Democrats are having all sorts of issues with "semantics"

Pollster to Dem Candidates: Focus on Mueller Indictments

A new survey by Navigator Research, a group of top Democratic strategists and public opinion experts, finds that while 97 percent of Americans have heard about the Mueller probe, nearly 60 percent don't believe it has uncovered any crimes.

The ongoing investigation has so far resulted in two dozen indictments, including that of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and a couple of campaign associates have pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators. But the findings of the Navigator survey indicate that while most Americans say the investigation should continue, they don't think it has produced much so far.

"There is a real information and education challenge for progressives to make sure more people learn that there is a 'there' there," says Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. "Does it mean it's going to be the focus of an entire ad campaign? Probably not. But there are real arguments that are impactful to voters and ways we can win this argument if we engage."

There are two reality problems with this approach.

The first is that the 60% of Americans are correct: Mueller hasn't actually "uncovered" anything. He has simply made a series of decisions to prosecute process crimes and to follow up and prosecute previously known actions. The reality is that a prosecutor cannot "uncover" a process crime. By nature, the process crime was created by the investigation, not the other way around. Since every single guilty plea Mueller has garnered involves "making misleading statements" it seems reasonable for people at this point to see this for what it is. He also did not "uncover" the Paul Manafort situation. It was an "inherited" case. All Mueller has done is draw up indictments against Manafort and Gates for actions that were already known to the FBI.

Hey America!!!  There was no collusion!!!

The larger issue is that, in the eyes of most Americans, Mueller was appointed special counsel to do a specific job. He was supposed to investigate Russian's role in the election and what (if any) role that the Trump team might have had.  Since we had already concluded that the Russians attempted to interfere in the election (and didn't need Mueller's help to make that conclusion), it fell to Mueller to prove the other half of that equation. Bottom line: he was supposed to investigate the possibility of Russia/Trump collusion. That is how most of the American public saw this investigation, and on that level, Robert Mueller has seemingly uncovered "nothing" to push that narrative forward.

Again, most Americans are not going to fall for the argument that Mueller has been successful, or buy into the semantics of redefining his quest. They are not going to be swayed by Rosenstein's claims that he provided a secret grant of plenary authority to Mueller to investigate other things. They are not going to be impressed with diplomats who are sentenced to 30 days for a process crime. They are not going to sing the praises of Mueller for indicting random Russians he apparently refuses to prosecute. Unless there is a connection otherwise unknown at this time, the prosecution of Manafort will only placate those who simply want to punish anyone and everyone who associates themselves with Donald Trump. The lion's share of Americans will likely see it as a distraction from his main purpose.

There would be no support (nor should there be any support) for a Special Prosecutor with unlimited resources to be appointed to chase down old money laundering allegations against someone who had twice previously been investigated for those crimes. We didn't need a Special Prosecutor to charge General Flynn for misleading statements that the FBI didn't even feel were misleading. We didn't need a Special Prosecutor to charge George Papadopoulos, or some foreign diplomat for misleading statements. We didn't need a Special Prosecutor to read a magazine expose, and draw up indictments from it. But so far, that's what the millions of dollars has gotten us.

Unfortunately for Mueller (and the Democrats) Americans continue to be swayed by the President's continuous pounding on Special Counsel for not finding collusion. Expect him and his team to continue to do so. The reason that this strategy works and will continue to work, is because finding collusion was the ENTIRE justification for a Special Counsel to be appointed. If Mueller fails to uncover any collusion, then by the most reasonable standard of this investigation, he will have failed. At least that is how the majority of Americans will see it and for good reason.