In the News

Craig Gilbert
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin Democrat Mark Pocan said Friday that the Mueller report provided “the most damning evidence we have seen yet that this president very likely obstructed the investigation” into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Like many Democrats, Pocan said it was up to Congress to continue investigating and gathering testimony while stopping short of calling outright for an impeachment inquiry.     

“Everything is on the table,” said Pocan, the U.S. House member from Madison who is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“Impeachment should have nothing to do with a political equation (by Democrats). It’s a constitutional equation. If someone has violated their oath of office, we have to do it … And I think that’s what we’re going to have figure out in the coming weeks and months,” Pocan said in an interview Friday.

Not surprisingly, lawmakers from each party reacted in very different ways to the release Thursday of the redacted report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.  Republicans embraced the fact that Mueller found no criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

GOP House member Sean Duffy treated the report as a vindication for President Donald Trump, saying on Twitter, “AG Barr and Mueller just confirmed what we already knew: NO COLLUSION!”

Republicans had less to say about the question of obstruction, where Mueller outlined a body of evidence that the President sought to impede or curb the investigation, but left it to Congress to make its own judgment, saying it wasn’t the special counsel's role to come to a conclusion about whether crimes of obstruction were committed by Trump.  

Said GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher in a statement:

“I appreciate that Attorney General Barr has made this report available to Congress and the American people. We've known for several weeks there was no collusion, and it’s important for us to learn how the Special Counsel arrived at this conclusion.

"In contrast to the politicians and pundits who made up their minds before this 400-page document became public, I look forward to taking the next 72 hours to thoroughly review the full report. Those who used their platforms to mislead the American people during the last two years would be wise to do the same."

Republican congressman Bryan Steil also said he was still wading through the report. 

“I have consistently called for the report to be released and voted on the House floor to make Mueller’s report public. The American people deserve transparency. Like many Americans, I am now reading through the details of the released report,” he said in a statement. 

Some in GOP reserving judgment

An aide to Senate Republican Ron Johnson said Johnson was still reviewing the report and had no comment yet. 

For Democrats, the Mueller report presented a compelling case about presidential obstruction. They demanded access for all members of Congress to the full, unredacted Mueller report, and chastised Barr, accusing him of spinning the Mueller report to minimize its damage to Trump.

“We have a redacted Mueller report that includes ten instances of apparent obstruction of justice by President Trump. Congress now has an obligation to interpret & address the conduct of the President,” said House Democrat Gwen Moore on Twitter, accusing Barr of misleading the public about the report’s contents.

Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin said on Twitter Friday: “Reading through the redacted Mueller report, it is clear that Attorney General Barr has not been straight with the American people. Special Counsel Mueller must come before Congress, so we have all the facts and the full truth about the President's actions and wrongdoing.”

Baldwin said on Twitter Thursday that “President Trump has not been exonerated; he is not cleared of wrongdoing.”

Said House Democrat Ron Kind on his Facebook page:

“The most troubling conclusion of the Mueller Report is it definitively proves that Russia intervened in the last election on behalf of the Trump Campaign, and made multiple contacts with Trump Campaign officials. 

"It is also troubling that the President repeatedly lied about those contacts and still refuses to take steps against future Russian interference in our elections. The question then becomes why the President refuses to protect our country from another attack by Russia?”

Treading lightly on impeachment

While a small number of House Democrats are now calling for an impeachment inquiry, party leaders have been very wary of going down that road, either because they fear it could hurt the party politically in the 2020 elections, or because they think it’s pointless without GOP support in the Senate to remove the president. 

At the same time, Democrats in Congress may come under increasing pressure from Democratic voters to open an impeachment inquiry, and Friday afternoon presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called for impeachment proceedings.  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a conference call Monday for House Democrats, many of whom have returned to their districts during a two-week recess.   The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena Friday for the unredacted Mueller report and the evidence it was based on.  

In the interview, Pocan said Democrats shouldn’t shy away from considering impeachment because they fear political fallout. But he did cite the “math issue” that impeachment in the House can’t lead to removal by the Senate without votes from the other party.

“There is lot more work that has to happen, including getting Mr. Mueller and other witnesses that are mentioned in those 10 (cases) of obstruction into committee so we can do our due diligence,” he said.

Pocan said if the Trump administration and Republicans stonewall the House in its oversight, then “they may leave us very few other choices” than an impeachment inquiry.