Fox News’ host Tucker Carlson is now being “fact checked” for telling the plain truth about the special counsel investigation.
Speaking on his show Monday night, Carlson said that Robert Mueller is “the single most powerful person in America and yet nobody voted for him.”
“Nobody in Washington catches the irony in any of this,” he continued. “Mueller himself is a threat to our democracy, the most powerful man elected by nobody.”
Journo fails fact check on Mueller
Carlson has often criticized Mueller’s off-the-rails probe and the reckless and questionable methods of his team’s prosecution. Carlson viewed last week’s dramatic, armed pre-dawn raid on Trump associate Roger Stone as a frightening example of the power at Mueller’s disposal.
“Nobody controls Robert Mueller,” Carlson said. “Mueller can send armed men to your home to rouse you from bed at gunpoint because he feels like it and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it. Mueller has an unlimited budget and no timetable. He doesn’t have to answer questions. He can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to whomever he wants. He cannot be fired.”
A Washington Examiner journalist attempted to fact check Carlson’s claims about unaccountability, arguing that Mueller could be ousted at any moment by the Justice Department.
But the very same report goes on to note that there is a consensus among legal experts that Trump cannot fire Mueller, and the incoming attorney general William Barr has testified that he would rather resign than fire Mueller without “good cause.”
Even if Mueller could be ousted in theory, he almost certainly won’t be — not if the Democrats can help it. Mueller’s current supervisor, Rod Rosenstein, certainly hasn’t done anything to curtail Mueller’s authority in the now-nearly two-year probe.
Can anyone who has heard the continual drumbeats to “protect Mueller,” whether with legislation or simple intimidation of the incoming attorney general, doubt what Carlson is saying? Democrats have made Barr’s confirmation conditional on an oath of loyalty to the special counsel.
When a memorandum surfaced in which Barr criticized Mueller for pursuing obstruction charges against Trump over his firing of James Comey, Democrats pressured him to recant his past statements. They have similarly pressured Barr to agree to make Mueller’s report public when the investigation wraps up. Even after grilling Barr about Mueller, Democrats delayed a committee vote on Barr’s nomination Tuesday amid “concerns” that he may limit the special counsel’s authority.
Tucker Carlson tells his viewers “Mueller can send armed men to your home to roust you from bed just bc he feels like it and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do about it … he is a living rebuke to the principles of our democratic system” pic.twitter.com/YnkKBo84Fk
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) January 29, 2019
Troubling pattern of abuse
Carlson is right. Democrats — and even some Republicans, frankly — think Mueller needs the power to do his job. They see Barr as Mueller’s incoming subordinate, not the other way around. But frankly, why would a prosecutor with Mueller’s power need more protection?
As many have argued, Mueller’s team has brought process charges of lying and obstruction against numerous Trump associates that fit a reckless pattern of prosecutorial abuse to intimidate witnesses. Carlson brought Stone on his show hours after his early morning arrest Friday to discuss the raid. Stone blasted Mueller’s excessive use of force, insisting that he wasn’t armed and that he was not a flight risk.
The implications of the raid are indeed chilling when one considers that Stone was arrested on charges stemming from Mueller’s investigation, not anything he was accused of doing before the probe began. But Mueller is the one who needs additional protection?
Liberals have likened Mueller to the protector of democracy, but Carlson flipped that formulation on its head. “[Mueller is] a living rebuke to the principles of our democracy,” Carlson said. “At the same time, our leaders tell us we need Robert Mueller, an all-powerful, unelected prosecutor accountable to no one to protect us from threats to – brace yourself here – democracy.”
No comments: