Peter Van Buren on the Mueller Investigation – December 11, 2018

Peter Van Buren comes on the show to talk about his latest article on the Mueller investigation, which he believes is more conspiracy theory than truth. He points out that there’s still no evidence of blackmail based on personal matters, and that none of the supposed Trump Tower business deals in Russia have been shown to be illegal. Moreover, if the Russians really have Trump in their pocket, they don’t have a whole lot to show for it since Trump’s policies really haven’t been very friendly to Russian interests. Van Buren isn’t even satisfied with the story that the GRU is responsible for the hacking of the DNC servers, pointing out that there’s still been no evidence released, just a “report” from three intelligence agencies saying that’s who the evidence pointed to. Scott and Van Buren consider a more general problem with the reaction to Trump, which is that according to his critics the big problem is that he’s an outsider—in other words, they want someone from inside the system! This is probably the opposite of the appropriate reaction. Case in point: Trump (and his predecessors) can blow up kids in the Middle East and no one will bat an eye, but if he says something offensive or separates migrant families at the border, there will be 24/7 coverage claiming this is the worst violation of human rights anyone could have imagined. Scott also asks about the Korean peace negotiations, which Van Buren is hopeful about, but says need to move quickly, since the next president is unlikely to be willing to put up with the public pressure Trump has faced for his support.

Peter Van Buren worked for 24 years at the Department of State including a year in Iraq. He is the author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and the novel Hooper’s War. He is now a contributing editor at The American Conservative magazine.

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