Conservatives Stunned by Mueller Suggesting Trump Is Not Innocent

[dajoki]

Conservatives Stunned by Mueller Suggesting Trump Is Not Innocent
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/conservatives-stunned-by-mueller-implying-trump-not-innocent.html

Robert Mueller’s brief, eight-minute remarks on Wednesday about his investigation left the non-conservatives who closely follow his work fairly nonplussed. Mueller was simply reiterating things he had already written in his report. Conservatives, on the other hand, erupted in outrage.

What so vexed the right about Mueller’s curt affirmation of his previous conclusions? The answer, as we’ll see, seems to be that they believed their own propaganda about what Mueller had (and had not) found. Presented even briefly with reality, their minds have reeled in shock.

<<snip>>

Shortly after Mueller finished speaking, National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke complained, “Investigators are supposed to look for evidence that a crime was committed, and, if they don’t find enough to contend that a crime was committed, they are supposed to say ‘We didn’t find enough to contend that a crime was committed’ … If a person doesn’t have enough evidence that someone committed a crime to contend that a crime was committed, he is obliged to presume his innocence.”

Of course. But the explanation for this apparent paradox, which apparently hasn’t crossed Cooke’s mind, is that Mueller does have evidence that Trump committed crimes. Pages and pages and pages of evidence, in fact.

And as silly and basic as his error may be, fellow conservatives followed the same fundamentally mistaken premise. “By implying that President Trump might have committed obstruction of justice, Mueller effectively invited Democrats to institute impeachment proceedings,” writes a stunned Alan Dershowitz. “Obstruction of justice is a ‘high crime and misdemeanor’ which, under the Constitution, authorizes impeachment and removal of the president.”

Right. Mueller found clear and extensive evidence that Trump committed high crimes and misdemeanors. Dershowitz proceeds from his confusion to complain that Mueller’s insinuation that Trump committed high crimes could only be resolved through “a full adversarial trial with a zealous defense attorney, vigorous cross-examination, exclusionary rules of evidence, and other due process safeguards.” That process is called impeachment. Dershowitz is describing the reason why Mueller is leaving the decision to prosecute the crimes he discovered to Congress. Because Dershowitz cannot surrender his belief in Trump’s innocence, he sees Mueller as carrying out an unfathomable Kafkaesque travesty, rather than a straightforward application of the system of processing presidential crimes.

John Podhoretz laments that Mueller emphasized his lack of exoneration of Trump’s conduct. “Granted, [Mueller] said pretty much the same thing in the report he produced,” Podhoretz concedes, but “t matters what he chose to repeat from it and what he did not. He wanted the American people to hear him speak those words.” Podhoretz is aghast that Mueller would emphasize this, but the reason is perfectly obvious: It’s because Barr lied about it.

<<snip>>

[Downtown Hound]

1. God damn lemmings. n/t

[SHRED]

2. They live in a bubble

Of their own making and nurturing.

[lagomorph777]

9. It's hilarious that they are stating facts obvious to us as if they are new information,

and as if they are some kind of reductio ad absurdem that couldn't possibly be true. Yes, these things are true. Get used to it.

[dchill]

18. They try to talk everyone else into this shit...

While they're talking themselves into it.

[CentralMass]

3. Just imagine if he had stated that crimes were committed.

[sop]

30. Mueller's report would never have been released with findings of crminality

Had that report had come to light, Barr and/or Rosenstein would now claim Mueller wasn't authorized to reach such conclusions since Trump cannot be charged.

[gratuitous]

4. This is why having Mueller testify is important

Yes, even if he just reiterates his report word for word, there's another dimension of communication in verbal testimony that isn't there with the written word. Conservatives can dependably rely on their supporters not reading something. That's active information gathering that they know their fans don't much care for. But listening to someone speak, with inflections and nuances and emphases unavailable in a written report? That's whole nother kettle of horses of a different feather.

[NewJeffCT]

7. I agree 100% on that

the old saying that people will watch the movie, but not read the book, definitely applies.

[lagomorph777]

10. Yup. Nobody reads, especially not Trump's illiterate rubes.

[John Fante]

11. Excellent point.

[spooky3]

28. ITA. I hope Nadler has been saying that to Mueller. Nt

[Blue Owl]

5. They were told there'd be cake...

[Raven123]

6. I think Mueller erred

He assumed DOJ and the GOP controlled Senate would accept a nuanced conclusion to his investigation. What was he thinking????? I read the Mueller report.

Regardless of OLC opinion about indicting a sitting President, Mueller had an obligation to complete a FULL investigation, including deposing POTUS in-person. The idea that he would back-off because of a “fairness doctrine” is absurd. Unless he has had his head in the sand I don’t know how Mueller could conceive that a “could not exonerate” conclusion would not be twisted by Trump and his administration.

Now we are left with Barr claiming Mueller should have identified a crime if he found one and Mueller saying it wasn’t his job due to OLC.

JUST TOO CONVENIENT.

[NewJeffCT]

8. In the Mueller report

it stated that they regarded getting Trump to testify on the stand as something that would be tied up in the courts for an extended period of time, even though they considered his written answers to be inadequate.

[Raven123]

15. I am aware. I think he he should have pressed.

[Brawndo]

12. He did err. The results of the report are a tool, if Mueller won't use it, Barr sure as hell will.

[Raven123]

16. Already has. Barr claims Mueller had no impediment to asserting Trump committed a crime.

[Brawndo]

19. Of course if Mueller had reached a definitive, explicit conclusion, Barr would've went with the OLC

policy. It's almost like Barr isn't acting in good faith.

If the USA has an epitaph it should include a bit about how a 243 year Constitutional Republic wasn't worth one good Marine's integrity. In his mind, our country isn't worth being "unfair" to Individual 1.

[catbyte]

13. They've been living in their little bubble for years. Remember how shocked they were in 2012

when President Obama easily won re-election, but they were all convinced we were going to see a "Romney Tsunami?" Willful ignorance is one of the hardest things to break through because they don't want reality. They want their fantasy world.

[Ford_Prefect]

17. There's no fool like...one that believes in magic and hearsay rather than logic.

They still believe that they are so exceptional that the rules, any rules, simply do not apply to them. Rules are for ordinary people, not for God's chosen. This kind of thing just isn't supposed to happen to them, is it?

[sop]

31. It's an article of faith to them, not a reasoned position

As they say, "you can't reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into."

[Ligyron]

33. Reminds one of "Please proceed Governor".

Romney believed the Fox narrative that President Obama wouldn't use the term "terrorist" when they had him on tape doing just that.

A brainwashed fox bubble dwelling friend of mine on Facebook threatened to block me when I pointed out Trump liked to bust in on partially nude female contestants during the beauty pageants he sponsored, even doing so on underage girls in his teen pageants.

Why that couldn't possibly be true! A link to Trump bragging about doing so on The Howard Stern Show shut him up.

He and his friend had been pushing the Joe Bidden is a creepy hands all over strange females pervert stalker nonsense.

They live in another world.

[uponit7771]

14. Confirmed !!After 3 hours of FAUX News they're taken back with Mueller's words. It's important

... that Mueller testify to congress

[spanone]

20. they only see what they want to see.

[BlueJac]

21. We are now dealing with the Walking Dead...

regardless of all facts, they still believe!

[DallasNE]

22. Mueller Shows The Disinfectant Power Of Sunshine

440 page reports don't get read by the masses. But 9 minute public addresses get watched and only that can change minds. Now we need the additional disinfectant administered by public discovery hearings intended to lead to impeachment. And don't worry about the politics because this is what is demanded by the rule of law as laid out in the Constitution itself.

[spooky3]

29. +1

[Ligyron]

34. If they don't see it on TV, it didn't happen.

Wag the Dog rule #1.

[Achilleaze]

23. Get a clue, repubes

d'oh

[certainot]

24. their god limbaugh has been telling them from 600 radio stations about the 'deep state coup'

for 2 years! and then barr reinforced it and they're all in denial

if americans want to have a fact based discussion about ANY major issue we're going to have to destroy the talk radio monopoly that's probably being fed increasingly by the kremlin

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

25. Fuck em

[Mc Mike]

26. Yeah. It's a real shocker.

Pea brained nazis.

[NoMoreRepugs]

27. The party (GOP) line is no collusion, no obstruction. Facts and Mueller reinforcing the facts

demonstrates the exact opposite of the party line. Of course they are dumbfounded. This is why the BizzaroWorld of conservatives and our world are going to be in conflict for all time going forward. Time to get used to it people.

[Fiendish Thingy]

32. I don't think there are exclusionary rules of evidence in an impeachment trial

And due process is defined differently as well since it is not a criminal proceeding subject to Constitutional rules.

So Dershowitz can SMH

[Merlot]

35. I clicked on this thinking it was an Onion article. Seriously.

[Initech]

36. Denial is a hell of a drug!

If Trump is the hill they choose to die on, so be it!

[Ohioboy]

37. Barr lying straight faced to the American people

is one of most disgusting things about this whole thing. It shows how corrupt these clowns really are, and how they think we're all stupid.

[deurbano]

38. RIP original meaning of "nonplussed"...

Robert Mueller’s brief, eight-minute remarks on Wednesday about his investigation left the non-conservatives who closely follow his work fairly nonplussed. Mueller was simply reiterating things he had already written in his report. Conservatives, on the other hand, erupted in outrage.

We'll miss you!

And yeah, for conservatives, black is white (when that's useful for them), so when confronted with reality, they push back aggressively. (While we let "nonplussed" become its opposite without a whimper...)

[subterranean]

40. Thank you!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that.

[KPN]

39. BS -- they aren't stunned. That would require a properly functioning brain. nt