“Complete and Total EXONERATION!” tweeted President Trump upon the release of Attorney General Barr’s summary of Special Counsel Mueller’s report. There’s just one problem: That’s not what the special counsel’s report says.
In fact, it’s not even what the summary says. While the attorney general made it clear that Mueller found no evidence of the Trump campaign directly colluding with the Russian government to affect the election, it also specifically quotes the special counsel saying his findings “do not exonerate” the president on the question of obstruction.
Unfortunately, far too many commentators are rushing to embrace the president’s narrative. The far right, eager to take advantage of this period of time where we don’t know the full contents of the report, is spiking the football. The fringe left has been strangely gleeful as well, always preferring the satisfaction of an “I told you so” over an actual political victory. And caught in the center, the hapless “mainstream media” is giving bad faith criticism of its coverage of the Mueller investigation undue consideration — and gobbling up the White House’s talking points hook, line, and sinker.
