I am not following the hearings themselves but the reactions to them, because frankly whenever a Republican starts asking questions I feel nausea. Stupidity has that effect on me. So I’ve cranked up some music so I can’t hear the television set.
The day’s hearings are not over, but frankly I don’t see that anything will be accomplished. Lefties are certain Mueller’s testimony hurt Trump. Righties are already just as certain that Mueller’s testimony exonerates Trump.
For example, the crew at Twitchy is tearing down Mueller for being weak and senile. They have also apparently just learned that “collusion” is not a legal term, a point we lefties knew all along, and somewhere in their tiny little minds they have decided that this fact repudiates Adam Schiff in some manner. Righties are, frankly, dumb as stumps sometimes. They are also making much over Mueller’s refusal to answer many questions that call for him to draw conclusions not already drawn in the report, which of course is just following Bill Barr’s orders.
It was apparently a big surprise to some people that Trump can be indicted and prosecuted once he leaves office; I hadn’t realized that even was a question. There is also a lot of attention being paid to Mueller’s reasons for not indicting, which is old news, seems to me.
Yes, we’ve gotten some headlines that the president is “not exculpated,” which will mean nothing to most Trump supporters, a crew that struggles with second-grade level English.
It’s not all bad, of course. Josh Marshall writes,
I don’t want to get too fan-boyish about Adam Schiff. But his questioning and that of the intelligence committee Democrats so far is a good illustration of zeroing in on what is important in all of this. President Trump and his campaign encouraged Russian assistance in the 2016; they cooperated with it; they profited from it. The President and his campaign manager were both trying to make cash windfalls in Russia while all this was happening. This is what is important. This is a massive betrayal of country. Whether that amounted to a statute crime is secondary.
Right; and of course if a Democratic president had done anything even faintly resembling that he would have been impeached in a heartbeat. But Republicans protect their own, no matter how corrupt and traitorous they are.
It is worth noting the essence of the Republican argument is that the President really should not have been investigated since he could not be indicted. And if he must be investigated the public shouldn’t learn anything about what was discovered unless there was an indictment, which of course can’t happen.
Maybe not, but presidents sure as hell can be impeached. We need to begin impeachment hearings. We don’t have to have a vote right away. Just start the blasted hearings.