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Robert Mueller Never Should Have Been a Liberal Hero

The cult of Mueller foolishly prioritized legal prosecution over political organizing.

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies before the House Intelligence Committee about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the Rayburn House Office Building July 24, 2019 in Washington, DC.

For most of his life, Robert Mueller was a pillar of bipartisan comity, an institutionalist respected by both major US political parties but in the last decade he became emblematic of polarized politics. Liberals lionized Mueller as a patriotic public servant who bravely tried to defend the rule of law while MAGA maligned him as part of a deep state conspiracy to destroy Donald Trump. Mueller, who died on Monday at age 81, had been FBI director from 2001 to 2013 but is more famous for being the special prosecutor who oversaw from 2017 to 2019 the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign in 2016 and the Russian government.

Displaying his usual magnanimous spirit, Trump reacted to the news of Mueller’s death by posting on Truth Social, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!” The “innocent people” Trump was thinking about were his cronies—notably his 2016 campaign adviser Paul Manafort, his longtime associate Roger Stone, and his National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—who had been convicted of various offenses during the investigation. Manafort had been found guilty of fraud while both Stone and Flynn were convicted of lying to investigators. Trump pardoned all three in late 2020.

In contrast to Trump’s post, former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both paid handsome tribute to Mueller’s transformative term as head of the FBI. According to Obama, Mueller deserved commendation for “his relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values that made him one of the most respected public servants of our time.”

Speaking on MS NOW, Rachel Maddow, a journalist who had placed great hope in Mueller’s investigation into Russiagate, remembered the former law enforcement official as “the last in a line of people that I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of again.” For Maddow, Mueller “belonged to a now extinct class of lifelong rock-ribbed Republican public officials who are most known for their propriety and their nonpartisan competence and willingness to rise… above party.”

Maddow’s effusive words seemed like the product of a time warp: They recalled the heady days of Trump’s first term when liberals widely hailed Mueller as a savior. These liberals saw Trump as fundamentally illegitimate and alien to US politics, an intrusive force who could only have defeated Hillary Clinton thanks to the dark machinations of a foreign tyrant, Vladimir Putin.

In the context of the Russiagate narrative, Mueller was perfectly cast to be the hero: He was an old-school establishment Republican who would legitimize the critique by Trump by putting nation above party. Mueller even looked the part. As The New York Times notes, Mueller even looked the part, being a “button-down, lockjawed, rock-ribbed exemplar of a vanishing caste, liberal Republicans.”

A veritable cult of Mueller flourished during his investigations, when you could light up Mueller votive candles, play with Mueller action dolls, and wear Mueller T-shirts while listening to podcasts called Mueller, She Wrote. There was a kids’ books featuring a heroic and buff Mueller as well as cartoons showing him as a caped superhero flying through the sky. Saturday Night Live regularly featured skits where the greatest actor of our age, Robert De Niro, played Mueller as a........

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