It's not about collusion; it's about obstruction ... and impeachment
By Andrew C. McCarthy, opinion contributor — 03/06/19 11:00 AM EST
“There was no collusion!â€
As President Trump demonstrated in his feature-length CPAC speech, he is that rare combination of bottomless energy, canny comic timing, disregard for norms, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The last manifests itself in manic refutation of the Democrat-media narrative that the Trump campaign was in a traitorous conspiracy with the Kremlin. At this point, if you ask the president what time it is, or to pass the salt shaker, he’ll tell you, “There was no collusion!â€
Mr. Trump has always said this, even as evidence of non-criminal but indecorous Trump-Russia contacts mounted (the Trump Tower New York meeting with Kremlin-operative Natalia Veselnitiskaya, the Trump Tower Moscow project, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs). Plainly, though, “no collusion†has become a mantra now because the president expects that special counsel Robert Mueller’s reputedly imminent report will conclude that there was no criminal collusion — no Trump-Russia espionage conspiracy to steal the 2016 election.
The White House is attempting to shape expectations: Even if the special counsel’s report catalogues unsavory conduct and connections, it will be portrayed as exoneration if there was no “collusion†in the sense of criminal collaboration.
Not so fast.
more
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/432808-its-not-about-collusion-its-about-obstruction-and-impeachment
