The tireless efforts of the White House and the Justice Department to prevent witnesses – Robert Mueller, in particular – from publicly testify before Congress makes it clear: Donald Trump knows it’s game over if the special counsel presents his evidence on live television.
In a discussion with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, analyst Matthew Miller pointed out that Trump understands the power of TV, and he knows Mueller will turn “dry words from a report” into an explosive made-for-television presentation.
“If Bob Mueller comes up and testifies, if Don McGahn comes up and testifies, suddenly those dry words in a report that most of the American public don’t read come alive on TV,” Miller said.
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“And as for Bob Mueller, I think it’s pretty clear the attorney general is already blocking his testimony,” @matthewamiller says. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/gQoLa4FXML
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) May 9, 2019
Miller said:
[The Justice Department is] refusing to turn over anything. They are refusing to make witnesses available. It’s very clear that the president is going to exert executive privilege over Don McGahn’s testimony. And as for Bob Mueller, I think it’s pretty clear the attorney general is already blocking his testimony. He may eventually testify. The House wants him next week. They’ve been asking for him for a while. It is pretty clear at this point that it seems unlikely to happen. At some point, I think it’s obvious that they don’t want any witnesses to come forward because, as you point out, there are a lot of things Trump doesn’t understand. I think sometimes intentionally doesn’t understand. But one thing he gets is television. He knows that if Bob Mueller comes up and testifies, if Don McGahn comes up and testifies, suddenly those dry words in a report that most of the American public don’t read come alive on TV.
Trump knows the narrative spun by Bill Barr will immediately collapse if Mueller testifies
With attorney general William Barr building a false narrative around the Mueller report before anybody even saw the document, Trump was given cover from all the damning evidence laid out in the 400-plus-page report.
By the time it was released, the waters were so muddied – and so few Americans actually read the report – that it essentially came out as a political wash for the president.
But by going on live television and spelling out the facts for the American people, Robert Mueller will destroy the lies being pushed by the Justice Department and the White House.
Donald Trump knows that in one testimony, the false narrative about the Mueller report that the White House has spent two years building will finally come crashing down.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
