Media See Trump-Russia Collusion Case Falling Apart, Begin Weaseling Way Out
Russia, Russia, Russia. It’s been a rallying cry of the establishment media and the left in general.
Since the investigation of President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia began, news has continued to come out about the sketchy origins of accusations — from the Trump “dossier” being financed by the Hillary Clinton campaign to the endless texts about FBI agents and their FBI lawyer lovers colluding against Trump and his campaign.
But a Politico report Friday about the progress of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of so-called collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia might have the worst news yet for liberals hoping to see the Trump presidency brought down.
The report is headlined: “Mueller report PSA: Prepare for disappointment.”
And if that doesn’t make it clear enough that the Beltway media has lost its faith that the Trump White’s House’s resignation is imminent, the first two paragraphs will:
“President Donald Trump’s critics have spent the past 17 months anticipating what some expect will be among the most thrilling events of their lives: special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report on Russian 2016 election interference.
“They may be in for a disappointment.”
That’s because, according to Politico, the publication’s extensive interviews with defense attorneys on the case as well as Washington insiders stretching from the Watergate days of the 1970s to the present indicate there might not be the kind of payoff for the Mueller probe that liberals are hoping for.
The public, Politico wrote, “shouldn’t expect a comprehensive and presidency-wrecking account of Kremlin meddling and alleged obstruction of justice by Trump — not to mention an explanation of the myriad subplots that have bedeviled lawmakers, journalists and amateur Mueller sleuths. “
Or as Ashe Schow of the The Daily Wire put it, with a little more pizzazz: “It looks like President Donald Trump’s critics might not get the earth-shattering, presidency-destroying, nail-in-the-coffin FBI report confirming Russian collusion they were hoping for.”
The Politico report had a lot of reasons Mueller’s report might not clear much up:
Mueller’s operating under a different, more restrictive set of rules than Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr was investigating the Clinton White House; the fact that Mueller is reporting to the Justice Department instead of Congress; the potential for political interference from the White House or, potentially, a Democratic Congress if Republicans lose the House or Senate in the midterm elections.
What’s really interesting in Politico’s lengthy report, though, is that it’s virtually lacking the one major reason the end of Mueller’s investigation — whenever it comes — won’t be satisfying for liberals: Because there wasn’t anything to the Russian collusion charge in the first place.
Have there been indictments and guilty pleas? Yes, but only to peripheral aspects, like Trump’s first national security advisor Michael Flynn pleading guilty to lying to the FBI, or former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleading guilty to tax evasion for activities that long predated his service with the Trump campaign.
On the core accusations, however, that Trump won the election with the help of the Kremlin — and worked consciously with Russian agents to that end — the special counsel’s investigation just might come up with a big fat zero.
And that possibility has the same media that was breathless with every twist of the Mueller screw since his appointment in May 2017 suddenly finding other things to talk about.
This is why the narrative has shifted from “Russian collusion” to “voter suppression.” https://t.co/JdAJCNG5wQ
— Mike Cernovich 🇺🇸 (@Cernovich) October 22, 2018
Naturally, the Mueller investigation is still continuing, so there’s no report in the immediate offing, much less before the midterms.
But what’s more telling than anything is Politico’s warning now — even billed as a “PSA” — that Trump critics can’t expect much from whenever it finally ends.
The article gives the last word to Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook, who is already treating the Mueller report as though it will not have justified any of the Democrats’ loudest accusations about the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia.
“I assume there are going to be lots of details we’ll never learn, and lots of things that will never come to light,” Mook said, basically establishing the groundwork for Democrats not to believe any Mueller report that doesn’t outright condemn Trump.
Politico wrote that Mook would consider Mueller’s probe a “success” if it answered some questions:
“For example, Mook wants to know whether and how the Russian government infiltrated the Trump campaign to influence the election outcome. He wants to know whether there was an effort in the White House or in the president’s orbit to cover up what happened.”
Yes, and if the report doesn’t tell him what he and the rest of the Trump-hating liberals and media complex want to hear, they’re going to pretend the report never even happened.
The media is already starting to behave that way, whether its to save face for themselves and for Mueller; or whether it’s to try to avoid showing Democrats for the morally vacuous charlatans they are.
Unfortunately for the media and the Democrats, it’s too late for both.
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