Opinion: Mueller testimony will have little effect on national opinion.
That was the best sound bite Democrats extracted Wednesday from former special counsel Robert Mueller during his testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
It might play well in a campaign commercial juxtaposed with President Trump’s repeated claims that he was fully exonerated by the 22-month investigation.
But anyone who has bothered to read a legitimate news account of the Mueller report, or the document itself, has known that the president’s portrayal was a lie.
We already knew that the evidence indicates Trump tampered with witnesses and obstructed justice — but that the special prosecutor, in his words, “did not make any determination with regard to culpability in any way.”
Wednesday’s committee hearing added nothing new. And, sadly, too much of the nation has grown numb to the president’s outrageous comments and conduct, including that detailed in the special prosecutor’s 448-page report released to the public more than three months ago.
Surveys since the release have repeatedly shown that a majority of Americans still don’t think the House should launch impeachment hearings. And if it were to impeach, Senate Republicans would not convict him.
Indeed, their GOP colleagues in the House showed once again Wednesday that they’re more concerned with trying to undermine Mueller’s credibility than acknowledging Trump’s lies and damaging behavior.
They are quite happy to play out the election clock, keeping the nation’s voters deadlocked and exasperated — and distracted from the critical issues that affect their lives.
Democrats have a choice. They can try to win the impeachment battle, or they can focus on winning the war, the 2020 presidential election. But they can’t do both.
Pursuit of impeachment won’t succeed in conviction, but will succeed in alienating key voters in swing states needed to defeat Trump in the Electoral College.
It’s time for congressional Democrats, and the party’s presidential hopefuls, to stop their internal warfare and to stop letting the president’s behavior dominate the news cycle and the election.
It’s time to put the focus on the impending destruction of the Affordable Care Act, the continuing lack of a thoughtful and comprehensive immigration plan, the nation’s soaring deficit, income inequality, climate change, infrastructure needs, Russian meddling in our elections and our country’s deepening isolation from our traditional allies.
In short, Democrats need a plan that doesn’t depend on politically risky hearings that produce a national eye-rolling. And they need a campaign message that voters in swing states can get behind.
That’s not “Medicare for all” when most people don’t want to give up their health insurance. It’s not decriminalizing illegal entry into the country. Nor is it touting school busing or publicly funded health coverage for undocumented immigrants, however smart those policies might actually be.
Those policies won’t play in Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania, the states that will likely determine who wins the 2020 presidential election.
With the long-awaited and predictably anticlimactic Mueller testimony behind us, the political focus shifts to next week’s second round of Democratic debates.
We’ll soon see if the candidates plan to stop beating up on each other and focus on a message that can pierce Trump. The Mueller report didn’t move the needle. And his testimony probably didn’t change anyone’s mind, either.