Republicans for the Rule of Law, a conservative group whose stated purpose is "defending the institutions of our republic," will run an advertisement on Fox News over the weekend urging GOP lawmakers to hold Trump accountable over the findings in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference and possible collusion between the Trump campaign team and Kremlin officials.
The highly-anticipated 448-page report, with redactions, was released by Attorney General William Barr Thursday morning. It details the nearly two-year investigation, which resulted in 199 criminal charges and more than 30 individuals and organizations facing indictments or pleading guilty — including six former Trump associates and three groups linked to the Russian government.
Mueller’s team revealed a number of questionable actions attributed to Trump and his inner circle, dating from his 2016 presidential campaign through to his tenure in the Oval Office.
“It's clear from the report today that there's a lot of political interference that was attempted [by Trump],” Sarah Longwell, executive director of Republicans for the Rule of Law, told Newsweek. “This is not the end of the Mueller investigation, this is just the beginning. It looks like the Mueller report really is a road map for Congress. And that there was no exoneration, definitely obstruction.”
The group, which aims to “protect [Mueller's] investigation from political interference by the president,” was established in March 2017 when reports began emerging of Trump's intentions to potentially fire Mueller. The documents released today revealed that Trump had indeed tried to dismiss Mueller in June 2017, but that then-White House Counsel Don McGahn refused, saying he would rather resign.
Over the weekend, Republicans for the Rule of Law will air an advertisement on Fox News urging GOP lawmakers to hold Trump accountable for “lying” and “obstructing justice,” like Republicans had done with former Democratic President Bill Clinton more than 20 years ago, when a GOP-led House succesfully impeached Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was subsequently acquitted on all charges after a trial in the Senate.
“The Mueller Report revealed multiple instances of President Trump lying and obstructing justice. Twenty years ago, Republicans denounced a Democratic president for lying and obstructing justice,” the 34-second advertisement’s opening reads, before cutting to old clips of GOP lawmakers condemning Clinton on Capitol Hill. “Republicans stood for the rule of law then. We should stand for the rule of law now,” it concludes.
The advertisement’s goal, according to Longwell, is to “encourage speaking up from Republicans."
"They need to grapple with what’s in [the Mueller report,] which is incredibly disturbing," she said. “We're not urging impeachment or any kind of action other than Congress, specifically Republicans, should join the Democrats, to investigate the matter for fully and come to some conclusion about accountability.”
Within the clip is footage of “Republicans talking about how you cannot lie to the American people, you cannot obstruct justice, you must tell the truth, that the president's not above the law, and we just believe those same rules very much still apply to this president,” said Longwell, adding that the group wants to see Republicans “act like a congressional body with equal powers and to provide a check on a president who clearly from this report does not respect the rule of law.”
Mueller clarified in the report that his probe could not establish that Trump’s team had conspired with Kremlin officials to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The investigation did not ultimately make a determination on whether or not Trump obstructed justice. However, the special counsel did conclude that Trump failed to obstruct justice "largely because" his aides "declined to carry out orders.”
“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” the Mueller report stated. “We are unable to reach such a judgment.”
“The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests. While this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him," it added.
Despite this, Attorney General Barr held a press conference Thursday morning, where he repeated the words “no collusion,” at least five times in 22 minutes. “There was no evidence of Trump campaign 'collusion' with the Russian government's hacking,” Barr said.
Trump continued to publicly exonerate himself after the redacted report was released earlier today, telling a crowd: “I’m having a good day too, it was called no collusion, no obstruction — there never was by the way, and there never will be.” Later in the day, Trump also tweeted a Game of Thrones-inspired image to Twitter, which read: “No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats — Game Over.”
Watch the Republicans for the Rule of Law ad below:
highdeserttrash on April 19th, 2019 at 01:48 UTC »
Good for them. I'm a former libertarian and Republican voter. I've completely lost respect for so many people over these past few years. Who the fuck tolerates being lied to on a daily basis by someone they pay to work? Ideology completely aside, how can you respect someone who doesn't even respect themself enough to expect honesty from leadership that they give their money and full support to?
headee on April 19th, 2019 at 00:31 UTC »
orange_sox on April 19th, 2019 at 00:30 UTC »
That’s IF Fox will let it run.