Peter Hasson on May 22, 2018
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni expressed his alarm on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling could actually be helping President Donald Trump.
The Mueller investigation, Bruni argued, is dominating media coverage to the extent it’s crowding out coverage of what Trump and his administration are actually doing.
“Maybe the just-published Politico report of Trump’s deliberate, cavalier use of a cellphone that doesn’t have strict security safeguards would be getting extra attention” if not for the Mueller investigation, Bruni pondered.
“Without Mueller and Russia, Scott Pruitt would be closer to center stage, with an even brighter, harsher spotlight on him,” the liberal columnist continued.
“He’s not exactly evading scrutiny, but he’s being spared the relentless top-of-the-screen, start-of-the-newscast treatment that he would likely endure if lawmakers, journalists and other watchdogs weren’t so mesmerized by the convoluted twists of Mueller v. Trump.”
Bruni also expressed his concern the Mueller investigation might not find evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.
Trump “knows that if he sets the bar at incontrovertible evidence of him and Putin huddled over a Hillary Clinton voodoo doll, he just might clear it,” the columnist wrote. (RELATED: Still Lacking Evidence Of Collusion, Democrats Move The Goalposts)
“And he knows that if Americans are fixated on collusion, they aren’t concentrating on much else. That’s good for him and terrible for the country.”
