How will the completion of the Mueller report impact President Trump's reelection chances?
Political strategists Holly Turner and Mustafa Tameez join the debate.
After 22 months, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has confirmed what President Trump has been saying all along: there was no collusion between Russia and Trump, his campaign, or anyone associated with him to win the 2016 presidential election. This is an enormous victory for the president.
A summary of Mueller’s report by Attorney General William Barr that was sent to Congress and publicly released Sunday also says that Mueller made no finding as to whether the president has obstructed justice in trying to interfere with the Mueller probe or any law enforcement effort. Instead, Mueller left that decision up to Barr.
In his summary letter, Barr wrote: “After reviewing the Special Counsel’s final report on these issues … Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and I have concluded that the evidence developed during the Special Counsel’s investigation is not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”
The report was an out-of-the-park home run for the president – the best news he could have possibly received.
With the 2020 election less than two years away, it is important that we recognize the positive impact this report will have for President Trump’s re-election campaign.
Now that the American people have finally gotten the answers we deserved from the Mueller investigation, it is time to move on as a nation.
Despite Mueller submitting his report, it remains concerning that investigations into the president and the 2016 election are not yet over.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., recently launched an additional investigation and Democrats have explored impeachment proceedings against the president – a considerable overreach at this stage.
If Democrats want to remain competitive in 2020 and have a shot at taking back the White House, it is time to end the investigations into the president.
In the end, the Mueller investigation has levied criminal charges against more than 30 people and up to three dozen companies. These results on the surface show that the people and companies associated with the Trump campaign have acted illegally, but the president himself has not been charged with wrongdoing.
And importantly, none of the people charged by Mueller’s team were accused of conspiring with Russia to help elect Trump president.
It is also important to recognize that despite no member of the Trump family being indicted, several high-level individuals in the Trump orbit have been indicted, and now sentenced. This includes Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney; Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman; Roger Stone, who has a long relationship as an adviser to Trump.
I have long argued that the Mueller probe would be the most reliable, nonpartisan investigation and that its findings should serve as the basis for understanding the events that occurred around the 2016 election.
The Democrats risk alienating the moderate and suburban voters who were pivotal to them winning the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections by continuing their investigations.
A useful comparison that the Democrats must draw are the investigations Republicans continually pursued of President Bill Clinton in 1998, following the completion of the report by Independent Counsel Ken Starr.
The American people saw the investigations by Republicans into President Clinton as overreach and this lead to huge Democratic victories in the 1998 midterm elections.
Democrats are now at risk of causing the same victories for Republicans going into the 2020 elections. The Democrats must take note from the mistakes of Republicans and recognize that following nearly two years of the Mueller investigation it appears as though no collusion or election meddling took place involving Trump or anyone associated with him.
Indeed, the American people still need answers and I fully support releasing as much of the Mueller report as possible. The four-page letter Barr sent to Congress Sunday and released to the public is not enough.
However, endless investigations into the president with no end in sight must end. Not only will more investigations hurt Democrats with the swing voters they need the most, but they are also wrong.
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Now that Mueller has submitted his report, it is clear that President Trump will not be indicted. It is time for the Democrats to accept this fact and move on with their legislative agenda.
Continuing to relitigate the 2016 election will only hurt the Democrats and bolster President Trump’s re-election chances.
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