CNN commentator David Gergen, a White House adviser to four former presidents, shared some advice with President Trump on Sunday after Attorney General William Barr released a summary of findings from the Russia investigation.
Despite special counsel Robert Mueller finding no evidence of collusion between the president’s campaign and Russia, Gergen said Trump should take the news in stride and heed the words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
“It’s totally understandable as everyone is saying that they, the Trump people, are celebrating. I understand that. But when the president calls it an illegal takedown, an illegal takedown, that’s a vindictive view,” Gergen said. “He’d be well advised to remember Churchill, who said ‘In victory, magnanimity.’”
Gergen said Trump risks alienating people in the middle of the political spectrum who might be less inclined to support him in the upcoming presidential election if he goes on the offense and attacks the 22-month-long probe and those who voiced support for it. Gergen said people “are going to find that kind of argument pretty insufferable.”
Gergen also said Democrats would be better served by not continuing to push the investigatory line, noting that looking further into potential claims of obstruction of justice would likely not bode well for them in the 2020 elections.
“I think the Democrats are going to have a hard time getting the public to swing behind this, because there’s no underlying crime,” Gergen said. “ … The critical question was, ‘Was there a conspiracy?’ And an exhaustive investigation found there was not. That’s pretty darn important.”
Gergen served in the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton and is the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School.
