Free the full Mueller report: Unanimous House votes for transparency
The congressional rebuke of President Trump’s national emergency declaration — and his subsequent first veto — got the headlines last week, but a more consequential statement came from the House in the form of a 420-0 vote calling for Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to be released in full to the public.
Under Justice Department regulations, the special counsel presents a confidential report, including any prosecution decisions, to the attorney general, who then sends his own report to Congress. Could be 100 pages, could be a page. Attorney General William Barr has been unclear on how much detail he’ll offer.
Thus, the House called “for the public release of any report Special Counsel Mueller provides to the attorney general, except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.”
After nearly two years’ work — with more than 30 individuals indicted and guilty pleas or convictions obtained from some of those closest to Trump like Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Rick Gates — the American people are owed the whole truth.
Of course, allow for reasonable redactions. As this is a criminal investigation and counterintelligence probe, there are certain to be sensitive national security matters.
Friday, Trump was tweeting out conspiracies to support his contention that “The Special Counsel should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report.”
Release it all, even if the President won’t get past the executive summary.
— New York Daily News
Violent act, warped mind
It takes a twisted mind to believe that families worshipping peacefully in their mosques are “invaders,” and that those who slaughter them are righteous protectors.
But there are people who believe that. Ones who actually unleash violence are rare. Much more common are those who goad them to it and cheer them for it. There are also, increasingly, political leaders who lend respectability to the idea that white Christians are the only legitimate citizens and residents of the United States and many European nations.
This way of thinking is deadly poison. Those who denounce the shocking violence while helping normalize the creed are dangerous, despicable hypocrites.
A gunman broadcasting his carnage via a helmet-camera, live on Facebook, took aim Friday at worshippers in and around two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. At least 49 people are dead, and more are wounded.
In a manifesto posted online before the killings, the 28-year-old Australian charged with the murders said he chose his victims because they are invaders replacing the white race. He sees an overarching conflict between people of European descent and Muslims, and thinks it’s a reason to kill. And while such killings are still shocking, the ideas behind them are politically common in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
At rallies, President Donald Trump reads a poem called “The Snake” which talks about a serpent killing a woman who is kind to it, as an analogy to the danger of immigration. Iowa Rep. Steve King asks when terms like “white nationalist” and “white supremacist” became offensive. Across Europe, far-right politicians embrace traditional racial and religious identity and cast diversity as a plague.
When the killer posted his grotesque philosophy and carnage Friday, some commenters cheered. The killings were unusual. The philosophy, and the support, are mainstream.
— Newsday