Mueller's report paints a damning portrait of Trump's presidency
The Trump presidency long has been an exercise in normalizing extraordinary behavior, with President Trump repeatedly stretching the limits of what is considered appropriate conduct by the nations chief executive. The report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III puts into high relief the degree to which President Trump has violated the norms.
The principal focus of the special counsels investigation was on questions of criminality. But there is more than the issue of what rises to the level of criminal conspiracy or criminal obstruction when judging a president and his administration. These are questions that go to the heart of what is acceptable or normal or advisable in a democracy. On that basis, the Mueller report provides a damning portrait of the president and those around him for actions taken during the 2016 campaign and while in office.
The 448-page document is replete with evidence of repeated lying by public officials and others (some of whom have been charged for that conduct), of the president urging not to tell the truth, of the president seeking to shut down the investigation, of a Trump campaign hoping to benefit politically from Russian hacking and leaks of information damaging to its opponent, of a White House in chaos and operating under abnormal rules.
It shows a White House where officials sometimes but not always resisted the presidents more nefarious orders and concludes that Trump was not able to influence the investigation as much as he wished because advisers declined to carry out some of those orders. It also suggests, despite his many claims to the contrary, that the president felt vulnerable to an investigation. When informed just months after taking office that a special counsel was to be appointed, Trump exclaimed that it would mean the end of my presidency.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/muellers-report-paints-a-damning-portrait-of-trumps-presidency/2019/04/18/d7f52726-61f7-11e9-bfad-36a7eb36cb60_story.html?utm_term=.1593fffc68fc&wpisrc=al_trending_now__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)clear the Russians helped get him elected. That has got to hurt trump, although he'll act publicly like the report says he's the greatest of all time.