBI agent who appears to have said favorable things about Clinton. Grassley also demanded to see information on how the FBI came into possession of the Steele Dossier.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denied that there was any need to protect Mueller from being fired.
Senator Chuck Grassley (yes, again) went much further, suggesting that any attempt to stop Trump from firing Mueller would be unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, right-wing groups from Sean Hannity to Judicial Watch have demanded Mueller’s resignation on the grounds that he’s too close to James Comey, too friendly with Hillary Clinton, or too prejudiced against Donald Trump.
Since Trump’s inauguration, and particularly in just the last month, Republicans have made a shift that is extraordinarily dangerous—nothing short of an existential crisis for democracy.
- That shift can be seen in the support for Roy Moore. After initially jumping back from Moore following disclosure of Moore’s assault on underage girls, Republicans took at first tentative steps in his direction then, with Trump’s urging, restored full support of Moore.
- The shift can be seen in the withdrawal of support for Mueller. Republicans previously worried that they needed to appear to support a through, open investigation. That’s no longer true. The pressure from the right is increasingly toward shutting off any investigation.
- That shift includes not just allowing Trump to walk away from any crimes, but using this “opportunity” to assault the FBI, DOJ, and intelligence community and replace them with something more … friendly. Something like Erik Prince’s private Stasi.
- That shift can be seen in statements from Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who originally introduced legislation to keep Mueller from being fired, but now says he sees the reason for the Senate to take up that legislation. McConnell has never brought it to the floor.
- That shift makes it increasingly likely that no matter what Robert Mueller uncovers, it will generate no action. It’s extremely likely that Mueller will present the Congress with multiple grounds for impeachment. It’s equally likely that Republicans will take no action—other than to attack Mueller’s credibility.
Early on, Republicans were still concerned enough about appearing to do the right thing, that Devin Nunes recused himself from the House Intelligence Committee after his disastrous follies around “unmasking” and Jefferson Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation at the DOJ. There will be no more recusals. In fact, Nunes is now directly talking to Erik Prince about how intelligence should be done.
Grassley’s move in going after the FBI, Clinton, Comey, and Mueller is the clearest sign of all concerning what’s changed. His early participation in the effort to investigate Trump’s Russian connections marked genuine concern about Republicans that the investigation would surface issues that required Trump’s removal from office, and the prevailing attitude at the time that it was better to clear the air. But Grassley’s absolute reversal and entrenchment in the fight to demean Mueller and the FBI, as well as create a new investigation of Clinton, Obama, and all things Democratic, represents the new Republican understanding—it doesn’t matter what Trump did.
What Republicans have learned from Trump—and from Roy Moore—is not to let a little thing like criminal activity and immorality get in the way of getting what they want. They’ve touched the stove … and decided it’s not so hot after all.
Republican voters are not about to hold Trump liable for any action, no matter how astonishing or vile it may have seemed a year ago. In fact, those voters will reward bad behavior as another sign of “strength.” Republicans in Congress didn’t catch onto that immediately … but they’re clued in now.
The deal that Mueller has made with George Papadopoulos and Michael Flynn seems to neatly define the Great Trump Whale that’s still lurking out there in the darkness—Trump promised to end sanctions against Russia in return for Russia’s “dirt” on Hillary and because he needed those pipelines open for the real estate deals that are essential to his finances, and Jared’s finances, and Flynn’s finances, and Cohen’s finances, and Manafort’s finances, and Gates’s finances, and probably a dozen others. Since then Trump has made every effort to both cover-up what he did and obstruct any investigation.
But there’s really no further need for Trump to engage in obstruction. The Congress will take it from here. Republicans will either pretend this whale doesn’t exist, or that it doesn’t matter.
And when they do, something is going to snap. If it hasn’t already.