It turns out that even the left is getting tired of hearing about Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation – but not for the same reason as the rest of us. Frank Bruni, opinion columnist for The New York Times, summed it up quite well Tuesday in a piece titled “Robert Mueller, You’re Starting to Scare Me.” His point, of course, is that the investigation is actually good for Trump, but bad for America. Well, he’s half right. Bob Mueller is good for Trump – and America.
Mr. Bruni posits that all the media attention Mueller gets benefits the president by distracting us from all of his other dastardly deeds. And since this gives the devious Donald a pass on the most nefarious of his activities, it’s bad for Americans.
Let’s take a look at some of those terrible tendencies that so frighten this never-Trumper.
Raving Hypocrisy and Security Concerns
If it weren’t for Mueller hogging the limelight, Americans might be focused on Trump’s raving hypocrisy – Mr. Bruni’s words, mind you – in giving Hillary Clinton flak about using unsecured email servers while himself refusing to comply with White House security protocols for his cellphone.
As reported by Politico, President Trump has White House issued cellphones, which are supposed to be swapped out every 30 days. He scoffs at such security precautions – or so both Politico and The Times would have us think.
The phone in question, of course, is the president’s Twitter phone. And it’s not just called that because he tweets from it; Twitter – and some news feeds – is all that phone can access. It’s too inconvenient to swap that phone out every month, according to Trump. But why should he? If all he is capable of doing on that device is accessing Twitter and reading some news, then what might potential hackers discover that the rest of the world doesn’t already know?
The Twitter phone hasn’t been checked in five months, apparently, but Politico admits that they don’t know how often he turns in his call-enabled phones. According to “a senior West Wing official,” all call-enabled phones “are seamlessly swapped out on a regular basis through routine support operations. Because of the security controls of the Twitter phone and the Twitter account, it does not necessitate regular change-out.”
Stacking the Courts and Gutting Agencies
Other than wishing that Scott Pruitt would get more media attention, Mr. Bruni’s other big fear concerns what he apparently believes to be Trump’s secret plans to take control of the entire nation:
“Perhaps more Americans would notice what Trump is doing to the judiciary, by which I mean stacking it, and to important government agencies, by which I mean gutting them.”
Of course, anyone not sucking down whatever drivel the leftist media outlets happen to serve does notice this. And we’re ecstatic; it’s just one of the many reasons Donald Trump was elected in the first place. #DrainTheSwamp, anyone?
The president’s judicial nominations are being confirmed at what Frank Bruni no doubt considers an alarming rate – with his crowning achievement so far in that regard being Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As for gutting federal agencies, the American people sent Donald Trump the billionaire businessman to the Oval Office to trim the fat. Trump campaigned, in part, on slashing federal spending, cutting back on unnecessary personnel, and deregulating our convoluted system of laws and regulations. If it weren’t for our president at least trying to fulfil that promise, we might still be preparing for Y2K – 18 years after that fear fizzled out.
Sorry Frank, at least half the country is aware of this, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Terrible for America, or Great?
One other thing Bruni gets right is that he admits Trump is no idiot. But right though he is on this and the investigation being good for Trump, it’s for all the wrong reasons. Robert Mueller – and Russiagate in general – isn’t good for the president because it lets him get away with being a “proudly offensive, gleefully divisive, woefully unprepared plutocrat with no moral compass beyond his own aggrandizement.” It’s good because the more Mueller digs and doesn’t prove either obstruction or “collusion” – criminal or otherwise – the better the president looks. And what should have Democrats shaking in their boots is that nearly all the dirt turned up since this whole thing began stains the records of Obama, Clinton, and their associates.
There’s no telling what this investigation is costing us in tax dollars, and that’s not something that’s going over well in conservative camps. But these investigations might be worth every penny if they keep uncovering such gems as the FBI’s Trump campaign mole and Obama era Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s “collusion” to cover up the Clinton email scandal. Unearthing such blatant – one might say, ravingly hypocritical – corruption could well lead to a true draining of the swamp. And that might just be what it takes to Make America Great Again.
