Lindsey Graham hits the panic button about Robert Mueller
Earlier this week, as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham was using his committee as a platform for William Barr to spread lies about the Mueller report, Graham publicly insisted that he didn’t need to hear directly from Robert Mueller. Then last night the news broke that Mueller has been negotiating with House Democrats to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Now Graham is hitting the panic button.
Lindsey Graham sent a public letter to Robert Mueller today, inviting him to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s not difficult to figure out why Graham is doing such an abrupt about-face. Mueller is planning to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, where the Democratic House majority will work to help him relay the truth to the American people. Graham and his puppet master Donald Trump have clearly concluded that they can’t stop Mueller from testifying before the House, so they’re going to try get him to also testify before the Senate, where Graham will try to slant things in Trump’s favor.
If last night’s reporting from NBC News is 100% accurate, it means that Robert Mueller is only planning to testify before the House, at least for the time being, and has no current plans to voluntarily testify before the Trump-controlled Senate. If Mueller declines Lindsey Graham’s “invitation” to testify, we’ll see if Graham goes so far as to subpoena Mueller.
What might matter most is the order in which Robert Mueller testifies, as the first committee to get him in front of the television cameras will get to set the tone. For instance, it was clear why William Barr chose to testify to the Senate first and the House second; he wanted to start by selling his lies to the public from within the Trump-friendly confines of the Senate. When even that went poorly for him, he bailed on the House entirely. In any case, the upshot here is that Lindsey Graham, by reversing course so suddenly, is clearly panicking over Mueller.
