On Friday, January 18, 2019, the opponents of President Donald Trump and the national media (forgive my redundancy) were on fire with anticipation over a story by Buzzfeed that Trump had instructed his former attorney Michael Cohen, among others, to lie to Congress. Finally, the national media and the President’s opponents (again, redundant) felt they had the smoking gun that would grind the Trump administration to a halt and see him removed from office via impeachment.
Unfortunately, for the national media and the Trump opponents (redundant) their greatest dream faded into false hope late Friday evening as the Mueller Team, who has been investigating the President for over a year and a half, stated that the Buzzfeed report was wrong.
Robert “Bob” Mueller is a former head of the FBI. He served in the United States Military and was deployed to fight in Vietnam. Mueller is uniformly respected and admired for his integrity. Bob Mueller is a patriot.
Mueller was named, about 18 months ago, as the Special Counsel tasked with investigating whether presidential candidate Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to win the election, and whether, as President, Trump obstructed justice in firing James Comey, head of the FBI at the time and the agency investigating the issues.
I had the privilege to broadcast the Presidential Inauguration about fifty feet from the swearing-in podium at the US Capitol. My talk show is an affiliate of FOX News and they arranged the details that allowed me to do so. My vantage point was essentially the same as President Trump’s as he gave his inaugural address.
The anger, angst and sometimes hatred of Trump had been on display through-out the presidential campaign by the national media, but I had hoped it might settle down a little as Presidents are usually afforded a “honey-moon” period as their administration begins. In Trump’s case, the media did not offer such a period, instead attacking first and finding out the truth later. That has not stopped even unto this day.
On Inauguration Day, the pettiness of the media went into high gear. It started around 10AM that morning when they started posting photos of the gathering crowd, showing the National Mall virtually empty and they compared it to the crowds at President Barack Obama’s first Inauguration. Unknowingly at the time, I entered the controversy by posting photos at the swearing-in time that dramatically contrasted what the national media was reporting. Again, my vantage point was essentially the same as President Trump’s while he spoke to the crowd.
My photos showed a much fuller National Mall and clearly demonstrated the bias being exhibited by the national media in their effort to downplay the crowds and embarrass the President. (see the photo titled National Mall 1/20/2017)
Later in the day, in an obvious effort to play into the national media’s narrative that Trump is a racist, there was a false report that President Trump had removed a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King from the Oval Office. The story was completely un-true and proven to be so, but it accomplished the goal as it was picked up in almost every newspaper in the country. The retraction, of course was on page 41 of a 40-page paper.
When I returned to my regular broadcast back in Maine the next Monday, I said on-air that day, that we must pick a Special Counsel who could investigate the Russian collusion charges so the issue could be permanently put to bed. No President could have such a charge hanging over them as they attempted to govern, but the allegations were especially damaging to Donald Trump because of the lengths that the national media was willing to go to reject traditional journalistic standards in their effort to undermine his administration.
I made the point at that time, that Trump needed to be cleared of these allegations because he was innocent, using the phrase “witch-hunt” to describe the accusers, or he should be found guilty, impeached and removed from office. No one, not even the President, is above the law. Although we often elevate men such as Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln to mythological status, the truth is, they are simply men who have been elevated to an extraordinary position.
A few months passed and President Trump fired then FBI Director James Comey. Comey had exonerated Hillary Clinton on July 5, 2016 in the aftermath of her email scandal. The truth is, initially, I stood up for Comey and his integrity.
My friend Matt Whitaker, who is now the acting Attorney General of the United States, was a frequent guest on my talk show. Matt had been the US Attorney for the Southern District in Iowa and had known Comey for a long time. He, along with 22 other individuals who had worked with James Comey in one capacity or another, joined me periodically to talk about the Clinton investigation and in its aftermath, the type of man Comey really was.
They all, initially, praised his integrity. After, however, his exoneration of Clinton when the evidence Comey presented was so overwhelming, they began to question his methods and actions. Many said they did not recognize this James Comey.
It took me a while, as I like to be thorough, but I came around to the conclusion that Comey was as much a part of the Washington DC swamp as the career elected people. In the aftermath of his firing, we have seen first hand that he was one of the biggest leakers of information in DC and played by his rules, not the rules of standard conduct by an FBI Director.
When Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named Bob Mueller as Special Counsel to investigate the claims of Russian collusion and obstruction of justice with the firing of FBI Director James Comey, I felt we were on the right track … and I still do, with a caveat.
As a Patriot, Mueller has to understand that his investigation is tearing our country apart. He needs to play his hand. The American people need to know the truth about his investigation. Our careless and corrupt national media is determined to undermine the administration of Donald Trump even if it means violating their own integrity and the integrity of journalistic standards. They run with every morsel, using un-named sources and wide-eyed vengeance as they “report” the news.
The “Christopher Steele dossier” which is believed to have been the impetus of the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance) warrant that allowed the FBI to surveil former Trump campaign member Carter Page and maybe others, has been the foundation of hundreds of stories in the media. Almost all have sought to convince the public that Donald Trump was guilty of some wrong-doing.
We now know that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr warned the FBI that the “dossier” may be tainted by the bias, its author, Christopher Steele, had against Donald Trump. Ohr cautioned the FBI, we have recently learned, on the entire credibility of the dossier. Ohr stated in a closed-door meeting with a Congressional Committee that he wanted to make sure that they fully understood the tainted nature of the document. This revelation casts further doubt on the activities of the upper-leadership of the FBI, their motivation and use of a FISA warrant.
It also makes you wonder, (if you’re the kind of person that does that), what President Barack Obama knew about this. We know he was briefed in August of 2016 about concerns over Russia and the Trump campaign. How much detail was he given? What role did he play in the FBI’s effort to investigate/undermine the Trump campaign and administration?
We know that former President Obama misled Americans on when he knew there were concerns. We also now know that when he said he was not in the loop on much of this, text messages and emails from senior leadership in the FBI say otherwise.
The question is, why is the media only presenting negative stories over this investigation and conjuring accusations that any reasonable person would doubt? This is another example of journalists no longer practicing journalism.
In times past, being a journalist was a noble profession, much like being an elected official. Today, modern journalism is nothing more than the opinion and personal bias of the author.
Journalists are supposed to be a watchdog for the American people and a vital check on our government. Journalists are supposed to report the facts, absent bias or malice and then let the recipient of the report determine what it means. Sadly, those days appear to be long gone.
The U.S. Constitution affords great privilege to a free press with the rights enshrined in the First Amendment. This was done, in part, because our Founders knew that a free press was a critical component in the foundation of a free and open society.
Today, journalists want to be commentators. They seek to interject their bias, their opinion into each story reported, essentially undermining the integrity of their offering and leaving the America people to wonder what the truth really is.
Mueller’s Team is obviously aware of this failing by the media with their rebuke of the above-mentioned Buzzfeed story. Their rebuke also means they understand that the longer this investigation drags on without either an exoneration of President Trump, or the evidence to demonstrate his guilt, the more the institution of the presidency is damaged.
The revelations of the closed-door Congressional Committee hearing with Justice Department official Bruce Ohr also create confusion and doubt. These two examples are why it is paramount the Mueller investigation conclude quickly.
If Trump is guilty, he must be impeached and removed from office. Impeachment does not undermine the integrity of the office of the President, it strengthens it. It demonstrates that the President, as powerful as that office is, is still accountable to the laws of the United States and that his office does not insulate him from accountability.
If, however, there is no evidence that candidate Donald Trump colluded with the Russians to win an election, this conclusion must also come forward now. It is unreasonable for the President and unhealthy for the country to have a cloud of suspicion hanging over a President who has committed no crime.
I get it. Liberal activists and the national media loathe President Trump. I am a supporter of most of his goals for our nation and absent evidence from the Mueller investigation that says he is guilty, I will work for and vote for his re-election.
He can be hard to take at times. He says many un-necessary things and causes controversy when it is often un-needed. I think the thing that bugs me most about his actions is that he elevates every pimple on a flea on a dawg that challenges him. I simply do not understand the necessity of it in his mind.
Despite his pugnacious ways, none of that is worthy of the lack of respect and outright hatred for this President. None of this is worthy of impeachment and removal from office.
Although former President and long-time Congressman Gerald Ford once said that “an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers to be at a given moment in history”, reasonable people would agree that you should not impeach a President because you do not like the content of his Twitter account. The suspicion and turmoil that continues to swirl as more leaks and false stories make news is reason enough for Bob Mueller and his team to make a statement on collusion and obstruction, even if more investigation is necessary regarding other issues.
Whether Hillary Clinton, liberal Democrats or the national media like it, Donald Trump won over 300 Electoral Votes and with that victory, the right to govern. The dark cloud that is the Mueller investigation must be allowed to come to its rightful finish, but that finish, in the interest of our nation, must come soon.
Guilt or innocence is not as important now as the swift conclusion to this year and a half old effort to seek truth. I still have great regard and respect for Bob Mueller. His life has demonstrated that he is a patriot. He now must allow his patriotism to motivate a swift conclusion to his efforts so that America and Americans can find again, a way to come together.
In 1968, another very troubled period of American history, Congressman Gerald Ford offered these words to the Order of DeMolay state conference on September 7th of that year. In many ways, I think they apply today, and we should follow his sage advice: “America now is stumbling through the darkness of hatred and divisiveness. Our values, our principles, and our determination to succeed as a free and democratic people will give us a torch to light the way. And we will survive and become the stronger — not only because of a patriotism that stands for love of country, but a patriotism that stands for love of people.”
Ray Richardson is the host of the Ray Richardson Show on WLOB Radio. He has authored three books, written a newspaper column for over a decade and is a contributor to Richardson Magazine.
Ray lives with his wife of almost 34 years Dee Dee in Westbrook Maine. They have four children (8 when you count the spouses), one granddaughter and a little dawg who thinks he is human.
