For two years, most of the national news media have been building the case that Donald Trump somehow colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. Countless editorials, roundtables, and expert segments all fed the perception that “Russia collusion,” an imprecise narrative shorthand for a nonexistent offense, would inevitably be proven. The left promised the puppet of Vladimir Putin would get his comeuppance in due time.
The problem is that this was all a lie. The biggest “bombshell” stories on Russia collusion reported thus far have all been either duds or outright fakes. The special counsel has yet to, and almost certainly will not, file any charges that prove Trump took part in Russia collusion. The overwhelming likelihood is, at worst, the special counsel report will contain unflattering information about the president and some of his close senior advisers.
{mosads}Whatever Robert Mueller has, it will not be the coup de grace to end the Trump administration and avenge Hillary Clinton that the mainstream media has assured us was coming since November 2016. Now, with the investigation supposedly ending in a matter of weeks, if not just days, the collusion theorists are scrambling to deal with this reality. In a sane world, a lot of prominent voices on the left, in both politics and media, would be held accountable for stoking such partisan mass hysteria in our country.
How can the same Democrats and journalists who have been alleging for two years, without evidence, that the president is a criminal and a traitor come to terms with the reality of the hoax they have perpetrated out of petty partisan spite? They will not as they already have plans to move on to the next narrative con. This is where “obstruction” comes into play. Democrats have made it clear that, unable to prove the primary charges they used to hobble a presidency for two years, their follow up act will be to open new investigations and chase other charges around obstruction.
Without a hint of reflection or a twinge of good faith, the Democrats will pretend that all along the real problem with President Trump has been his machiavellian interference in the justice system. This is as preposterous as it is dishonest. If Trump corrupted the Justice Department in his favor, he had a bizarre way of doing it. He never interfered with the special counsel investigation, despite its partisan bias and shady origins. He did not fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, despite him richly deserving it. Trump did fire James Comey, which Rosenstein had explicitly endorsed in writing. That of course led to the retaliatory move of appointing a special counsel. It was really the Justice Department that has obstructed Trump.
Are we supposed to ignore the convenient tactic of Democrats moving past collusion to obstruction? No serious person really believes that, as Mueller fails to uncover any illegal interference in government actions, some decidedly oleaginous characters in Congress like Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell will. Mueller showed no hesitation in prosecuting peripheral figures in the Russia collusion drama for the most minor process crimes. Those who suddenly refuse to believe the special counsel was thorough enough have no interest in finding the truth. They never did to start with.
The playbook of Democrats has been obvious all along. They are merely weaponizing the investigative and prosecutorial functions of government for partisan ends, under the guise of “congressional oversight.” Moreover once Democrats tire of sermonizing under the capitol dome about the threat of obstruction, they will move along to his tax returns, business dealings, dangerously ample girth, or whatever else they can dream up.
Whatever one thinks of Trump, the ploys to take him down are not without cost. For anyone paying attention, it is hard to overstate the damage done to the credibility of federal institutions like the Justice Department in the scorched earth effort to end his presidency. While Congress is no stranger to low approval ratings, the circus like hearings that the Democrats plan to continue will do nothing to enhance the faith of the American people in it.
It is crystal clear those on the left have an unhealthy hatred for Trump and will leap at any excuse to remove him from office instead of waiting for the 2020 election. They neither respect the decision of the American people in the 2016 election nor their right to vote in the next one. The Democrats are hellbent on finding any way they can to take down Trump. They could care less about whatever they have to obstruct or destroy in the process.
Buck Sexton is the cohost of the morning show “Rising” on Hill TV and the host of “The Buck Sexton Show” on radio and podcast. He is both a former officer at the Central Intelligence Agency and a former analyst at the New York City Police Department. You can follow him on Twitter @BuckSexton.