Robert Mueller moves the goalposts on Donald Trump yet again
Since the midterms, the big debate among the political pundits has been whether House Democrats should impeach Donald Trump simply because he’s a dangerously ill tempered maniac. Then Special Counsel Robert Mueller decided that it was time to move the goalposts. He released the Michael Flynn sentencing memo on Tuesday which – even with all the redactions – made clear that he had serious dirt on Trump. That led the pundits to begin debating whether that dirt would be enough to oust Trump. Now Mueller has moved the goalposts again.
Robert Mueller, working in lockstep with his prosecutorial allies, revealed two things on Friday. First, he had SDNY formally accuse Donald Trump of two instances of felony cheating in the 2016 election, both relating to buying the silence of his mistresses (and don’t think for a second that Mueller isn’t guiding SDNY on this). Second, he accused the Trump campaign and Russia of having plotted some kind of “synergy” during the election. This prompted a very different kind of debate.
This weekend we’ve seen the pundits asking whether House Democrats should impeach Donald Trump because federal prosecutors have formally accused him of two felonies (and clearly have proof), while also debating what should happen to Trump if it can be proven that he was directly involved in the “synergy” with Russia. Suffice it to say that there are more people who think Trump should be ousted for campaign finance felonies than who think he should he ousted simply for being such a dick, and in turn there are more people who think he should be ousted if conspired with Russia than who think he should be ousted for campaign finance felonies.
This sets the stage for Robert Mueller to reveal that Donald Trump did in fact conspire with Russia to alter the outcome of the election, or whichever felony Mueller chooses to formally reveal about Trump next. There are nonpartisan Americans sitting at home and thinking “I don’t think he should be ousted unless ____ is proven,” depending on what their threshold is – and then the next thing you know, Mueller proves “____” accordingly.
The fascinating thing right now is that Mueller and his allies are driving the media narrative about Donald Trump. Even one of the pro-Trump guys from Fox News had to acknowledge yesterday that Trump is likely to be indicted at some point, because if Trump is going down, they don’t want to be seen as having been foolishly caught off guard by it in the eyes of their audience.
While we still have no way of knowing what specific series of moves Robert Mueller will make over the next three to four weeks, it’s getting easier to see where he’s headed with this. By the time the Democrats take control of the House on January 3rd, Mueller will have already moved the goal posts so many times, most Americans will have become gradually convinced – some eagerly, some reluctantly – that Trump has to go. As Palmer Report spelled out from the start, Mueller was never simply going to file a report and go home.
