Has Every Member of Congress Read the Mueller Report?
Doing So Is Critical to Safeguarding Our Elections Going Forward
EDITORIAL BOARD ALERT
“Read the bill! Read the bill! Read the bill!”
During America’s 2008-2010 national debate on reforming our health care system, droves of Americans showed up to local town halls, wrote letters to the editor and visited congressional offices demanding their U.S. House of Representatives member or U.S. senator read the more than 1,000-page legislation that eventually became the Affordable Care Act.
It’s time to demand the same of members of Congress on another critical issue: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on how the Russian government used its resources to interfere in our 2016 elections.
America is the oldest and most successful democracy in the world. Our elections have traditionally been of the highest integrity, oversight and regularity during the past 240-plus years. We have been a model for the free world. But for the first time ever, mass interference in America’s 2016 elections, orchestrated by Russia, was designed to bolster the candidacy of one campaign and harm the candidacy of another, while fomenting political and social upheaval through digital media.
After almost two years, nearly 200 total criminal charges, 37 indictments or guilty pleas – including indictments of 12 Russian military agents – and five prison sentences, Mueller submitted his more than 440-page report to the U.S. Department of Justice. Attorney General William Barr later sent redacted versions of the report to Capitol Hill.
“Do your job! Do your job! Do your job!”
That’s what Americans in coffee shops, parking lots, grocery stores and at dinner tables are telling members of Congress. That begins with reading Mueller’s report. It’s critical for lawmakers to understand exactly what happened during the elections, so they can shore up our elections systems and ensure interference never happens again.
After reading the report, lawmakers should publicly attest to having read it and then ensure that hearings occur to push for accountability and guarantee that the public understands what is contained in the report. In addition, lawmakers must lay out their ideas for how to safeguard our elections in the future to move the country forward.
Please urge congressional lawmakers to do their jobs by reading the Mueller Report and letting the country know how they will safeguard our 2020 elections.
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