The redacted version of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller has finally been released. It shows that Attorney General William Barr told the truth weeks ago when he said the investigation found no collusion and that President Trump was not guilty of obstruction of justice.
Democrats, most of whom have spent the last two years insisting that both of those things were true, have been stripped of the biggest weapons in their arsenal. Worse, it has now been demonstrated that the biggest weapons in their arsenal were never really weapons at all, and that’s just embarrassing. That means Democrats are about to resort to their standard operating procedure, which is bullying their opponents.
Sadly, this is nothing new. Democrats in power long have used their clout to harass, intimidate, bully, and threaten their political opponents in furtherance of their political agenda. Within the first two years of the launch of the Obama administration, for instance, the Internal Revenue Service was targeting Obama’s political opponents in violation of our First Amendment rights. Personal and business audits of Tea Party donors, activists, and supporters went through the roof, as did ridiculously overbearing questions from IRS officials about the subjects of our discussions and the content of our prayers. To this day, no one has yet been held accountable.
And remember the story of Brendan Eich, who was forced out of his job as chief executive officer of Mozilla in 2014 after gay rights activists learned of his $1,000 contribution in support of California’s 2008 Proposition 8, which declared marriage to be the union of one man and one woman? Political opponents weren’t the only ones targeted for bullying by the Obama administration. Journalists who had the temerity to report stories that cast Obama administration officials and policies in unflattering light were bullied, too.
Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson, New York Times reporter James Risen, and Fox News reporter James Rosen were all bullied by the Obama administration for doing their jobs. Now House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts is using his new-found power to demand that the IRS turn over the last six years worth of President Trump’s tax returns, ostensibly so the committee can determine if the IRS is properly auditing the returns of the president. But if that’s so, why is Neal insisting on getting his hands on returns for tax years before Trump was even a candidate, let alone president?
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff are doing their parts to bully the president, issuing subpoenas earlier this week for Trump-related documents from Deutsche Bank, one of the banks Trump has used. House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings got in on the act, issuing a subpoena to Mazars, an accounting firm that has handled President Trump’s financial statements. And, of course, there’s the granddaddy of them all, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler’s continued investigation into Russian collusion and obstruction of justice, and his subpoena for the full, unredacted version of the Mueller report and its underlying documents.
But Democrats should be careful in their investigatory zeal. A new Monmouth University poll asked an interesting question: “Now that the Mueller investigation is over, should Congress move on to other issues or are there still concerns related to that investigation that Congress should continue to look into?” By a margin of 54-39 percent, survey respondents answered that it was time for Congress to move on to other issues.
Sometimes, the proper action is not to do something, but just to stand there. According to that poll, a majority of the American public appears to get that. Too bad Democrat leaders don’t.
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