This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump riding high after the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller was released, clearing him and his team of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election and free of obstruction charges.
Still, he feels frustrated with the much of the media’s focus on Democratic calls for further investigation into the examples of potential obstruction highlighted in the report. Tweeted Trump today, “The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to stir up and anger the pols and as many people as possible seldom mentioning the fact that the Mueller Report had as its principle conclusion the fact that there was NO COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA. The Russia Hoax is dead!”
The Fake News Media is doing everything possible to stir up and anger the pols and as many people as possible seldom mentioning the fact that the Mueller Report had as its principle conclusion the fact that there was NO COLLUSION WITH RUSSIA. The Russia Hoax is dead!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 20, 2019
Both our graders gave the president a “B” for the week. Democratic pollster John Zogby noted that the president’s approval numbers are on the rise and conservative analyst Jed Babbin highlighted Trump’s second veto of his presidency.
Jed Babbin
Grade B+
President Trump had a very strong week featuring his second veto, his response to Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s trivialization of the 9/11 attacks and the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which — as Attorney General William Barr had previewed — was a big nothingburger.
Trump vetoed the congressional resolution seeking to end all U.S. involvement in the Yemen war, which is incorrectly called a civil war, because the Iranians are arming and otherwise supporting the Houthi rebels. The resolution was of questionable constitutionality and Trump was right to veto it.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld announced that he was challenging Trump for the 2020 Republican nomination. No one noticed.
Omar said of the 9/11 attacks that the Council on American Islamic Relations — the Muslim activist organization — was founded after 9/11 “because they recognized that some people did something and that all [Muslims] were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” That trivialized the terrorist attack in which Islamic terrorists killed almost 3,000 Americans. Trump tweeted a video of an aircraft hitting one of the Twin Towers in New York with a comment saying “We will never forget.” (CAIR was founded about seven years before 9-11.)
Christmas — for the media/Democrat axis — didn’t come early when Barr released the Mueller report on Thursday. Mueller found that there was no collusion, conspiracy or coordination between Trump, his staff, children, campaign workers or anyone else connected to him with Russia’s attempted interference in the 2016 election. Mueller also concluded that there was no evidence of corrupt intent by the president to support a charge of obstruction of justice, although there were 10 occasions when it could have arisen. That part of Mueller’s report was a weaselly way for him to invite another investigation of Trump by Congress. The problem with that is that in the absence of sworn testimony by Trump — which Congress ain’t gonna get — proving corrupt intent is essentially impossible.
The Democrats are still demanding Trump’s tax returns and will probably get them. The tax returns, along with the Mueller’s gamesmanship on the obstruction issue will all be used to feed the impeachment narrative this fall and next spring.
John Zogby
Grade B
There was something in the Mueller report to please everyone. For the Trump administration there was no conclusion about obstruction.
For the Democrats, there was further proof that the president is a vile, corrupt, amoral, petty narcissist who needs to be either impeached or at least to be investigated to death. For the Republicans, there was further proof that the president is a vile, corrupt, amoral, petty narcissist who has the support of more than 90 percent of Republicans and who wins.
And the president continues the tradition of being gamed by North Korean madmen.
But polls show him rising — a couple at 50 percent. Even Gallup, which usually has his approval very low, has Trump at 46 percent. Meanwhile, unemployment applications were the lowest in over 50 years. Where do we stand post-Mueller? About where we were pre-Mueller.
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
