A full serving of hype with a generous side of letdown
As a Canadian watching from the sidelines I feel I’m able to comment on the “Mueller report” without being called a Trump hater or Hillary supporter. (Those are often names thrown at me when I comment on politics when I don’t identify my Canuckness.)
From what I gather, most Americans (democrats, I assume) were salivating at the idea that the Mueller investigation would bring down President Trump. The hopes (and stakes) were high and cable news commentators couldn’t wait to go live with hours upon hours of endless coverage. They did that over the weekend but with results they weren’t expecting.
Instead of a juicy bible-type document to scrutinize line by line, the media was given a four-page summary from a Trump-appointed official. Attorney General Bill Barr summarized the report’s findings and so far that’s all that the public has seen.
Unwilling to accept the investigation wouldn’t conclude without a doubt that Trump and/or his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, it seems people are, in a sense, demanding a recount.
What’s funny to me is that the tables have turned. Previously, it was said that if Trump lost the election that he wouldn’t accept the results. It was said he’d challenge the outcome and fight until it changed.
The current White House administration is always accused of spinning facts to muddy the waters of any sort of political scandal, I’m surprised to see “the other side” do that in the wake of a report that didn’t offer a gold mine of incriminating details to bring down the president. (As far as we know at this point.)
Sure, I understand that people are unwilling to accept a brief summary of an investigation that spanned nearly two years. But I also assume Robert Mueller would’ve chimed in at some point if Barr had misrepresented the findings.
Would I want to read everything for myself and draw my own conclusions? Sure. Would I understand it? Maybe. Would I rely on one-sided TV commentators to recite the information and affect my judgement of the whole thing? Probably.
So, it’s interesting a country is so divided and one side accuses the other of not being able to accept facts and won’t let things go. This time when it looks like the president isn’t necessarily in the wrong (based on the loose wording of Barr’s conclusion of the Mueller report) it’s fascinating that “the other side” won’t accept that and insists there’s more.
Personally, I’d be happy if a high-profile investigation showed my leader was (largely) cleared of any wrongdoing.
Will it ever end?
