Is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. Im fd, using a curse word. On page after page, Robert Mueller details the many ways the president tried to make it all go away, including rid of the special counsel. He documents orders that the president gave such as to fire mueller which his subordinates did not carry out, but would have turned the white house politically radioactive. At least three people working for president declined potentially damaging directives from the president. Sometimes they said they would do it and just they didnt, hoping the president would forget about it, despite having the greatest memory what he had asked them to do. There is also much in muellers 448page document on episodes he and others reported on at the time, where the administration characterized as fake news. Funny some of those same people are under oath, they confirmed the fake news was real. Sarah sanders made up facts about why comey was fired and under oath admitted she was, in the words of mueller, what she said in the words of mueller, quote, wasnt founded on anything. Well get to all of that tonight. We begin with the reports bottom line conclusion, how they compared to the attorney generals portrayal, and the president s longstanding claim, which he restated today. Im having a good day too. It was called no collusion, no obstruction. There never was, by the way, and there never will be. This should never happen to another president again, this hoax. It should never happen to another president again. Well, the president spoke just a short time after his attorney general did with Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein standing behind him. But Robert Mueller notably absent. William barr, ahead of the release report put his gloss on that report, echoing many of the president s talking points, illegal leaks, no collusion, everything but witch hunt and hoax. The explanation of why the president s actions did not amount to obstruction of justice. As he said from the beginning, there was, in fact, no collusion. And as the special counsels report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere believe that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks. Nonetheless, the white house fully cooperated with the special counsels investigation, providing unfettered access to campaign and white house documents, directing senior aides to testify freely and asserting no privilege claims. Believe the legal for the team of lawyers and federal prosecutors to discuss. Muellers portrayal of the Mueller Report in advance and even today has become an issue reflecting on what role he is actually playing, as attorney general for the United States for the American People or for President Trump. In barrs march 24th report, barr wrote, im quoting now, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. That is true. Thats what i quoted a the top of the program. But now we know the full citation, which the attorney general had access at the time. Its hardly that rosy. It reads although the investigation establishes that the russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump Presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. Barr is saying in so many words, whatever happened, as unprecedented as it is, as wrong as you consider it to be or not, it didnt add up to any chargeable crime because the Trump Campaign and the russian government did not get together and agree on it, at least not that the Available Evidence showed and that the special counsel acknowledges that some of that evidence is simply not accessible. According to the special counsel, some individuals associated with the campaign deleted communications. Some refused to speak, citing the fifth amendment. Others, he said, flatout lied. In any case, the report certainly documents plenty of contacts with russians. The traditional amount by the way is none. Looking at the index, it starts on page 66 with the heading russian government links to and with the Trump Campaign and runs another 102 pages into the transition and finally the white house. At least 16 Trump Associates had russian contacts during the campaign or transition, according to statements, Court Filings and reports on cnn and others. Some of the trump aides lied about hes contacts and were charged with lying to investigators and glossing over all of it. Attorney general barr suggests the president has a clean bill of health. He also mischaracterized the special counsels reasons for not reaching a decision on obstruction, suggesting that mr. Mueller was not relying on Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cant be indicted. He was not saying that but for the olc opinion, he would have found a crime. He made it clear that he had not made the determination that there was a crime. Thats misleading at best, as the attorney general should have known from reading the report, which states, and im quoting, given the role of the special counsel as an attorney in the department of justice and the framework of the special counsels regulations, this office accepted the olcs the office of Legal Counsels legal conclusion for the purpose of executing prosecutorial jurisdiction. Said one thing that would be easily checkable an hour or so later, he also didnt mention this from the report, the special counsel writing, quote, if we had confidence after the thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. Well certainly talk about that tonight, and well also dig into what the mueller document reveals about stories that we and others reported about that the white house, at the time called fake news, despite the stories being true. One involves a story in the New York Times in january of last year that President Trump once asked don mcgahn to fire Robert Mueller. Here is what the president said about it at the time. Mr. President , did you seek to fire Robert Mueller . Fake news, folks, fake news. Whats your message today . Typical New York Times. Its a fake story. It was true. That was a lie. The Mueller Report works through the entire episode step by step, day by day as the president stews over it, tries to get don mcgahn lie about it too, demanding he write a letter calling the story inaccurate, which it wasnt. Finally days later the two meet. According to the report, the president asked mcgahn, did i say the word fire . What you said, call rod, tell rod that mueller has conflicts and cant be the special counsel. The president responded i never said that. The report continues the president then asked what about these notes . Why do you take notes . Lawyers dont take notes. I never had a lawyer who takes notes. Mcgahn responded that he keeps notes because he is a real lawyer you find that funny, Jeffrey Toobin . I find that funny. Okay. Settle down. You have plenty of time. I know. Anyway. Please continue. Its your program. And explain that notes create a record and are not a bad thing. The president went on to say, ive had a lot of great lawyers like roy roacohn. He did not take notes. He also got disbarred if memory serves. It didnt end well for roy cohn. Clearly roy cohn was no don mcgahn. In event, this isnt only such incident. There is also the firing of james comey and the bogus reason given for it at the time. So whats your response to these rank and file fbi agents who disagree with your contention that they lost faith in director comey . Look, weve heard from countless members of the fbi that say very different things. What led you and the white house to believe that he had lost the confidence of the rank and file of the fbi when the acting director says its exactly the opposite . Well, i can speak to my own personal experience. Ive heard from countless members of the fbi that are grateful and thankful for the president s decision. It turns out there werent countless fbi agents calling up Sarah Sanders at the white house to express their relief. Sarah sanders speaking she was speaking, by the way, on two consecutive days for countless grateful members of the fbi allegedly whom she pulled out of her hat. How do we know that . Because she said so under oath. Reading now from page 72 of the report, sanders told this office that her reference to hearing from, quote, countless members of the fbi was a slip of the tongue. She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank and file fbi agents had lost confidence in comey was a statement she made, quote, in the heat of the moment that was not founded on anything. 448 pages of accounts like that, of meeting russians, of lying about it, of the president repeatedly answering questions i dont recall despite claiming to have the best memory. The report clears the president of criminally conspireing with the russians. That is incredibly important and a great thing for the country. Not, though, of seriously questionable contact. It clearly state whats the president has never fully acknowledged, that russia interfered in the election to help him win. It speaks of 14 other cases in jurisdictions some of which are in detail behind black redaction bars. Well get to all of it tonight. With us carl bernstein, gloria borger, dana bash, and Jeffrey Toobin, who i think has been here since yesterday, cnn political analyst Kirsten Powers and david urban. We appreciate everybody being here. The last revelation that the president , which we didnt actual was something that hadnt been reported, that the president tried to get Rod Rosenstein basically hold a press conference saying that it was his idea to fire comey and the White House Press office tried to get him to at least make a statement to that effect, to which he said i dont think a press conference is a good idea because if im asked, he will tell the truth. Well, this incident, this Rod Rosenstein incident is a good metaphor for the entire report, which takes something we know, because obviously we know that Rod Rosenstein wrote that famous memo giving one rationale for firing comey, but the story is much worse, as its spelled out. It is an active attempt by the president and by the white house to create a false reason, a false narrative for why james comey was fired, and i think as we dig into particularly the ten different examples of possible obstruction of justice that mueller outlines, in each one of them, there is a kernel that we were familiar with thanks to the excellent journalism of Maggie Haberman and many others, but the full story that mueller was able to get is a much more rich and much more incriminating story than we even knew. And thats true of the Rod Rosenstein story. Can i just Say Something about Rod Rosenstein. Its interesting, by the way, that Rod Rosenstein was one of the people who decided there was no obstruction, and he is a witness, a very important witness in this investigation so far as it comes to obstruction. Its fitting that he was standing behind but not talking. He is the zelig of this story. Exactly. He is there everywhere. And of course he is the one who appointed mueller in the first place. He looked like he wanted to throw up at some point. He did. The president is using the term no obstruction. That is not what mueller is saying. To the contrary, this is a narrative about a vast, sprawling, insidious coverup by the president of the United States. Thats what it is, and we see the act of the president , you just read it, one act after another, covering up, lying, making up stories, directing his aides to cover up. This is a terrible event, and it is all there in this report that the company has waited for. Reading this report is exactly what the country needs. The information is there about the conduct of the president of the United States and how grievous it is. The information we now see is there also that shows the conduct of the attorney general of the United States this morning in context, as well as the conduct of mr. Mueller and his investigators. And finally, we get a look at what the conduct of the press has been through this whole two years. Its all here. And openminded people of both parties i would hope can make their own judgments. But this is the most damning document. In watergate, we didnt have the document that became public. This is but you had the tape. We had a tape. But the tapes plural, most of them didnt come out until later. This is a sprawling account of an insidious event in our history such as we have never been able to press our eyes up to the glass and watch in realtime as mueller has laid out for us. David . Carl andri going to disagree. If it was so open and shut as carl asserts, then Director Special counsel mueller would have said so, right . He said i dont clear the president. He kind of did. He didnt, though, gloria. He said look, im not going to say the president did nothing, but i cant prove that he did something is what it says. No. You read it. He said he cannot be charged. Thats right. He is backing up that. Its a chicken and egg thing. No. You look at olc, saying i didnt bother to go and investigate and bring charges because of the olc opinion . I dont think so. I think he said thats out there. The chicken rossed the road. No, carl, disagree. I think the point is it wouldnt be fair to charge him. He also specifically says that. To charge him if he is not actually going to be indicted or appear before a jury or judge, thats unfair. Well hear. I suppose we will hear from him at some point directly when he testifies before the house judiciary committee. But we do see it in here. You can see my weve heard from him in here. In dog ears. But in each of the cases, ten cases that he describes in detail with a remarkable narrative of the times where he looked into obstruction by the president of the United States, and a couple of them he says, you know, the intent maybe wasnt there. But in a lot of them, he does. The conversation that he apparently had with don mcgahn saying youve got to fire this special counsel, trying to get Jeff Sessions to quit or at least to unrecuse himself. And it goes story after story. And in it each one he takes the time to explain why legally this is obstructive behavior, not that he can prosecute him because it may be ugly. It may be messy, but i dont think it rises, and i think this report says it doesnt rise to criminality. He essentially time and time again what the report is doing is essentially serving this up on like puupuu platter to congress, if Congress Wants to pursue this, mueller is saying i cant pursue this. Its a complex situation. Heres the information. How do you believe what you just said . Youre a very smart person, and you can read what was in the report, and you know that a president cant be indicted. This is really basic. Its pretty accepted, and this is clearly laying out a case without any real overt judgment to send to it the place should it go, to the political arm of the government that would make this decision. I mean this is how it was done in watergate. This is how its done. Its not a decision thats left as how it was done with clinton. Its not a decision thats left to the prosecutors to do. Its a political decision. We all know that. We know that this is how it is done. And so for you to sit here and pretend because he didnt prosecute him or say he should be prosecuted means he is somehow exonerating him. You know thats not true. I didnt say he said the report clearly says im not exonerating him. Im saying he iss saying im not making the case either way. The president is saying he is exonerating him. You certainly are saying if there was something that should have been prosecuted, it would have been prosecuted. Listen, there are 400 plus pages where the special counsel is very specific what he is saying. He does not mince words and pull punches on lots of this stuff. I think he clearly spells it out. If we had confidence after a thorough investigation after an investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction, we would so state. Is this basically mueller operating and acknowledging he is operating under very limited guidelines, that he cannot even consider charges . Thats the way i read it. It indicates that repeatedly, but he also gives the reason for the coverup. He says that there was fear that it might lead to other crimes and other acknowledgments of conduct unbecoming of the president of the United States were this coverup not to have been engineered by the president of the United States. I would just say the white house cooperated extensively. Yes. Put forth tons of folks. But the president as he is undermining it at every turn. But there is no doubt that everybody in the white house was told to cooperate fully and cooper