Mueller report: Donald Trump failed us as commander in chief
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Every American of voting age should be required to read this article
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Tom Nichols is a national security professor at the Naval War College, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and author of "The Death of Expertise. "
The President of the United States, like all elected officials and public servants, swears to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies. But there is one responsibility the president must bear alone, and that is the obligation to act as the commander in chief, the guardian of our national security and the defender of our nation from malevolent foreign powers. The Mueller report makes clear that Donald Trump has failed miserably in this sacred obligation, and instead has traded his constitutional duty for his own safety.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions lay to rest some — but not all — of the legal issues surrounding the Russian attempts to subvert our democratic processes. As the report notes, Mueller’s team could not find a specific agreement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to cooperate in an operation against American institutions.
For this, we should be grateful, but that’s about as far as the good news goes.
As a team of writers at Lawfare put it, Trump’s people “were aware the Russians sought to help them win. They welcomed that assistance. Instead of warning the American public, they instead devised a public relations and campaign strategy that sought to capitalize on Russia’s illicit assistance. In other words, the Russians and theTrump campaign shared a common goal, and each side worked to achieve that goal with basic knowledge of the other side’s intention. They just didn’t agree to work toward that goal together. ”
As a candidate and as a citizen, Donald Trump had a responsibility to put a stop to this unethical and dangerous behavior in his organization. He had an obligation to report it to the FBI, and to work with the government to thwart the Russian efforts.
Instead, he knowingly allowed his campaign and some of the people closest to him to continue their contacts with the Russians, and then he spent months lying, encouraging others to cover for him, and gaslighting an entire nation with talks of witch hunts and hoaxes.
This is execrable behavior from a citizen. But a citizen has the right to be execrable and to do bad things, aslawyers would say, that are “lawful but awful. ” As president, however, it is now clear from the Mueller report thatTrump knows, and has known for years, what Mueller knew. He knows that the Russian assault on the U. S. political system was real, sustained, and serious. He knows now that he is surrounded by people who tried to benefit from that attack on his behalf. He knows that it is likely to happen again.
A president determined to fulfill his duty to protect the nation would admit these realities. He would come before the American people and their representatives with an admission, at the least, of poor judgement, and a plan to fight the continuing Russian attacks on our country. But Trump is still engaged in glorious gaslighting, with his partisans declaring victory while trying to focus the public’s attention on the few issues where the media — who amazingly got the story mostly right — ended up chasing bad leads about immensely complicated matters into dead ends.
A president determined to defend the nation would take the Mueller report as a mark of shame, and then support a full and bipartisan investigation of the security of our election process. A president who takes seriously his oathas commander in chief would, in a better administration, be in shock to realize the astonishing level of penetration of his inner circle by agents of the Russian Federation. He would clean house and demand to know how his own campaign and how people who might still have access to the West Wing became threats to national security.
A commander in chief who cared about the country would put the Russians on notice, and would do everythingin his power to protect the institutions of American democracy.
None of that will happen because Donald Trump is less concerned about his role as commander in chief than he is about his own safety and reputation. Leave the lawyers to argue over whether laws were broken about things like obstruction; let Congress debate what price, if any, to exact in the political process. Let us forget about William Barr’s shameful display on Thursday morning, and accept that he is yet another Trump appointee who is willing to commit political suttee and throw his reputation on the burning bier that is Donald Trump’s administration.
But we cannot look away from what is now, in the light of day, the undeniable reality that Donald Trump has no intention of defending this country from the Russians. At every turn, Trump has sided with Russian President Vladimir Putin against his own intelligence and law enforcement professionals. He has accepted Putin’s lies and denials, despite the fact — as we know now — that Russian interference was a fact and that Trump not only knew of it, but presided over a bunch of half-witted, morally compromised, and unpatriotic minions who were trying to figure out how to make hay out of the Russian offers of help rather than doing their duty and calling the FBI.
Russia attacked our democracy. Trump and his cronies knew it and were glad for it. As president, Trump has steadfastly refused to accept his responsibility to do anything about this assault on our institutions. This is a dereliction of duty, and it continues even now.
Donald Trump is the president and the commander in chief until the Congress or the voters say he is not. But nothing will ever change the fact that Robert Mueller has dragged into the light one of the greatest and darkest stains on a presidency in American history.
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Every sentence in this op-ed deserves to be bolded.
People say Trump is traitorous, and he is. His loyalty is not to the nation, but to himself. You could say that the most damning part of the Mueller report is that Trump knew that the Russians were illegally trying to help him win the election and not only did he not ever say anything about it proactively, he denied it over and over when others said it.
That is being a traitor.
By the way, the author of this article is a conservative. Here is the short biography of him that appears along with his articles at the conservative website, The Federalist
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Stating that he is a 'conservative' certainly doesn't give this opine piece any added value.
Never Trump Conservative
Why I'm leaving the Republican Party
What is your point? Are conservatives not allowed to be against Trump?
My point was made. Your aside that the author is conservative does not add value to this opinion piece.
Conservatives are most certainly allowed to think for themselves and vote the way they wish. In fact, it is encouraged.
In that case, may I please welcome any and all BIG R Republicans still left out there who ate by now feeling rightfully disaffected by the pervasive Trumpian dysfunction we are all suffering to join up with the rest of decent honorable moral humanity in ousting Trump and the rest of the dumbass small g teaparty gop from public offices throughout America in November 2020?
Nothing he writes points to having conservative values. He is simply another statist Trump hater. In fact the fact that he worked for liberal like Heinz demonstrates that point
his article is total nonsense. Obama was the traitor to our country on both domestic and foreign policy.
he displays either ignorance or blatant disregard for facts
we are not a democracy and I pray we never become a democracy which is just another form of communism
there are NO laws prohibiting contacts and or discussions with the Russians.
The left and never Trumpers perpetuate these lies with their attacks on honorable people like General Flynn who was never accused nor charged by the DOJ or Mueller with violating any laws out of his discussions with the Russians. Nor were any other members of the Trump campaign or Presidency
You know Obama knowingly let Russian interfere in the 2016 election and ordered a "stand down" to stop a response in order to keep Russia on his side so he could reach his Iran agreement, right?
It's truly amazing how Democrats are trying to rewrite history to make Trump, and not Obama, look like a Russian patsy. The highlight of the man's 2012 reelection was attacking Romney for daring to suggest that Russia was a major threat.
The article is clear cut, and maybe the best one I have read on this topic so far.
Trump knew that Russia was ILLEGALLY helping him over the course of many months , and said nothing. Instead he pretended the opposite.
He's a disgrace, he'll be a disgrace forever , and should be removed from office in disgrace. Instead he is running for re-election. The credibility of the Republican Party as an American institution is hanging by a thread.
The public has to be informed.
We had a member that seeded many fake news articles during the 2016 election to benefit the candidacy of Donald Trump. I am spending time posting accurate articles about Trump's traitorous behavior. You have no argument other than holding your fingers in your ears so as not to hear the truth.
The point is not that a comment on a small site like this effects national opinion, but there is a cumulative effect across many websites.
In 2016 thousands of gaslighters spread dozens of fake news articles about Hillary's health and other things all across social media. It was there every day.
It would be silly to say that all that had no effect on the election.
Will you please stop making irrelevant comments on my seeds, or is that truly all you've got?
This article is about something very specific. Trump knew Russia was ILLEGALLY helping him and said nothing, but rather pretended the opposite.
If you dont have a comment based on those facts, please dont say anyhting.
Would it be possible for you to point this out in the Mueller report for us? Perhaps you have links to facts regarding this claim?
The Mueller report corroborates all of this and does not contradict any of it
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Even if it turns out that there was no direct “collusion” to shape the 2016 election, what we have learned so far — including most recently from retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s guilty plea this past week — is incredibly troubling. The evidence is now irrefutable that Trump, his associates, and Republican leadership more broadly conspired to give Moscow a pass despite (or perhaps because of) Russia’s attack on our democracy.
While much remains unknown about the full extent and nature of the relationship between Team Trump and Russia’s 2016 election activities, we actually know a great deal already. We know that Kremlin intermediaries reached out to Trump foreign-policy advisor George Papadopoulos and then to Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., in the spring of 2016 offering “dirt” on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (including, in Papadopoulos’s case, an offer of “thousands of emails”). We know that several other senior Trump campaign officials were aware of these approaches, failed to report them to the FBI, and encouraged the outreach. We also know that, in the summer of 2016, then candidate Trump called on Russia to “find” Clinton’s missing emails, and that several campaign surrogates (including Roger Stone and the Trump campaign’s data firm Cambridge Analytica) and at least one prominent Republican operative (Peter W. Smith) reached out to WikiLeaks (which was laundering information for Moscow) and to Russian hackers to get additional dirt on Clinton.
Yet, despite all of this knowledge of Moscow’s meddling, candidate Trump repeatedly insisted that the Russians were likely not the ones responsible for hacking Democratic National Committee emails or the account of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Trump’s denials continued throughout the presidential transition and, as president, Trump has consistently suggested that he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assurances that the Kremlin did not interfere in the U.S. election over the consensus judgement of America’s intelligence agencies.
Beyond questioning Russia’s involvement, Trump and Republican congressional leadership took steps to complicate the ability of the Obama administration to effectively respond to the attack. Recall that candidate Trump repeatedly warned during the campaign that some combination of Clinton, President Obama, and the Democrats aimed to “rig” the election. Trump’s rhetoric was clearly intended to generate an excuse in the event that he lost. But it also had the effect of making it more difficult for Obama to unilaterally call attention to Moscow’s efforts to hack the election without it appearing to be part of a partisan scheme to help Clinton. In part for that reason, in early September 2016, the Obama administration provided a detailed intelligence briefing on Russian activities to Republican and Democratic leadership on the Hill, with the goal of generating a bipartisan statement on Moscow’s activities. Although Democratic members were on board, Republican leadership resisted . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in particular questioned the veracity of the underlying intelligence and, according to the Washington Post , “made it clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics.” In short, both Trump and the GOP leadership in Congress were much more focused on boxing Obama in than calling Putin out.
I'm actually being serious here. I am reading the entire Mueller report.
Contrary to what some may think, evidence showing complicity wouldn't be a good thing for Trump. I'm not referring to 'talking heads' or opinion pieces, but real facts that show Trump knew the law and chose to ignore it.
Trump isn't exactly what most prefer to see in the highest office in this Nation. He isn't a politician...it's important to him to set goals and reach those goals. The beneficiary of goals reached is the entire Nation...not a select few, or a particular group. He isn't graceful or eloquent. He's doing his job. Not in the manner most wish to see...but hey, more jobs and a better economy means many can overlook a few ugly personal traits.
What we cannot overlook is willful intent to break this Nation's laws.
Unfortunately I was looking for something other than a magazine piece.
Having listened to Trump for the past few years, it isn't reasonable to believe that his public statements convey actual facts that he had knowledge and intent to conspire with the Russians.
I thank God for ANY help that kept Hillary or any future anti American Democrat out of the White House. They are all traitors to our Constitutional Republic
Trump spits on the Constitution all the time; why doesn't that bother you?
He has done more to try and reverse the anti Constitution policies of both the Democrats and Establishment Republicans than any president since Coolidge.
the Democrats and their ideology spit on the Constitution daily
Nope. He despises the ideology of the left which pushes govt as God, enslavement to the state, infanticide, and sexual perversion as good
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This is correct, but in no way excuses Trump's actions to attempt to kill the investigation nor his inaction on Russian sanctions.
but in no way excuses Trump's actions to attempt to kill the investigationB
But he didn't interfere with the investigation. In fact, he cooperated to a much greater extent than he was legally obligated to do.
his inaction on Russian sanctions
The sanctions are stronger than they were. While I might like to see a stronger line taken against Russia, the President is not a traitor for refusing to act as Curtis LeMay reincarnated. =
So, impeach Trump already. Get on with it. Are Democrats afraid to do the 'right thing'?
The problem is that Democrats desperately need Trump to hold the party together. Democrats don't have anything else to unify the party. That's a legacy of Hillary Clinton using divisions within the Democratic Party to win the nomination. Democrats are hoping that Joe Biden can bring unity by running on the popularity of Barack Obama within the party. But, as we have seen, Biden has already been confronted by serious attacks from within the Democratic Party. Clinton established deeper divisions within the party than the faithful are willing to acknowledge.
Robert Mueller was not the only one investigating Trump. The FBI, intelligence agencies, and both chambers of Congress have conducted their own investigations. It wasn't only Mueller's team that was digging for evidence. If everything that has been disclosed to the public is not sufficient for Democrats to pursue impeachment then what would it take?
It seems that Democrats are more afraid of removing Trump from office than of anything Trump might do while in office. Democrats are losing credibility every time they howl about what Trump has done and adamantly refuse to take any action. Why are Democrats so afraid of doing something? Can Democrats govern or not?
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Such comments are not welcome on my seeds
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Russia attacked our democracy on Obama's watch. How much was allowed with the hopes that it would lead to a Democrat winning the election, or to an impeachment if a Republican won? Does that make Obama and his administration 'traitors'?
Weak tea.
As president Obama had an obligation to remain neutral in the election. His not mentioning the Russians from his official position as president was an attempt, perhaps misguided, to display neutrality.
There is almost nothing "there" to refute.
Are you EVER going to defend Trump on the basis of the facts at hand, or are you always going to try and defend him on the basis of irrelevant comparisons to someone else?
Doesn’t look like he’s trying to remain neutral to me.
In that speech he could have said that the Russians were meddling on Trumps behalf, but he didnt, did he?
As president, Obama and his administration had many 'obligations' regarding knowledge of Russian Interference in this Nation's Election processes. Remaining 'neutral'...or looking the other way could be considered complicity.
Trump was going to do business in Russia...and he may yet accomplish that in the future. There are many US companies that conduct business in Russia. That's how Trump views Russia. BUSINESS
I haven't yet completed my review of the Mueller report, but so far...I don't see conspiracy or collusion. Obstruction, so far, is based on what others feel 'might' be seen as attempts to thwart an investigation, but evidence of intent proves otherwise.
Or part of a larger scheme to entrap someone.
I found the Mueller report's discussion on thing of value and foreign source ban to be quite amusing. (pp 186-187) Hard to read and see that any vigor is tempered by the fact of the Steele dossier.
Ah, this is the meeting that sticks in Schiffs craw. The June 9th Trump Tower meeting.
If uncompensated opposition research becomes 'a thing of value' that amounts to a campaign contribution...a boatload of candidates will have some 'things of value' to report!