Madam President, yesterday, Attorney General Barr transmitted to Congress his summary of the special counsel's principal conclusions from his investigation into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. The result of that…
Madam President, yesterday, Attorney General Barr
transmitted to Congress his summary of the special counsel's principal conclusions from his investigation into Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
The result of that investigation is being hailed as good news for the President, and it certainly is that. But, really, it is good news for our entire country. It is good news that our law enforcement professionals know much more about Russia's malevolent attempts to interfere in American elections, and it is good news that we can conclusively set aside the notion that the President and his team had somehow participated in those attacks on our democracy.
According to the Attorney General, the special counsel's indepth investigation ``did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.'' That really says it all.
Further, Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein concluded the investigation did not--did not--establish that the President engaged in obstruction of justice.
So after 2 years, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of search warrants, hundreds of witnesses, millions of taxpayer dollars, these are the findings: no collusion, no conspiracy, no obstruction.
What the investigation did produce, it seems, is a deep examination of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. The Attorney General reports that Russia carried out online disinformation campaigns and computer hacking efforts designed to sow discord in our Nation and interfere in American politics.
It is deeply disturbing that the Obama administration was apparently insufficiently prepared to anticipate and counter these Russian threats. It was hardly a secret prior to November 2016 that Putin's Russia was not, and is not, our friend. Yet, for years, the previous administration ignored, excused, and failed to confront Putin's malign activities both at home and abroad.
I am glad the special counsel's report will contribute new insight and new understanding to our awareness of Russian activities. I look forward to the release of more information in the coming days, as the Attorney General has said he intends to do, in consultation with Special Counsel Mueller.
I look forward, as well, to the continuing parallel work of our Senate colleagues on the Select Committee on Intelligence to study the threats that foreign interference pose to our institutions.
As I said, in any sane political moment, all of this would be very welcome news to all Americans--in a normal time. But we know that, amazingly, the reaction in some corners of the far left has seemed not to be celebration but, rather, disappointment.
Huge components of the Democratic Party and their media allies have spent literally years spinning intricate theories about this Presidency and trying to sell the American people on their wild claims. It is as if many of our Democratic colleagues are still just unable to process the simple fact that, yes, the American people elected this Republican President over his Democratic opponent.
We are faced with new evidence every day that our Republican policies are delivering exactly the change that middle-class families voted for back in 2016. Yet, even still, many on the left remain convinced that only conspiracy and corruption could possibly explain why they might actually lose an election.
Well, here in the real world, the American people hired this President to clean up the mess of the preceding 8 years. That is exactly what we set about doing, and the results are clear. The Nation is clearly better off than it was 2 years ago.
I sincerely hope that now, at last, our friends on the left will be able to put aside their fixation on permanently relitigating their loss in 2016 and actually join in the productive work that the rest of us have been proudly engaged in for the past 2 years and counting.
Unfortunately, the events over the last few months have not exactly indicated that productive, practical cooperation is what our Democratic colleagues have in mind. To the contrary, the Nation has watched as the Democratic Party has engaged in a collective headlong sprint--a headlong sprint--toward the left, as far to the left as possible, as fast as possible.
They have proposed a massive rewriting of the rules of American politics. They have proposed scrapping Medicare, slapping its name on a brandnew, one-size-fits-all government insurance plan, and then making American families' existing private insurance policies illegal. And, of course, they have proposed what the Senate will be voting on later this week--the famous Green New Deal.
My colleagues and I will have plenty more to say on this subject in the coming days. Today, I just want to say that I could not be more glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn precisely where each one of their Senators stands on this radical, top- down, and socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.
Middle-class families will get to see if their Senators have been wooed by the disjointed contents of leftish daydreams.
Hard-working Americans in Kentucky and around the country who are employed in the energy and manufacturing industries will get to see if their Senators support eliminating all fossil fuels and suffocating their livelihoods.
Homeowners who take pride in their hard-earned investment will get to see if their Senators are in favor of forcible, DC-directed remodeling of every building in America.
Working-class Americans who have benefited from our growing economy and historic job market will learn whether their Senators support turning away from free enterprise and implementing a new government- driven employment system.
Families who have to budget for household expenses will see which Senators vote to increase their electricity bills by what one analysis pegs at--listen to this--$300 a month.
Of course, every American taxpayer will get to learn whether their Senator supports saddling our Nation with the astronomical cost of this socialist fantasy--tens and tens of trillions of dollars--a tax burden that would be certain to hurt not just wealthy Americans but the middle class as well.
On all of these questions, on this whole Democratic effort to rebrand all the failed ideas of 20th-century socialism with a little green paint, every Member of this body will have the opportunity to cast a clear vote this very week. The American people deserve to know which Senators can reject this crippling proposal right away and which Senators find themselves unable to do that. That is exactly what they will learn later this week.