Cal Thomas: The Mueller report

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 26th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Commentator Cal Thomas is here now with his reaction to the Mueller report.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: The Mueller report is finally finished. And this saga shows what happens when you begin with a conclusion and then desperately seek evidence you hope will confirm it.

The conclusion: Donald Trump was illegitimately elected. Thus, he and/or his campaign must have conspired with the Russians to undermine Hillary Clinton’s candidacy.

We now know the Russians did meddle in the election, but there’s no evidence it affected the outcome. And a summary of the Mueller report Attorney General Bob Barr sent to Congress found no evidence of collusion. Full stop.

The president quickly claimed “full exoneration.” Democrats counter that Mueller made no judgment on obstruction of justice by the president and the report even says, “It does not exonerate him.”

Does that remind you of anything? In 2016 former FBI Director James Comey told the nation that while Hillary Clinton may have violated the law in her careless sharing of classified emails as secretary of state, it was unintentional.

That will make it awfully hard for Democrats to credibly try to enforce a different standard now.

But try they will. Expect Democrats to renew the narrative that Trump is crooked, unfit, unstable, and unqualified for the office he holds—and that no amount of evidence to the contrary will keep them from continuing investigations.

This is all the Democrats have. As The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial: “Starting about the time of Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the press ran story after story based on anonymous ‘intelligence sources’, purporting to establish links between the Trump presidential campaign, or various individuals in the Trump orbit to, well, to what was never exactly clear—whether Vladimir Putin himself or ‘the Russians.’ This in turn led to multiple congressional investigations, much of them centered on the FBI’s handling of these matters.”

This report is not worth the millions of dollars it cost taxpayers. The convictions it brought either had nothing to do with the Trump campaign or were process crimes. But it’s a process that shouldn’t have happened.

Who will reimburse those who suffered economic and reputational harm from being caught-up in this dragnet to show, ultimately, there is no there there?

The full report should be released as soon as possible—consistent with national security, protection of grand jury testimony, and redaction of hearsay. And the two parties should use this opportunity to work together to prevent Russia from meddling in the 2020 presidential election.

But, instead, I’m sure we’ll get more of the same from those who have a visceral hatred of the president—and who play right into Russia’s efforts to divide us.

I’m reminded of the words of Sir Winston Churchill. After a small British victory near the start of World War II, he said: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

For WORLD Radio, I’m Cal Thomas.

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Special Counsel Robert Mueller walks to his car after attending services at St. John’s Episcopal Church, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2019. 

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