Frist is right: Congress must put nation first
Sometimes we need the wisdom of our elder statesmen and women to help us remember our values and reset our priorities.
That is what Dr. Bill Frist sought to achieve in writing his guest column over the weekend in the Washington Post.
He called on Republicans in Congress — who dominate both the House and Senate — to support and defend Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Hopefully, they will heed his words. President Donald Trump has frequently criticized the investigation and the Justice Department, undermining their credibility before his supporters, choosing politics over good governance.
Frist, the former Senate majority leader and a Nashville area resident, spoke specifically to senators about upholding the rule of law because this nation is bigger than any president or any political party.
Among the pearls of wisdom he shared:
❚ “No matter who is in the White House, we Republicans must stand up for the sanctity of our democracy and the rule of law.”
❚ “(W)e can’t look the other way as, tweet by tweet, with each new assault on the Justice Department’s independence, the bedrock principles of our party crumble.”
❚ “When Trump talks about firing the special counsel or his power to pardon himself, he makes it seem as though he has something to hide. The president must remember that only Mueller’s exoneration can lift the cloud hanging over the White House.”
❚ “The special counsel’s investigation is not about Trump. It is about our national security. Every American should be rooting for Mueller’s success in determining precisely how Russia interfered in our fundamental democratic process.”
There have been 23 indictments and five guilty pleas under the Mueller investigation, and Frist is right to call on Congress to let the special counsel finish to see what happened.
He does not believe that Trump colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he says he does think Russia tried to undermine the presidential election and our republic.
The president’s tweets calling the investigation a “witch hunt” do not help either Trump’s bravado that he is innocent or that he cares about seeing justice done.
Frist’s advice also is applicable to Democrats, who might take control of Congress after the November midterm elections.
If they do, they should embrace the message that country comes first over party and that any potential retribution toward political rivals should be discarded for the sake of justice, unity and strengthening American institutions and democracy. We have had way too much drama. Our leaders have a responsibility to rebuild the public’s trust in our institutions and continue our 242-year-old democratic experiment that has created a great and ever greater nation.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee and opinion and engagement editor for The Tennessean. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.