The Mueller Report is out

[Slyfox696]

If you are an American or interested in American politics, one of the primary and lasting stories has been whether the President worked with or alongside a hostile foreign government during his campaign and whether he later broke the law by trying to prevent an investigation into his campaign.

Assigned to investigate was a team led by highly respected former FBI director Robert Mueller and his team's report has now mostly been made public. In the report, the Mueller team very clearly shows numerous links between the Trump campaign and foreign government officials (not just Russia, but primarily so) and all but says the President is guilty of obstructing justice (though, by regulation, the special counsel could not bring charges against the President).

Basically, the Mueller Report says our current President's campaign was constantly engaging in conduct favorable to Russia while Russia was actively interfering in the election on Trump's behalf and that numerous members of the Trump campaign were in active discussion with Russian officials and assets. The Mueller Report also says our President violated the law, repeatedly, in trying to quash the investigation into his campaign.

President Trump got into office through corrupt means and has continued to be a corrupt President. That's what the Mueller Report says.

Use this thread to discuss anything related to this topic.

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Yet the Teflon President will not get impeached because he will find a way around it, change a law here, fire a person there, declare everything is fake news. The guy could shoot a man in Wall Street on camera and get away with it. Those are almost his words too while he campaigned, he said he was so popular he could murder a man and still gain votes.

[Jack-Hammer]

To make things worse, if that's possible, you've got Attorney General William Barr, the top law enforcement official in the United States, displaying some of the purest stupidity I've ever come across by playing toady to Trump in saying one thing in a press conference only for the Mueller Report, which was released hours later, to say something completely different. Barr essentially said the report didn't reveal anything resembling criminal activity while the report itself stated that there were multiple instances in which Trump was guilty of obstruction and that there were indeed ties between Trump's campaign and Russian officials.

This isn't coming from a partisan place, but Donald Trump is just fucking poison, there's just no other way around it. Since Donald Trump began his campaign to be elected POTUS, he's surrounded himself with political hacks, toadies and lackeys that willingly go along with anything he does or says no matter how much it essentially shits on anything remotely decent associated with politics. Politics has always been a dirty business in America to one degree or another, but it's an absolute, shit filled sewer now than at any other time in my lifetime. I could rant and rave about how despicable of a human being and a leader Donald Trump is until my fingers cramped, but this man should be in jail and the fact that he isn't only further highlights some of the many, many flaws in our system of justice. A sitting president can't be indicted but I'd hope and pray that someone goes after him once he's out of office.

Should he be impeached? Absolutely, but the problem is that the votes required to do so simply aren't there. The Democrats have the necessary majority in the House of Representatives, but they don't have it in the Senate. As of right now, the Democrats would need around 18 votes or so from Senate Republicans in order to impeach Trump and they're just simply not going to get those votes. I understand that a lot of Democrats want it to happen, but the numbers simply aren't there right now. A better use of all that energy would be for them to galvanize around a candidate to take on Trump during the 2020 election, the problem is that the Democratic Party is going through something of an identity shift right now. You've got more diversity in the party now than ever, you have some who feel that the party isn't liberal enough, some feel it's too liberal already, some don't want another 70+ year old white man in the White House while others aren't sure anyone less mainstream than the older white males can get the job done.

[Slyfox696]

Trump deserves to be impeached but he won't be. Not enough Republicans in the Senate would convict, likely because many of them are involved in some of the same shady dealings Trump is involved in (the NRA taking large amounts of Russian money, for example). The Democrats, for their part, won't impeach because they'd rather run against Trump in 2020 than anyone else, especially with the Mueller investigation hanging a big cloud over Trump's head.

I'm not sure there was ever truly a time where doing the right thing was more important than doing the most politically beneficial thing, but if there ever was such a time, it truly is not now.