Three years after the whole thing started, imagine what America could have accomplished had it not been for the Russia collusion hoax that has so divided our nation.
In his testimony before two House committees Wednesday, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller revealed the left’s utter failure to substantiate the Russiagate hoax despite hysterical media coverage, numerous wide-ranging fishing expeditions by federal investigators, and countless conspiracy theories from Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Democrats thought this would be the “movie” version of the “book” presented by Mueller in his written report. They were betting on it being “The Lion King,” but what we saw was more like “Ferris Mueller’s Day Off.”
BRET BAIER: MUELLER HEARINGS A 'FAILURE' FOR DEMS
Democrats have absolutely no record of accomplishment since Trump took office. They’ve set a new low standard for presidential harassment such that everything will be fair game in the future by an opposition party against a sitting president.
If only the American public could have seen Mueller’s testimony three years earlier, almost no one would have bought into the fake collusion story at all — and maybe, just maybe, Democrats would have focused instead on doing the people’s business in Washington.
I believe that Americans on both sides of the political divide would trade away Mueller’s entire investigation in a heartbeat in exchange for the real, meaningful progress this country could have made if our efforts had been directed at solving problems rather than bickering over the legitimate result of a presidential election.
Democrats thought this would be the “movie” version of the “book” presented by Mueller in his written report. They were betting on it being “The Lion King,” but what we saw was more like “Ferris Mueller’s Day Off.”
It’s hard to overstate just how many opportunities were lost. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton disagreed on many, many issues, but even after Trump’s 2016 victory, both candidates’ supporters remained broadly united on many other fronts.
That could have served as a solid foundation for compromise and bipartisanship if Democrats had not poisoned the well of cooperation by inventing the collusion hoax to excuse their candidate’s stunning electoral defeat.
Take, for example, overhauling America’s infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, tunnels, railroads, waterways, and transportation hubs are the sinews and the lifeblood of the American economy. Unfortunately, much of our existing transportation network remains essentially unimproved from the New Deal public works projects of the 1930s and '40s and the interstate highway program of the 1950s and '60s.
While China, our only true economic competitor, builds gleaming new superhighways and other civil engineering marvels, America’s infrastructure is crumbling for lack of maintenance and modernization.
In 2016, there was a lot of political will to fix the problem with bipartisan support. Even Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declared he was ready to work with Trump on an infrastructure package in those pre-witch hunt days.
But that golden opportunity quickly slipped away under the sinister cloud of Russiagate. President Trump is a dealmaker, not a partisan, but it ultimately proved impossible for Democrats to work with the president while simultaneously devoting all of their political capital to framing him as a traitor, a criminal, and a Russian intelligence asset.
Democrats rode the Russiagate hysteria to victory in key House races in the 2018 midterm elections, but Democratic control of the House of Representatives only intensified government gridlock. The American people have paid the price with the failure of Congress to approve funding for overwhelmingly popular infrastructure improvements.
The same disappointing narrative played out in the debates over trade, immigration, health care, and a host of other pressing problems. Despite broad public agreement on these matters, we’ve seen little to no progress for more than two years. Russiagate simply consumed all.
The collusion hoax has been especially detrimental to America’s relationship with Russia, the one area in which Russian electoral interference is actually relevant. Even President Obama and Hillary Clinton recognized that in some instances maintaining a working relationship with the former superpower is essential, regardless of the differences we may have with the Russian government.
Without Russiagate, Trump stood poised to actually accomplish the “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations that backfired so embarrassingly for Clinton when she was secretary of state.
Meaningful coordination and negotiation with Russia could have eased tensions and improved outcomes with respect to the frozen conflict in Ukraine, the fight against ISIS in Syria, containing the growing threat posed by China, bringing Iran’s nuclear ambitions to heel, and countless other areas central to America’s national interest.
Instead, because of Russiagate, every effort President Trump has made to cooperate more closely with Russia on areas of mutual interest has been cast in a ridiculously sinister light by Democrats and the liberal media, bringing out calls of “treason” and fever dreams about Vladimir Putin pulling the strings in Washington.
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The Trump administration could have been the start of a new era of political comity and bipartisan progress for America, but Democrats turned it into an era of bitter partisanship with the collusion witch hunt.
All we can do now is wonder what might have been as we watch Democrats make yet another ridiculous attempt at a coup against the president.
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