If President Trump has nothing to hide vis-a-vis his relationship with Russia, then he should direct his administration to work overtime to cooperate with the review conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. That’s how he can get the dratted subject behind him.
In some ways, Trump has been showing a normal human reaction: If accused (at least by inference) of something you didn’t do, you get angry at the accusation and want to stifle the accusers.
But that’s not how a public servant should act — especially when there clearly is plenty of fire-induced smoke wafting around former colleagues. Sure, Trump may think he did nothing wrong personally to “collaborate” with the Russians — but with all the long-standing ties between Russian entities and former Trump top dogs Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn, any objective person would understand that reasons for questioning them exist, even if the rush to prematurely convict them in the media is unseemly.
A public servant, especially the president, should want all questions of wrongdoing examined expeditiously and conclusively – and, if wrongdoing by others is found, even if those others are or once were close to the public servant, then the wrongdoing should be punished. Indeed, if wrongdoing is found, the president especially should want it punished specifically because it brought disrepute into his orbit, a disrepute he should resent and should blame on the malefactors, not on the media messengers.
And if bad judgment but no criminal acts are found, well, the president should want it cleared up and behind him as soon as possible — not by trying to retard the investigation, which only makes it last longer, but by helping it work thoroughly and quickly. No matter how much the president wants the innuendos about his own actions stifled, his better course is to let the investigators work so they can expeditiously determine his innocence.
Conversely, the more he rains down calumny on the questioners and investigators, the guiltier he looks even if he truly is innocent.
That’s why it looks so bad for reports to emerge that the Trump team is actually considering ways to limit or block Mueller’s investigation.
“The administration is now mainly focused on placing a cloud over [Mueller’s] reputation for independence,” reported Reuters. This is exactly the wrong way to act. It harms the public’s right to know, and it makes the president look guilty rather than transparent.
Former President Ronald Reagan handled his major “scandal” much better. As soon as he found out about the diversion of Iranian funds to the Nicaraguan Contras, he and Attorney General Ed Meese called a press conference to announce that fact and to promise to get to the bottom of it. Reagan shortly thereafter appointed a bipartisan commission to investigate the matter. Then his administration cooperated fully with congressional inquiries, and Reagan eventually acknowledged that what began as a legal initiative had devolved, via lack of adequate oversight, into one in which rules and common sense were traduced.
Just two years after the scandal broke, Reagan was leaving office with stratospheric approval ratings.
Meanwhile, Trump actually ought to welcome the appointment of a special prosecutor at least for personal reasons even if it sets a bad legal precedent. In effect, the existence of a special counsel means that Trump can appoint a new FBI director with a view to long-term competence, rather than under the shadow of the Russia probe.
This means Trump can focus solely on finding a well-experienced, honest, apolitical director who is in line with Trump’s vision of being tough on crime and terrorists, without worrying about the short-term distraction of the new director’s imagined effect on the Russia inquiry.
If Trump did nothing wrong, then the truth will come out. Trump should therefore be calm, open, and trusting — and focused on the rest of his considerable job as president, rather than obsessing about accusations he says he knows to be false. The public would reward him for it.
Quin Hillyer (@QuinHillyer) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former associate editorial page editor for the Washington Examiner.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
