No, Trump never actually said those words, at least not yet, but it is easy to imagine that totally disingenuous sentence coming out of his mouth. How many times has he verbally changed horses in mid-stream when it was convenient expecting us to totally disbelieve our short term memories?
Trump repeatedly claimed on almost a daily basis for almost two years that Robert Mueller’s investigation was alternately a “witch hunt” and “a total mess” and that Mueller, who was “disgraced and discredited” was out to get him and had packed his team with “13 angry Democrats”. Now Trump is trying to salvage whole the eggs out of the truly ugly verbal omelet he has created. What does a man like Trump do after spending all of that time preparing his supporters to disbelieve the Mueller report findings when, at least according his handpicked Attorney General, the investigation concludes that it didn’t uncover enough evidence to prove that he broke any laws?
Well of course he repeats for the 1001st time that “there wasn’t any conclusion”. Then he falsely claims that the was “totally exonerated” on the obstruction of justice charges as well. Meanwhile Trump wants us to forget that he continually ridiculed the investigation and its leader. When asked by a reporter if he thought that Mueller acted honorably in conducting his investigation, Trump said “Yes he did”.
Of course he could help adding, “There are a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things. Very bad things. I would say treasonous things against our country and hopefully people that have done such harm to our country. We’ve gone through a period of really bad things happening. Those people will certainly be looked at.” That sounds like a threat, and I don’t think Trump was talking about his people who are already in jail or are heading in that direction.
According to all of the news articles I have read, Trump, like the rest of us, hasn’t seen the entire report, just William Barr’s summery. In light of Barr’s lengthy memo which served as his job application for the Attorney General’s position, it is possible that his summery of Mueller’s report is an attempt to put lipstick on a pig. Perhaps it was Barr that decided not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice over Mueller’s objections. After all, apparently Barr’s believes, as he argued in is job application, that because the chief executive is in charge of the Justice Department, he cannot by definition obstruct justice.
Regardless, Mueller certainly made it clear that his investigation did not exonerate Trump of the charge of obstruction and he must have had good reasons to make that statement. When those reasons are made public (it may take a while, but it is inconceivable that this information will not be eventually released) they are not likely be complementary of the current occupant of the White House. It will be interesting to see how Trumps addresses questions about Mueller role in light of that additional information.
Regardless of the final disposition of the Mueller report, I am sure we have not heard the last cry of “Witch hunt!” from Trump’s lips and that he will soon be again be talking at length about the traitors to the country who are out to get him. Only in the next chapter of the Trump saga it will be Democratic members of Congress who will be the target of his accusations and scorn. As the committees of the House of Representatives execute their constitutional duties of oversight of the executive branch, you can be sure that Trump will be again playing the role of persecuted victim to the hilt.
Cajun 3/27//2019