Sometime next week we should all get a look at what U.S. Attorney General William Barr wants us to see from the special investigation by Robert Mueller into President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Russian intervention in the 2016 presidential election.
How much we see of the Mueller investigation is up to Barr.
Well, up to him for now.
For it seems unlikely that the whole Mueller report – around 400 pages – won’t be made public at some point.
Even though there could be legal penalties for revealing grand jury evidence, I still figure some enterprising newspapers/journalists will publish the whole report if they get their hands on it.
It’s no surprise that those of us who follow the positions of Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, see the 2nd District representative following the lead of Trump in most things – and certainly in this investigation.
Stewart, who would love to be named by Trump as the next Air Force secretary, has clearly placed his political future in the president’s hands.
Stewart is a regular on cable TV news networks because he can be counted on to defend the president in all things, always.
This is a winning strategy for Stewart.
A January UtahPolicy.com poll by Dan Jones & Associates – while now a few months old – shows just how much so:
— 57 percent of his 2nd District voters “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of the job Stewart is doing in office.
— 28 percent disapprove, and 18 percent don’t know.
That’s a fairly decent approval rating, although the “don’t know” number is relatively high considering how many years Stewart has been in office and how much press he gets – certainly more than the other three members of the U.S. House delegation.
Republicans and conservatives love Stewart:
— 74 percent of Republicans in his district give him a favorable approval rating.
— 78 percent of “very conservative” constituents like him.
— 72 percent of the “somewhat conservative” folks in his district like him.
But Stewart’s district also includes most of progressive-leaning Salt Lake City. And those folks really don’t like Stewart.
In his 2018 re-election, which Stewart won easily, in Salt Lake City he got only 27.85 percent of the vote.
Democrat Shireen Ghorbani got 67.28 percent of the vote in the city’s part of the 2nd District – which is based in Davis County and runs around the western part of the state all the way down to St. George – the GOP Legislature’s idea of a fair redistricting in 2011.
U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has already said he won’t run for re-election in 2020, retiring from the U.S. House.
Stewart would like to get out of the House, as well, if he can find something better – like Air Force secretary.
Being in the U.S. House minority is not much fun, especially after you’ve been in the majority, as Bishop and Stewart were before the 2018 elections.
Stewart was in the majority on the House Intelligence Committee – which completely whitewashed its so-called “investigation” of Russia’s influence in the 2016 presidential election.
Even the U.S. Senate’s GOP-controlled investigation said Russia in fact tried to influence the election in Trump’s behalf.
Stewart even denied that for months, saying at one point he couldn’t read Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mind and so couldn’t say if he was for Trump or not – even though Putin is seen on tape saying he wanted Trump to win.
Some really bizarre stuff from Stewart.
Anyway, get ready for Stewart to stand with Trump no matter what the Mueller report says about the president’s actions in all of this.
If Stewart had been on the Titanic, he would have first denied it struck an iceberg.
Then denied it was sinking.
Then criticized the press and Democrats for making it all “fake news.”
And as Stewart got into a lifeboat, he would have still said the Titanic (Trump) was the best thing that has ever happened in British maritime (American) history.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Utah Republican Legislature – and whoever is governor then — allowed Prop 4 – the independent redistricting commission – to go into effect.
And we would see a 2021 redistricting of U.S. House seats allowing Salt Lake City voters to have a district where their House member actually reflected their political desires, instead of yet another GOP gerrymandering where 68 percent of city voters really have no one looking out for their interests in the U.S. House.
