U.S. Attorney General William Barr recently accused House Democrats of trying to create a “public spectacle” by having Special Counsel Robert Mueller testify before Congress in public hearings.

He would know. The spectacle he created with his misleading characterization of the Mueller report was a doozy. He told America that the report said there was no collusion and no obstruction--both claims being demonstrably false.

This willful misrepresentation gave the public the mistaken impression that Trump had been exonerated. Many Republicans in Congress admit they didn’t even read the report. Ask a mainstream Republican about the Mueller investigation and they will squawk, “no collusion, no obstruction, time to move on.” Those words don’t appear in the report.

Unfortunately for Trump apologists like Sens. Ernst and Grassley the truth has a way of coming out. We need to have Robert Mueller testify so people can get the real story from the source and not a whitewashed version like Mr. Barr foisted on us. 

The Russian attack on the 2016 election was an act of war, a political 9/11. After the 9/11 attacks both Democrats and Republicans worked hard to investigate what happened and to figure out how to prevent future attacks. They tried to ascertain the truth.

One has to wonder why the Trump administration and the Republican party are so reluctant to investigate the Russian attacks. Maybe they don’t want to find out because the truth is disturbing and casts a pall of illegitimacy on Trump’s presidency.

Tom Jacobson

Riverside