Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal was on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Monday and the segment that followed illustrated the goal post shifting that has occurred among Democrats and the media on the Russia investigation. Whereas, not that long ago Robert Mueller was saving America from the Russians, collusion suddenly became yesterday's news.
Having Jayapal on presented the morning show with an opportunity to ask if Democrats regret crisscrossing the country telling the nation that President Trump colluded with the Russians in 2016 and why anyone should take them seriously on their new quests over obstruction of justice and Trump's personal finances, but Morning Joe willingly played into the liberal lawmaker's hand.
Regarding obstruction, co-host Joe Scarborough asked Washington Post political reporter Robert Costa, "Does this conclusion make it more likely that Democrats will move to impeach the president if they get the information?" Costa punted the question over to Jayapal asking, "Would you still move for impeachment if you think this paints a picture of obstruction, even if you don't know the President's intent?"
Jayapal responded by citing the "much broader" scope of the House's investigations including Chairman Jerry Nadler's "81 requests for information." Suddenly, Mueller did not seem that important to the Democrat, saying that the Mueller Report was "an important... but certainly not the whole story."
Later in the segment co-host Mika Brzezinski asked Jayapal, who sits on the Judiciary Committee, "What's next?" Jayapal said that the House investigations would continue and also attacked Barr for a supposed hurried conclusion that he had determined ahead of time anyway.
Jayapal concluded by refusing to say that Democrats would cease Trump-Russia related investigations: "I think if we see the underlying information and-- that's going to make a big difference." Ultimately she said that Mueller's findings on collusion were not that important anymore, "Can we, to ourselves, understand and look at the conclusions and say, 'Okay, I understand how Bob Mueller got to this place on collusion [but] there's still other questions about other things.'"
Both Nadler and Intel Chair Adam Schiff still maintain, despite Mueller's finding, Trump colluded with Russia. The Special Counsel was hailed as the person who going to save the country from the Russians because, as Democrats said over and over, Trump colluded with Russia. In reality, Mueller found that Trump did not collude with Moscow. And yet, when given the opportunity to confront a Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee about years of lies, hyperbole, and misrepresentation, Morning Joe chose instead to encourage wild goose chases.
Here is a transcript for the March 25 show:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7:39 AM ET
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Does this conclusion make it more likely that Democrats will move to impeach the president if they get the information?
ROBERT COSTA: It’s going to be, I'll ask you. It's going to be a fascinating question. If you get new information from the Mueller report but you don't know the president's intent with regard to obstruction would you still move for impeachment if you think this paints a picture of obstruction, even if you don’t know the President’s intent?
PRAMILA JAYAPAL: Here’s the thing about, our investigations are much broader than Bob’s Mueller’s investigation. We in the Judiciary Committee have authorization and responsibility around issues of abuse of power, public corruption and obstruction of justice .This has always been one piece of what we're looking at. For two years I've been on the Judiciary Committee since I came into Congress, and for two years we were not even able to have investigations or hearings into any of these issues so we have just started that process. Chairman Nadler put out 81 requests for information, you know, for all of these investigations that are going on. We still have the southern district of New York, so there's a lot of information that's still coming in, and I think we are not -- you know, we're at the beginning of the process, not at the end of the process. Mueller Report an important piece of that but certainly not whole story.
…
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Congresswoman what’s next, you’re on the Judiciary Committee?
JAYAPAL: Yeah. We have a series of investigations that we've already started. We're continuing with that work and it's broader than just this, but I think we'll probably call Robert Barr and also Robert Mueller before us. I think we have to get this before us.
BRZEZINSKI: William Barr.
JAYAPAL: There's a lot of underlying information. I think to your point we could have even waited a week for Bill Barr to give us that conclusion. He didn't do that. He immediately took the tack of his 2018 memo that he wrote, unsolicited 19-page memo to the Trump Administration saying number one he believed the president had sweeping executive powers. Number two, that he didn't even think the president should be -- excuse me, that Bob Mueller should be able to ask the president questions, and in fact that didn't happen. He got written answers to his questions so there's a lot here that we need to still look at, and, you know, I think – I guess I'm troubled by the fact that we've set the standards so low for how a president should behave. I mean, we're talking about is there enough collusion here that it would rise to the level of criminality. We already know that there are a number of other investigations that are investigating the fact that or allegations that the President did lie, hush money, all kinds of other things. I used to think that the office of the President of the United States was a particularly vaunted one that we would all look up to that person.
SCARBOROUGH: Right
JAYAPAL: That they would set a moral standard for the country
SCARBOROUGH: Bob
BRZEZINSKI: We're in a different place.
JAYAPAL: Different place.
COSTA: Congresswoman, based on that answer. Do you think Democrats should still continue to pursue questions about Russia and the Trump campaign? We know you're going to pursue obstruction, but what about Russia and the Trump campaign based on this letter from the Attorney General?
JAYAPAL: Well, I think if we see the report and we see the underlying information and -- that's going to make a big difference, right. Can we, to ourselves, understand and look at the conclusions and say “Okay, I understand Bob Mueller got to this place on collusion. There's still other questions about other things.” But it all depends, I have to go home and answer to 750,000 people, and I need to be able to explain exactly where we are in this process, and I do think that, again, you know, criminality, is there enough that rises to that level, that is a different question than whether there was -- there was -- there were things happening that the American people should be worried about?
