Concluding his two-year investigation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller submitted yesterday his final report to Attorney General William Barr.
The news shook Washington to its core, prompting intense speculation about what comes next. Barr, who is currently reviewing the report, has not indicated how much of it will be made available to the public. But 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are putting pressure on the Department of Justice, demanding that Barr release the entire report, according to The Hill .
Virtually all Democratic presidential candidates have publicly urged Barr to release the report in its entirety.
“Special counsel Mueller’s report should be made public without any delay,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
California Senator Kamala Harris echoed Gillibrand’s statement, adding that Attorney General Barr should testify under oath.
“This is about securing American democracy and protecting voters’ confidence in our elections and our system of government,” Harris said, urging her supporters to sign a petition meant to help make the report available to the public.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Senators Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren all made similar statements, arguing that the American public deserves to see the report.
“Make the full Mueller report public and available to the American people. #ReleaseTheReport,” Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard tweeted.
President Obama’s former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro, and former Representative John Delaney joined their Democratic colleagues, calling on the attorney general to publish Mueller’s report.
None of the Democratic presidential candidates dared allege collusion again, except Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke. As previously reported by The Inquisitr , O’Rourke said in a fiery speech that Donald Trump, “beyond the shadow of a doubt,” attempted to collude with Moscow.
Here’s what the Dem candidates for president said about the Mueller report https://t.co/4xHgYRiRCh pic.twitter.com/S9IcI3YpAd
— The Hill (@thehill) March 23, 2019
It comes as no surprise that the vast majority of Democratic presidential candidates remain cautious, given that Mueller has failed to indict or charge an American citizen with conspiring with Russia to help Trump win in 2016.
According to multiple media reports and Department of Justice officials, Mueller did not recommend further indictments, and the special counsel’s office has no sealed indictments.
Some Democrats and popular media pundits did not take the news well, according to The New York Post . Some of them are spreading, as the outlet put it, “conspiracy theories,” and alleging that information is being withheld.
“It feels like the seeds of a cover-up are here,” said MSNBC host Joy Reid.
Twitter users lash out at John Brennan for predicting Mueller indictments that never came to be https://t.co/XbqTmAsIyT pic.twitter.com/vGNMnrxZh9
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) March 23, 2019
Reid’s colleague Rachel Maddow looked “like she’s going to cry,” according to the New York Post , and Democratic Senator Chris Coons promised that Mueller finalizing his investigation does not mean that President Trump is in the clear.
“It’s the end of the beginning, it’s not the beginning of the end,” he vowed.