After two years of questions, subpoenas, and court appearances, White House officials said a cloud had been lifted from the Trump presidency with publication of the Mueller report and promised to get on with tackling healthcare and the immigration crisis.
The president left in Marine One for his Easter break in Florida on Thursday afternoon without speaking to journalists assembled on the south lawn of the White House.
Instead he left it to surrogates, friends, and officials to push back against a slew of negative headlines that emphasized how the president only failed to obstruct justice because his aides refused to “carry out orders.”
They said the president had been vindicated by a report that concluded there had been no collusion with Russia.
Hogan Gidley, White House deputy press secretary, said a cloud had been lifted from the American people and the country, offering a chance for the president to get on with the business of governing.
“And in the last two years of his first term we expect Congress to work with this administration on infrastructure, healthcare, and drug pricing, and solving the immigration crisis,” Gidley said.
The report captivated Washington after it was published on Thursday morning.
Its conclusions were similar to Attorney General William Barr’s memo published a month ago. It found that no collusion took place but failed to exonerate Trump from obstructing justice.
But it added new details to the story of how Russia and its agents dominated so much of Trump’s first term. And it described how on one occasion the president was so upset by the special counsel’s appointment in May 2017 that he slumped in his chair and said, “Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked.”
The result has split observers along familiar lines, with supporters claiming the president was cleared while Democrats are gearing up for a longer fight. Those who already believed Trump was guilty found evidence of their view among the 448 pages of the report, while those who judged him innocent drew a different conclusion.
John Catsimatidis, a New York grocery magnate who is among the network of billionaires that has the president’s ear, said the report vindicated Trump.
“Some of my Democratic friends are talking about the 10 examples of obstruction. Don’t you think if there was one ounce of obstruction, don’t you think Mueller would have found it?” he said.
Instead, he said, the president could now get back to the business of helping the economy grow.
Kellyanne Conway, who serves as counselor to the president, said it was time for the media to accept the investigation had run its course.
“You’re just going to have to move on and start covering issues that Americans are telling you, in your own polling, are important: healthcare, which we welcome here, education, the economy, foreign policy, denuclearise North Korea,” she said. “We have a lot to solve in this country.”
Other aides offered a similar message, saying the focus should now go back where it belonged on the successes of the administration.
Sebastian Gorka, who served as deputy to the president during Trump’s first year in office, said: “He was innocent all along and acted accordingly. Full steam ahead.”
But for all the talk of business as usual, the issue has cast a long shadow over the White House almost since Trump took office. At times it has served as a distraction, consuming time and energy, while at others it has provided the president with the enemy he has needed to energize his base.
When Trump abandoned a planned summit with Kim Jong Un of North Korea in February, he blamed the turbulence of an appearance before Congress of Michael Cohen, his former fixer and one of the casualties of the Russia investigation.
Robert Shapiro, professor of political science at Columbia University, said the report would relieve some of the pressure, but not all.
“The cloud may be lifted over on any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The Mueller report provides a strong enough case that there was no actual collusion,” he said.
But the redactions and questions over obstruction of justice meant the matter was not over.
“The jury is still out on impeachment,” he said. “The only thing stopping Democrats pursuing it is that they probably won’t get Republican senators to convict him.”
Earlier, Trump himself declared victory during a long-scheduled event with wounded veterans.
“It was called no collusion, no obstruction,” he said in his opening remarks, sparking cheers and applause in the East Room of the White House. “There never was, by the way, and there never will be.”
But the jousting positions leaves the investigation as a live issue for the 2020 campaign. Soon after the Mueller report was released, the Trump campaign sent an email to supporters.
“How many times do I have to be exonerated before they stop? WHAT A JOKE,” it said.
“Sadly, this is just the beginning, Friend. The attacks and lies will keep coming because Democrats know they don’t stand a chance in 2020. That’s why we need to fight back BIGGER and STRONGER than ever before.”
