Editorial: The path of our politics after Mueller
There have been few Democrats who, in reviewing the revelations in the Russia investigation over the past two years, have been more vocal critics of President Donald Trump than Rep. Adam Schiff, now the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
So when in the aftermath of former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony last week, the California lawmaker seemed all but ready to concede that Trump's opponents have no hope of impeaching him, it was no small admission.
"We do need to be realistic," Schiff said when interviewed on CNN about the prospects for Trump's removal, "and that is, the only way he's leaving office at this point is by being voted out (in 2020)."
Mueller's testimony delivered some dramatic points. He flatly disputed Trump's oft-repeated claims of exoneration. He criticized Trump's warm reception of WikiLeaks publication of emails stolen by a foreign power. He warned that Russia not only meddled in the 2016 election but that it's doing so now for 2020.
He disputed Trump's malicious description of the investigation as a witch hunt. But even more, his deliberate, step-by-step demeanor made it clear to all thinking Americans that it has not been.
What Mueller did not do was produce a new smoking gun. What he did not do was raise the temperature of the debate. What he did not do was engage the public.
That matters.
Some Trump critics say it shouldn't. Some Trump critics say that the revelations detailed in the Mueller Report are the only things that should.
But sorry. Wishing it doesn't make it so.
Our deeply divided country, right now at least, without some new and sensational revelation at least, does not have the stomach for an impeachment.
Fair or unfair. Warranted or unwarranted.
Right now, the only thing an impeachment attempt would do is further divide us all.
Many Americans believe that what already is known about Trump's behavior is enough. But many others don't. And it's not because they're unaware of the revelations. They're aware. They're just not convinced that it amounts to impeachable offenses.
"Should we put the country through an impeachment?" Schiff asked. "I haven't been convinced yet that we should, and going through that kind of momentous and disruptive experience for the country, I think, is not something we go into lightly."
Like it or not, it's time to shift the focus.
Let the 2020 campaign decide the politics of it all. Let that be the platform for the debate.
Meanwhile, our focus needs to be on foreign interference in our democracy - the reality of it, the depth of the threat it poses, what needs to be done to stop it and why, it seems, we're not doing all that needs to be done.