Trump Reacts to Mueller’s Conclusions with Mixture of Anger and Self-Pity
Sunday afternoon, Attorney General Bill Barr released a letter summarizing Robert Mueller’s report of his investigation into whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election. The letter states that the special counsel did not conclude that Trump colluded with Russia, nor did he completely exonerate him. Mueller’s report also reportedly stated that while he could not establish that the president committed obstruction of justice to stop the investigation, it was not completely determinitive.
Naturally, President Trump reacted with his usual humility:
No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION. KEEP AMERICA GREAT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2019
As he prepared to depart Mar-a-Lago and return to Washington, D.C., Trump made a statement to reporters that mixed self-pity with an apparent thirst for vengeance, saying that “after not looking at the other side where a lot of bad things, a lot of horrible things happened, a lot of very bad things happened for our country, it was just announced there was no collusion with Russia, the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” This would seem to be a less-than-subtle jab at his continued calls for the special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton and Democrats for allegedly colluding themselves.
Trump also claimed Barr’s statement was “a complete and total exoneration” and that “it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this for before I even got elected, it began. And it began illegally. Hopefully somebody is going to look at the other side. This was an illegal takedown that failed.”
The White House also released a statement stating that Trump “has been completely and fully vindicated” and slammed Democrats for “investigating, obstructing, and destroying the will of the American people.”
Again, it is important to note that Mueller concluded that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election. Knowing that, Trump’s entire reaction is not to promise the American people that he will marshal the forces of the federal government to prevent it from happening again, but rather to complain about how poorly he has been treated and that he was investigated while his enemies were not.
Typical.
