"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-24T20:45:13Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/24/mueller-report-william-barr-summary-white-house-reaction-nr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="mueller report william barr summary white house reaction nr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="mueller report william barr summary white house reaction nr vpx"
data-video-tags="bill barr,continents and regions,donald trump,eastern europe,europe,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,government organizations - us,investigations,law and legal system,political figures - us,politics,robert mueller,russia,russia meddling investigation,us congress,us federal government,white house"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
WH says Mueller report is 'complete exoneration' of Trump
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-24T21:46:15Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/24/trump-statement-mueller-report-pardons-could-be-next-prokupecz-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="trump statement mueller report pardons could be next prokupecz vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="trump statement mueller report pardons could be next prokupecz vpx"
data-video-tags="donald trump,political figures - us,amnesty and pardons,continents and regions,crime, law enforcement and corrections,criminal law,eastern europe,europe,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,investigations,law and legal system,misc people,politics,robert mueller,russia,russia meddling investigation,shimon prokupecz,us federal government,white house,bill barr"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-24T21:49:19Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/24/james-clapper-russia-mueller-report-blitzer-nr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="james clapper russia mueller report blitzer nr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="james clapper russia mueller report blitzer nr vpx"
data-video-tags="continents and regions,eastern europe,europe,russia,government and public administration,international relations and national security,investigations,james clapper,national security,political figures - us,politics,robert mueller,russia meddling investigation,government bodies and offices,government departments and authorities,government organizations - us,intelligence services,us cabinet,us federal departments and agencies,us federal government,us government independent agencies,us intelligence agencies,white house,misc people,wolf blitzer"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Wolf Blitzer: Sounds like Russians got what they wanted
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-24T20:25:29Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/24/mueller-report-russia-bash-prokupecz-nr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="mueller report russia bash prokupecz nr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="mueller report russia bash prokupecz nr vpx"
data-video-tags="continents and regions,crime, law enforcement and corrections,donald trump,eastern europe,europe,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,investigations,misc people,political figures - us,politics,robert mueller,russia,russia meddling investigation,shimon prokupecz,us federal government,white house,bill barr,dana bash,law and legal system"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-23T21:42:44Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/23/democrats-threaten-subpoena-mueller-report-manu-raju-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="democrats threaten subpoena mueller report manu raju vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="democrats threaten subpoena mueller report manu raju vpx"
data-video-tags="government and public administration,political organizations,politics,us democratic party,us political parties,business and industry sectors,business, economy and trade,government organizations - us,investigations,technology,telecommunications industry,telecommunications services,teleconferencing,us congress,us house of representatives"
data-details="">
"
data-check-event-based-preview=""
data-is-vertical-video-embed="false"
data-network-id=""
data-publish-date="2019-03-22T22:43:17Z"
data-video-section="politics"
data-canonical-url="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/03/22/robert-mueller-no-further-indictments-jarret-toobin-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn"
data-branding-key=""
data-video-slug="robert mueller no further indictments jarret toobin sot tsr vpx"
data-first-publish-slug="robert mueller no further indictments jarret toobin sot tsr vpx"
data-video-tags="business figures,continents and regions,crime, law enforcement and corrections,criminal law,donald trump,eastern europe,europe,government and public administration,government bodies and offices,government departments and authorities,government organizations - us,indictments,investigations,jared kushner,jeffrey toobin,justice departments,law and legal system,misc people,political figures - us,politics,robert mueller,russia,russia meddling investigation,us department of justice,us federal departments and agencies"
data-details="">
Video Ad Feedback
Toobin: This is really good news for Kushner, Trump Jr.
Which is BIG news! For the better part of the last 20 months, we’ve received drips and drabs of what Mueller knows but have never had a chance to see the whole picture (or anything close to it). There have been nearly 200 criminal counts against 39 people and entities, seven people have pleaded guilty and another four have been sentenced to jail.
But what we don’t know is whether Trump himself or his son, Donald Trump Jr., or his son-in-law Jared Kushner, might be implicated of wrongdoing by Mueller. That question has hung over Washington – and Trump’s presidency – like a dark cloud since Mueller was named special counsel in May 2017.??
The assumption has long been that Mueller’s report, whenever it came out, would function as a sort of last word on all of this. It would either exonerate or implicate Trump and his closest confidantes. It would, no matter what it said, change the course of Trump’s presidency.
And yet, now that we have at least the possibility of a light at the end of this tunnel, I am more and more convinced that the clarity that so many people want from the Mueller report may simply never come.
That’s not because Mueller’s findings won’t be clear. I mean, they might not be – but my guess is that someone with Mueller’s background, including a decade at the head of the FBI, is going to deliver a final product that deals with the questions raised by the 2016 campaign and Russia’s role in it comprehensively.
I think the lack of clarity will instead arise from how the report is received. Trump has spent much of the past 18 months savaging the Russia investigation publicly even while privately working hard to end or curtail it, as this amazing New York Times piece documents.?
Recent polling conducted by CNN suggests that Trump’s negative campaign against Mueller has had some effect: 44% approved of how Mueller had handled the investigation while 41% disapproved in the February poll. That’s down from a 50% approve/28% disapprove number for Mueller back in September 2018.
What numbers like those make me think is that no matter what is in the Mueller report – literally, NO MATTER WHAT – it won’t change the minds of most people following the story. For people who already hate Trump, they will see the Mueller report as confirmation that the President was compromised by the Russians. For Trump’s backers, they will dismiss the whole thing – aping their idol – as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” They likely won’t even engage with what’s in Mueller’s report, and Trump will egg them on to ignore it – so much “fake news” and all that.
Which will leave us, roughly, right where we are now. Which is bitterly divided without the ability to even agree on a set of facts and truths.
The Point: The Mueller report has been cast as the panacea for what ails the country. It almost certainly won’t be.