Trump can’t escape Mueller as Democrats ponder impeachment

Bloomberg

Donald Trump returned from a long Easter weekend in Florida to a new political landscape, one where his administration is at last freed from Robert Mueller’s pursuit yet laid bare in all
its dysfunction by the special counsel’s report.
Trump arrived to his Mar-a-Lago resort with the swagger of a conquering hero, after Mueller reiterated that he had found no evidence of a conspiracy between Trump and Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.
But in Florida, storms regather quickly. Lawmakers back in Washington as well as the media focussed on Mueller’s depiction of a president who repeatedly sought to interfere in the Russia investigation while deceiving the public about his actions.
Congressional panels moved to schedule testimony by Mueller and Attorney General William Barr. Democratic presidential candidates called impeachment proceedings.
The president’s mood appeared to sour as he absorbed the developments, with a series of tweets Easter morning griping about the report and its news coverage.
Trump, though, insisted on Twitter that he had “never been happier or more content.” Asked outside church if he felt betrayed by aides who cooperated with Mueller, Trump paused as if to respond. But he only offered a grin and a wave.

Tricky Decisions
Both Trump and his opponents face tricky political decisions in the weeks to come.
Democrats broadly desire to keep Mueller’s report in the spotlight. But while the party’s presidential candidates and many activists have demanded Trump be held accountable, its congressional leaders fear that pursuing impeachment could backfire and wind up strengthening the president, similar to the Republican attempt to remove President Bill Clinton from office.
“We will have to decide, do we nonetheless go through an impeachment because to do otherwise would signal that somehow this president’s conduct is OK, that future presidents can engage in this kind of corruption without consequence?” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said on Fox News.
“Or do we decide that we’re better off doing the oversight through the context of oversight hearings rather than a formal impeachment?”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to hold a call with her caucus on Monday to discuss strategy.
Many of Trump’s advisers, meanwhile, would like to put the report behind them and focus on policies and messaging that they believe will help him win re-election in 2020 — emphasizing the strength of the economy and his effort to secure the US southern border and crackdown on undocumented immigrants.