This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump riding high, bolstered by the failure by the House to stop his plan to build a southern border wall and Robert Mueller’s surprise report clearing him of colluding with Russians to win the White House.
Democratic pollster John Zogby said the report gives Trump something to cheer in his 2020 reelection stops, and conservative analyst Jed Babbin added that the liberal media’s bumbling bid to pre-convict the president on collusion charges has cut their credibility to “zero.”
John Zogby
Grade B
Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Russia collusion report provided a major victory for President Trump this week. ‘No collusion’ became an offense for the White House, caught Democratic leadership by complete surprise, and helped Trump get a little bump in the polls.
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/Y6UPREMY7u pic.twitter.com/6r7wdYDf66
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
Democrats still demand to see the full report, and it looks they will in a few weeks. The rest of us will see it too. No doubt the 400-page report will include some pretty embarrassing information, but the simple fact is that the president now has a powerful weapon in his arsenal, and the Democrats will have a difficult time not looking like obsessive obstructionists.
While throwing his secretary of education under the bus, Trump emerged as a hero for saving the Special Olympics from proposed drastic federal budget cuts.
He continued this week as a sore and petty winner, a man who seizes every opportunity to belittle and mock his opponents. Calling House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff a ‘pencil neck’ is middle school cafeteria stuff at its worst. But the week belonged to the president, and what is a pollster supposed to do?’
You know what? I’d rather stick my neck out, and be criticized by this president
than bury my head in the sand, and be judged by history.
If only more of my GOP colleagues could find the courage to do the same. https://t.co/vTRptPzIRD
— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) March 29, 2019
Jed Babbin
Grade A-
President Trump had one of the best weeks of his presidency, thanks to special investigator Robert Mueller’s report clearing the president of colluding with Russians to win the 2016 election, the House’s failure to overturn his first veto, and the formal decision that Israel was sovereign over the Golan Heights.
For nearly two years, the Democratic Party, its media cohorts, and Trump-haters around the globe have staked their mental health on their belief that the Mueller investigation would at least result in Trump’s removal from office if not his imprisonment. But according to the summary of Mueller’s report released by Attorney General William Barr, Mueller’s report found no collusion or conspiracy with Russia. The witch hunt didn’t bag any witches.
There are two effects.
First, Trump is unleashed. Whatever few political constraints he felt since Mueller began the investigation are removed. MAGA Man will make the period between now and November 2020 a wild ride.
So funny that The New York Times & The Washington Post got a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage (100% NEGATIVE and FAKE!) of Collusion with Russia – And there was No Collusion! So, they were either duped or corrupt? In any event, their prizes should be taken away by the Committee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
Second, the liberal media is in meltdown. Chris Matthews sputtered, Rachel Maddow wept, and others — with mouths agape or teeth gnashed — were totally stunned that Mueller let them down. Their credibility is zero, and Trump will use that to great advantage in the coming presidential campaign. Some congressional Democrats, such as Schiff, are still insisting they have evidence of collusion but refusing to produce it.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House tried and failed to override Trump’s veto of the congressional resolution canceling his national emergency declaration to fund the border wall. No wonder: The border mess is entirely out of control.
Trump’s action formally recognizing the fact that the Golan Heights are part of Israel gave a small boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just before the Israeli election in which Netanyahu is significantly challenged. It was the right thing for Trump to do for that reason and because Trump’s action is just a recognition of the facts on the ground since 1967.
Trump’s Department of Justice filed a brief in another big case challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, asserting that the whole law is unconstitutional. The Democrats (with some Republicans) think Trump has given the liberals a big issue for 2020. That’s very doubtful because Obamacare’s effects (raising health insurance costs for everyone) are still being felt. A win over Obamacare at the Supreme Court could be a big help to Trump next year because it would be the delivery on another of his big 2016 campaign promises.
Both Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the increased Russian presence in Venezuela in support of dictator Nicolas Maduro is intolerable. It is, but what is Trump prepared to do about it? Mere words won’t force the Russians (or the Iranians or the Cubans, both of whom are in Venezuela in force) out of Venezuela. Trump said all options are on the table. But because Trump uses those words too often, he has deprived them of their usual threatening effect.
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
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
