Horowitz: Courageous GOP Congressman Talks About What is Actually in Mueller Report

Horowitz: Courageous GOP Congressman Talks About What is Actually in Mueller Report

I was not particularly surprised when nearly all Republican members of Congress agreed that the findings contained in the Mueller report did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and as a result did not present a compelling case for impeachment.  That is what I expected. With an election coming up and the particularly high bar of misconduct that needs to be proven to overturn the results of an election and take the extraordinary step of removing a sitting President from office that position is not without reason.

But perhaps because I am too much of an optimist, I did expect  at least some pro-forma criticism of the president’s unethical and disturbing conduct as outlined in the report--not the disgraceful, nearly lock-step echoing of President Trump’s false characterization of the report as clearing him and the nearly unanimous Republican exhortation to move on.  The essential Republican argument boils down to just because there was insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy to coordinate with our adversary Russia, the fact that there was a large number of unethical contacts and at least 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice, including a pattern of lying by the president, is not even worth noting. It is as if because someone was found not guilty of committing a murder, we dismiss the fact that he robbed a bunch of banks.  

Even more troubling,  the Republicans have been hesitant to talk about or proactively move towards legislative action to ensure that the kind of systematic interference by the Russians at unprecedented levels in the 2016 election carefully documented by Mueller doesn’t happen again in 2020.  Taking their cues from the White House, since this interference was designed mainly to benefit President Trump, Republicans have apparently signed on to the proposition that the less said about it the better, no matter what the cost to our democracy over the long-term.   

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That is why it was so refreshing to see Representative Justin Amash (R-MI) come out over the weekend and say that his careful reading of the Mueller report leads him to conclude that President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that Attorney General Barr’s characterization of the report was deliberately misleading.  Amash also noted that he didn’t think most of his Republican colleagues have even read the report.

Amash went on to say, “Contrary to Barr’s portrayal, Mueller’s report reveals that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment. In fact, Mueller’s report identifies multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice, and undoubtedly any person who is not the president of the United States would be indicted based on such evidence. Impeachment, which is a special form of indictment, does not even require probable cause that a crime (e.g., obstruction of justice) has been committed; it simply requires a finding that an official has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct. “

President Trump reacted in predictable fashion, calling Amash a ‘total lightweight and a loser.” And no doubt other Republican elected officials and the president’s media enablers will pile on.

But perhaps Amash’s courageous voice will lead other Republican elected officials to examine their consciences and cause at least a few more of them to speak out and criticize the president’s actions and conduct as devastatingly laid out in the report.   You don’t have to believe the president should be impeached to call out his behavior for what it was-beneath even the minimal standards we expect in our presidents.   It is only by speaking out and defending the values that we all supposedly cherish--of honesty, of putting country first, or respect for the rule of law and of not playing footsy with foreign adversaries to help our election efforts--can we uphold them.  That is a job for all our representatives regardless of party affiliation.

 

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island