‘SNL’ HITS THE NOSE ON MUELLER REPORT

When I saw the cold open title on YouTube for the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live,” I was wondering how the show would tackle the situation with Robert Mueller.  In the thumbnail I saw Robert De Niro, an outspoken critic of the president (in the lightest of terms), play Mueller – special counsel in the Trump-Russia investigation – with a strong facial resemblance to the man himself. 

This cold open is an accurate portrayal of what the Russia probe concluded: There was no collusion, but that doesn’t completely exonerate the president from any crimes that are being investigated – of which there could be plenty. There are three different sides to the Mueller conclusion: the full report; U.S Attorney General William Barr’s summary report to Congress; and the tweets from Trump that declare a full innocence and victory. However, just like the SNL skit and Mueller himself said, Donald Trump isn’t innocent, or immune to potential investigations from the state of New York over, for instance, actual finance crimes.  

The problem we are seeing is that some people on the liberal news outlets are still riding on the collusion train and some, like Trump, are using this summary letter from Barr as a final stake for victory. That’s not to say that this conclusion isn’t going to give Trump a momentous boost for the 2020 election campaign, but this only one major event in a long series of dominoes.

Most importantly to recognize, the declaration of “victory” from the Russia probe contradicts the entire witch hunt narrative and the resentment towards Mueller. One moment the special counsel is some Democratic plot to undermine the president; in the next, he’s an admirable person. It doesn’t make sense.  

I have to admit, even I had doubts about Trump and Russia, or at least the more extreme theories floating out there. I never believed that Trump was a puppet propped up by the Russian government; that sounds more like a projection of our government’s experience with “establishing democracy” in foreign countries. I thought the extent of the Russian collusion was shady business dealings with oligarchs that Trump’s cabinet staff were involved in – and even that sounds like farce, in theory.

From what we learned in the Michael Cohen (Trump’s former personal attorney) hearing before Congress, the president has done a lot things that are illegal in the business world and those problems will follow him after his presidency. You can’t have dozens of your staff investigated and indicted for finance crimes connected to you and act like you’re completely innocent. Not only is it a lie to mislead the public on the investigation, but it’s also suspicious to celebrate your initial innocence and ignore the full legal statement.  

So while SNL borders on satire, and a little bit of the truth when it comes to Trump, it couldn’t have gotten it any more spot-on when it comes to the parallels of the Russian probe conclusion than it did.  

Advocate Staff