The MAGAts, with their brains in thrall to whatever Trump-favoring propaganda narrative Fox News wants to sell them, don't know, but everyone else knows -- Trump at the very least committed obstruction of justice, and likely conspired with a hostile foreign power to get himself elected.
The problem is, no one wants to be the one responsible for doing anything about it.
Mueller, in his report, passed the buck. He couldn't get key information about the conspiracy because Trump obstructed the investigation by withholding relevant personnel from giving testimony under oath, including himself. Mueller couldn't get the information that would have let him prove the conspiracy. But he hasn't been able to bring himself to come out and say even that the obstruction took place.
He couldn't even bring himself to admit the words in his own report that describe the Constitutional remedy for the impasse he found his investigation in.
How could an American "hero" and "patriot" like Robert Mueller engage in an absurd dialog like this from his testimony today?:
Late in Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee this morning, there was a head-scratching exchange between the former special counsel and Representative Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat, who tried to get Mueller to answer a seemingly simple question about something he had said.
“Director Mueller, at your May 29, 2019, press conference you explained that, quote, ‘the opinion says that the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal-justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing,’ end quote,” Escobar said. “That process other than the criminal-justice system for accusing a president of wrongdoing, is that impeachment?”
Mueller dodged: “I’m not going to comment on that.”
Escobar forged on: “In your report, you also wrote that you did not want to, quote, ‘potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct,’ end quote. For the nonlawyers in the room, what did you mean by ‘potentially preempt constitutional processes’?”
“I’m not going to try to explain that,” Mueller dodged again.
“That actually is coming from page 1 of Volume 2 in the footnote is the reference to this,” Escobar said. “What are those constitutional processes?”
This time, Mueller deadpanned an answer: “I think I heard you mention at least one.”
“Impeachment, correct?” she pressed. But Mueller had given as much as he was going to give, and he reverted to form: “I’m not going to comment.”
The exchange was absurd. By every indication, Escobar correctly intuited that Mueller was referring to impeachment. Mueller knew that Escobar, and most other informed listeners, knew this. As a matter of constitutional law, it’s not even controversial. Yet in the interest of trying to remain apolitical in the midst of an entirely political event, the former FBI director tied himself in knots trying to avoid acknowledging it, except in the most elliptical of ways: I think I heard you mention at least one.
The House Democrats are also passing the buck.
House Democrats, however, are desperate for Mueller to give them cover to forge ahead on an impeachment inquiry by telling them in his own words that Trump committed a crime. Although impeachment places the House in a position akin to a grand jury, investigating and then charging a suspect, Democrats seem to want Mueller, as a prosecutor, to forward charges to them. This leads them to plead with him to say they should act directly, as Escobar did, just as Mueller’s convictions lead him to stubbornly avoid doing so.
With the obvious responsibility for opening an impeachment inquiry falling on them, they're doing everything in their power to defuse the public pressure being placed on them to do something, anything, to hold the lawless Trump accountable. They're slow-walking and trying to pretend they have things moving along in that direction when they actually have nothing. They want to toss the hot potato of doing something about Trump -- the wanna-be dictator who thinks the Constitution gives him the power to do "anything he wants" -- to the voters, who will have the power to vote him out in 2020.
When did everyone become so craven?
The Republicans -- including Robert Mueller -- are too afraid of Trump to stand up to him even if it means selling their country out. Democrats are afraid that Trump and Fox News will say nasty things about them, and maybe they'll lose the next election.
This is the new world of fractured media landscape where a few voices of moral authority can no longer hold the line against a torrent of propaganda and psychologically manicured lies coming from all sides. The rules are out the window, or are being manipulated by politically and financially motivated hacks in the employ of a mob-like oligarchy in embryo, a la Putin.
Now is not the time for the aging Democratic political establishment to curl up in their shells and hope the American people will somehow eventually set things right. They should be learning how to fight in this new climate from young warriors like AOC, even if they're not ready to take up the rising progressive generation's policy prescriptions just quite yet.
But, dammit, folks, you've got a criminal president in office. You've got enough facts already to bury him. No one is expecting you to impeach him and have him removed from office. We know that's impossible. But at least you can open an impeachment inquiry and get ALL the facts out in the open. You've got to come out fighting.