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In an op-ed for the Washington Post, the former Secretary of State said that “our election was corrupted our democracy assaulted, our sovereignty and security violated. This is the definitive conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report. It documents a serious crime against the American people.”
However, Clinton, who lives in Chappaqua, went on to say that Democrats have options other than impeaching or doing nothing with the president.
“Obviously, this is personal for me, and some may say I’m not the right messenger,” she said. “But my perspective is not just that of a former candidate and target of the Russian plot. I am also a former senator and secretary of state who served during much of Vladimir Putin’s ascent, sat across the table from him and knows firsthand that he seeks to weaken our country.”
In the op-ed, Clinton notes that she was a staff attorney on the House Judiciary Committee’s Watergate impeachment inquiry in 1974 and the first lady in 1998 when Bill Clinton went through impeachment proceedings. She also noted that she was a senator in New York following the September 11 terrorist attacks, “when Congress had to respond to an attack on our country.”
“What our country needs now is clear-eyed patriotism, not reflexive partisanship,” she said. “Whether they like it or not, Republicans in Congress share the constitutional responsibility to protect the country.
“Mueller’s report leaves many unanswered questions — in part because of Attorney General William P. Barr’s redactions and obfuscations. But it is a road map. It’s up to members of both parties to see where that road map leads — to the eventual filing of articles of impeachment, or not. Either way, the nation’s interests will be best served by putting party and political considerations aside and being deliberate, fair and fearless.”
Clinton went on to say that Congress should hold “substantive” hearings to build upon the Mueller Report to fill in any gaps before jumping straight to impeachment. She said that in 1998, the Republican-led House did that, adding “that was a mistake then and would be a mistake now.”
Before concluding her op-ed, Clinton said that the 2016 election could be a “warning about the future.”
“We have to get this right. The Mueller report isn’t just a reckoning about our recent history; it’s also a warning about the future,” she said. “Unless checked, the Russians will interfere again in 2020, and possibly other adversaries, such as China or North Korea, will as well.
"This is an urgent threat. Nobody but Americans should be able to decide America’s future. And, unless he’s held accountable, the president may show even more disregard for the laws of the land and the obligations of his office.“
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