Thanks to the Russia scandal, the 2016 presidential election continues to hang like an inescapable shadow over U.S. politics. During a Saturday appearance at Wellesley College alongside fellow former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton shared her thoughts about the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, flatly condemning Trump as guilty of obstruction of justice in the process.
In an alternate universe, observing and sharing the key, clearly stated facts from Mueller’s probe isn’t a partisan issue — but we’re in this one. Clinton shared:
‘I don’t want to be a downer but I will say this: if you take the time to read the Mueller report — actually read it — you come to two inescapable conclusions. The first is that Russia conducted a sweeping and systemic interference in our election. The second is that obstruction of justice occurred. Now, you can not read the report, chapter and verse, fact after fact, without reaching those conclusions.’
.@HillaryClinton speaks at Wellesley College: “Obstruction of justice occurred.” pic.twitter.com/EbbmHrmgDy
— The Hill (@thehill) June 8, 2019
Michigan Republican Congressman Justin Amash shared in the wake of coming out as the only member of the GOP in support of impeaching Trump that he didn’t believe House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had even read the final report from Mueller’s probe.
A group called Republicans for the Rule of Law tried to rectify that issue via announcing plans to hand-deliver highlighted copies of the Mueller report to every single Republican member of Congress, although it’s certainly unclear that members of the GOP will actually utilize the group’s resources.
Still, supporting Clinton’s conclusion, it was specifically after having read the Mueller report that current Democratic presidential contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) said that she supported impeaching Trump.
The report outlines almost a dozen investigated instances of presidential obstruction of justice, and Mueller’s team share that in most, they found the relevant intent, but they were restrained from pursuing the case to criminal charges because of standing Justice Department policy against indicting a sitting president. Mueller himself reiterated this in his first and so far only public remarks about the probe, saying at a press conference:
‘If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.’
In light of this, numerous Democrats have been amping up their calls for impeaching Trump, although so far, those who have explicitly supported that move number only about 60 and are technically in the minority. Other Democrats are seeking less drastic means to exert control over the president’s team’s belligerence — in the coming days, there are votes scheduled in the full House for holding both Attorney General Bill Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas.
In her remarks this Saturday, Clinton added that people are “tired” of the back-and-forth, but as a rebuke against the Trump administration, not Democrats pursuing responsive investigative efforts.
As she put it:
‘People just want to quit hearing about it and get back to their normal lives. There is nothing normal about undermining the rule of law. There is nothing normal about attacking the press. There is nothing normal about trying to undermine another branch of government.’
Featured Image via screenshot
