CNN wanted accusations against Trump to be true, White House spokesman says

White House principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley struck back at CNN host Anderson Cooper on Friday, a day after having a contentious interview with the journalist, saying he would not be lectured by a member of the mainstream media who has been “lying” about President Trump.
“First of all, I'm not going to take a lecture on truth-telling from anybody in the mainstream media who has been lying about this president for the last two years, telling the American people that Donald Trump committed treason which is a crime punishable by death as you well know,” Gidley told “Ingraham Angle” host Laura Ingraham.
On Thursday, Cooper and Gidley went back and forth over the release of the long-awaited Mueller report.
The report showed investigators did not find evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia but did lay out an array of actions taken by the president that were examined as part of the investigation’s obstruction inquiry.
At one point during the interview Cooper asked Gidley if the president lied.
“No, i’m not aware of him lying. He hasn’t lied to me,” Gidley responded.
“I feel bad that you’re scared to say that your boss lied,” Cooper later added.
Gidley accused CNN of wanting accusations of collusion between the president and Russia to be true.
“The point is, for me to sit there with CNN and listen to them, who they wanted this to be true so badly. So many in the media did, and I understand why they don't drop it,” Gidley said.
“Because if they did, they would be admitting the fact that the last two years of their life was a complete and total waste.”
Fox News' Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

Huckabee lashes out at Trump critic Romney: ‘Makes me sick’ you could have been POTUS

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee lashed out at Sen. Mitt Romney after the Utah Republican said he was “sickened” by the level of dishonesty from President Trump’s administration in response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Know what makes me sick, Mitt? Not how disingenuous you were to take @realDonaldTrump $$ and then 4 yrs later jealously trash him & then love him again when you begged to be Sec of State, but makes me sick that you got GOP nomination and could have been @POTUS," Huckabee tweeted Friday.
Earlier in the day, Romney tweeted that it was good news that there was insufficient evidence to charge Trump with collusion or obstruction of justice. The former GOP 2012 presidential candidate then blasted Trump and his campaign for having contacts with Russians.
"I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President," Romney posted.
"I am appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia — including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement," he wrote.
Mueller's long-awaited report was released Thursday morning and contains nearly 900 redactions. It showed investigators found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. No conclusion was reached on whether Trump’s actions amounted to obstruction.
Huckabee ran against Romney for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination and is the father of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Romney and Trump’s contentious relationship has been well documented, with both men having exchanged congratulations and insults over the years.

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Why the Mueller report, for all its meticulous detail, fell flat

If you've watched cable news or read newspapers for the last two years, you know most of what's in the Mueller report.
That was perhaps the biggest surprise in poring over it. Even the president's lawyers were surprised by that.
On issue after issue, the special counsel's report describes what we already know — about President Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump and Paul Manafort, Trump and Michael Flynn — and ultimately says no collusion with Russia and only inconclusive evidence of possible obstruction of justice.
To be sure, there's a text message here or a voice mail there that paints a fuller picture. But for the most part, the report consists of lengthy legal arguments as to why the president could have obstructed justice, might arguably have obstructed justice — only to say that Mueller's office makes no recommendation.
That means, in my view, there's no one anecdote or admission that political and media critics can seize upon to change the overarching narrative, that Mueller is bringing no further charges.
In fact, the best single scene is when Jeff Sessions told Trump that a special counsel had been appointed, the president replied: "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f---ed." Then he demanded to know how Sessions could let this happen.
But of course, he railed against Sessions and his recusal so many times, until the AG was forced out, that we sort of knew that (minus the F-bomb).
All this is great fodder for the press, and for legal scholars, and for historians. But there's very little that will change people's minds as to whether Donald Trump engaged in misconduct.
Some examples:
— When Trump called Paul Manafort, during jury deliberations, a "very good person" and said "it's very sad what they've done to Paul Manafort," the comments could "engender sympathy for Manafort among jurors" if they learned of the remarks. But there are "alternative explanations," such as that he "genuinely felt sorry for Manafort" or was trying to influence public opinion, not the jury.
— "There is evidence" that the president knew Michael Cohen had testified falsely before Congress about continuing efforts during the campaign to win approval for a Trump Tower in Moscow. But the available evidence "does not establish that the president directed or aided Cohen's false testimony."
It's like a legal seminar, as the report rehashes the mostly known facts, floats the most damaging interpretations, offers the counter-argument and concludes there is insufficient evidence.
Less flattering for Trump:
— His firing of Jim Comey, request to his White House counsel to have Bob Mueller fired, and direction to Corey Lewandowski to ask Sessions to limit the scope of Mueller's probe all could be viewed as trying to undercut the investigation. But these efforts were largely unsuccessful because the people around Trump "declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."
— When a reporter said the vast majority of FBI agents supported the just-fired Comey, Sarah Sanders said: "we've heard from countless members of the FBI who say very different things." She told Mueller's office this was a "slip of the tongue" that occurred "'in the heat of the moment' that was not founded on anything."
— Trump told Mueller in written answers that he had no advance knowledge of the infamous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer. In 2017, Hope Hicks and another aide — after discussions with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump — said the emails involved would inevitably leak and should be released. Hicks was shocked by the emails and thought they looked "really bad." Jared, Ivanka and Hope urged the president to release the emails — Hicks said they could do it as part of an interview with "softball questions" — but he disagreed that they would leak.
When The New York Times got onto the story, the president dictated that they should just say the meeting was about Russian adoptions. Don Jr. objected, asking that the word "primarily" be added because there was briefly a discussion about Hillary Clinton: "If I don't have it in there it appears as though I'm lying later when they inevitably leak something." The Times soon obtained the emails, leading to a wave of bad press.
But all this is pretty down in the weeds. And that's in part because so much of what the president said and did in battling Mueller played out in public.
What is muting the report's impact, in my view, is that expectations were so sky-high. The media, having invested so much capital in this probe for two years, only to be let down by the lack of criminal charges, were betting that the actual report would be explosive. And yet it was more popgun than big-time bomb.

George Conway calls Trump a cancer that needs to be removed in blistering op-ed

Jealous??

George Conway, the husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway and a fierce critic of President Trump, penned an op-ed in The Washington Post that calls Trump a "cancer on the presidency" and urged Congress to take action to remove him from office.
After 22 months, a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia interference report was made available to the public. The report showed no evidence that Trump’s team “coordinated or conspired” with Russia, but many Democrats pointed out that Mueller identified 10 times where there was potential obstruction, and essentially left the next steps up to Congress.
Mueller wrote that Trump’s efforts to obstruct “were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels.”
He continued, “The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."
Trump's team late Thursday appeared to take a wait-and-see approach on how the public absorbed the findings. Rudy Giuliani, Trump's lawyer, seemed to be in no particular hurry to release a 45-page rebuttal when asked about it on CNN.  The White House claimed total victory and vindication for the president
Conway, who has clashed publicly with the president before and questioned his mental fitness, barely touches collusion in his piece but highlighted the obstruction argument.
"Mueller couldn’t say, with any “confidence,” that the president of the United States is not a criminal. He said, stunningly, that “if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.” Mueller did not so state," Conway wrote.
He pointed out that even if Trump did not reach the threshold of criminality, he could still be impeached based on earlier precedent. He called on Congress to act to “excise” the cancer in the White House “without delay.”
There is no love lost between Trump and Conway. Trump has called Conway a “stone cold LOSER & husband from hell.”
“George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!” Trump tweeted in March.
Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in the New York Post that Trump could have simply shut down the investigation and assert executive privilege to “deny the special counsel access to key White House witnesses,” but he didn’t.
“Most important, the special counsel found that there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and that the president’s frustration wasn’t over fear of guilt — the typical motivation for obstruction — but that the investigation was undermining his ability to govern the country,” McCarthy wrote.

CNN's April Ryan calls for Sarah Sanders to be fired

CNN political analyst April Ryan called for the firing of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Thursday, claiming Sanders “lied” to the media following the release of the Mueller report.
In May 2017, following the turbulent firing of FBI Director James Comey, Sanders told reporters that “countless” FBI agents had lost confidence in Comey despite one reporter’s assertion that the “vast majority” of them supported his leadership. According to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office, Sanders told investigators her claim was a “slip of the tongue” and was “in the heat of the moment,” admitting that it was not founded on anything.
Ryan, who is also a White House reporter for the American Urban Radio Networks, blasted the press secretary on Thursday night for “lying” to the American people.
“Not only does she not have any credibility left, she lied,” Ryan told CNN anchor Erin Burnett. “She outright lied and the people, the American people can't trust her. They can't trust what's said from the president's mouthpiece, spokesperson, from the people's house. Therefore, she should be let go. She should be fired. End of story. When there is a lack of credibility there, you have to start and start lopping the heads off. It’s ‘Fire Me Thursday’ or ‘Fire Me Good Friday,’ she needs to go."
The CNN pundit suggested that since President Trump “won’t take the fall” that Sanders might instead.
“Sarah plays a dangerous game in that room… The game is dangerous because she is lying to the American public,” Ryan continued. “Then, on top of all that, she says the press is fake when she’s faking reports from the people’s house. She’s calling us fake? We’ve had colleagues who’ve had to move from their houses because of threats. I have to have security because of being called ‘fake’ and a ‘loser’ and all sorts of things from that White House. It’s time for her to go.”
Sanders appeared on “Hannity” on Thursday night and reiterated that she shouldn't have used the word “countless,” but insisted it was “not untrue” that “a number of current and former FBI agents agreed with the president” about Comey, whom she called a “disgraced leaker.”

Trump's written -- at times snarky -- answers to Mueller's questions revealed

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and President Trump communicated directly at one point during the long-running investigation into Russian election interference, when the president's legal team submitted written testimony in response to Mueller's questions on a variety of topics in November 2018.
And in some cases, Trump and his attorneys brought the sass.
One of Mueller's questions referred to a July 2016 campaign rally, when Trump said, "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
That was a reference to the slew of documents deleted from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server. Trump's comment prompted numerous frenzied accusations that he was openly sending a signal to Russian hackers.
Mueller's report noted that hours after Trump's remarks, a Russian-led attempt to access some Clinton-linked email accounts was launched, although there was no evidence Trump or his team directed or coordinated with that effort.
"Why did you make that request of Russia, as opposed to any other country, entity or individual?" Mueller's prosecutors asked.
Mueller's report noted that after Trump's statement, future National Security Adviser Flynn contacted operatives in hopes of uncovering the documents, and another GOP consultant started a company to look for the emails.
"I made the statement quoted in Question II (d) in jest and sarcastically, as was apparent to any objective observer," Trump, speaking through his attorneys, shot back. "The context of the statement is evident in the full reading or viewing of the July 27, 2016, press conference, and I refer you to the publicly available transcript and video of that press conference."
Separately, Mueller asked Trump why he previewed a speech in June 2016 by promising to discuss "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons," and what specifically he'd planned to talk about.
Trump didn't hold back.
"In general, l expected to give a speech referencing the publicly available, negative information about the Clintons, including, for example, Mrs. Clinton's failed policies, the Clintons' use of the State Department to further their interests and the interests of the Clinton Foundation, Mrs. Clinton's improper use of a private server for State Department business, the destruction of 33,000 emails on that server, and Mrs. Clinton's temperamental unsuitability for the office of the president," Trump responded.
After discussing other events, Trump concluded his reply: "I continued to speak about Mrs. Clinton's failings throughout the campaign, using the information prepared for inclusion in the speech to which I referred on June 7, 2016."
In all, Mueller's 448-page report included 23 unredacted pages of Mueller's written questions and Trump's written responses. The special counsel's team wrote that it tried to interview the president for more than a year before relenting and permitting the written responses alone.
An introductory note included in the report said the special counsel's office found the responses indicative of "the inadequacy of the written format," especially given the office's inability to ask follow-up questions.
Citing dozens of answers that Mueller's team considered incomplete, imprecise or not provided because of the president's lack of recollection — for instance, the president gave no response at all to the final set of questions — the special counsel's office again sought an in-person interview with Trump, and he once again declined.
Mueller's team said it considered seeking a subpoena to compel Trump's in-person testimony, but decided the legally aggressive move would only serve to delay the investigation.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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