What did she say . And some 2020 president ial candidates now calling for impeachment proceedings after muellers statement. One of the democratic hopefuls who has not gone that far will join me live. Has he changed his mind . Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin today with our politics lead. Breaking his silence. After two years of quietly and methodically investigating Russian Election interference, special Counsel Robert Mueller today spoke publicly on the subject for the first time and while mueller did not specifically call out President Donald Trump by name, he did refute many of the false claims the president has been peddling, including the idea that the investigation should never have even begun, that it was a witch hunt. Russian intelligence oficers, who were part of the russian military, launched a concerted attack on our political system. They needed to be investigated and understood. Or the notion that this was an investigation conducted by a partisan gang of angry democrats, looking to stage a coup against the trump presidency. These individuals who spent nearly two years with the special counsels office were of the highest integrity. Or perhaps most importantly, mueller totally exonerated the president on obstruction of justice in President Trumps view. If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. Mueller also making clear today he views the 448page report as his testimony and has zero interest in speaking further with congress. As cnns sara murray now reports for us, mueller, a former fbi director, made sure to end his tenminute statement where the investigation began. Russian election interference and the ongoing threat from the kremlin. Reporter after two years of complete silence on the investigation, special Counsel Robert Mueller chose his words carefully, emphasizing he did not clear President Trump of obstructing justice. If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. Reporter instead, mueller says he was unable to make that decision due to department of justice regulations. Under Longstanding Department policy, a present president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider. Reporter muellers own words a sharp contrast to attorney general William Barrs earlier suggestion that the justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel or olc guidelines did not weigh heavily on muellers decision. We specifically asked him about the olc opinion and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime, but for the existence of the olc opinion. And he made it very clear, several times, that that was not his position. Reporter today, mueller appeared to point the obstruction issue to congress, ramping up the pressure on capitol hill for impeachment. The opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal Justice System to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. Reporter mueller also making clear that his personal preference is not to testify, but if forced, hell stick within the bounds of his report. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. Reporter after two years of attacks from President Trump when they talk about obstruction, we fight back and you know why we fight back . Because i knew how illegal this whole thing was. It was a scam. Reporter mueller defended his investigation, saying the obstruction probe was paramount. When the subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the governments effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. And despite trumps constant refrain i call it the russian hoax its a total witch hunt. Reporter muellers team found evidence that the russians did try to influence the 2016 election to help trump and hurt hillary clinton. Russian military officers launched a concerted attack on our political system. The releases were designed and timed to interfere with our election and to damage a president ial candidate. The president tweeting today, there was insufficient evidence and therefore in our country, a person is innocent. The case is closed. But while mueller did not charge the Trump Campaign for conspiring with russians, he did not say there was no evidence. Only there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. Reporter now, bob mueller said today that he was going to resign and go back to private life. We are now learning that it will be his last day today as special counsel. His spokesman, peter carr, is confirming that. And jake, also, as he was giving this comments today, he was sure to go out of his way to thank the members of his team for their integrity and fairness. I have to imagine he felt that was important to do in light of all of these attacks that the president lobbed against him over the past two years. Lets chew over all of this, but sarah, let me ask you, whats the bottom line . Whats the most important thing that mueller said today . I think the most important thing is, you know, if we could have cleared the president of committing a crime, we would have done that. He was very clear that he felt it was sort of out of his ability to make that decision, to be able to fully exonerate the president because of the evidence that he had available. And he felt it was out of his bounds to say that the president committed a crime. It would have been unfair and unconstitutional. And you know, if you read the report, you can say, there were a number of instances where the president acted in a way that certainly looked like obstruction of justice. What do you think, carrie . What do you think the bottom line was for mueller . What did he want us to walk away with . I think, first of all, he wanted us to walk away and know that the russian interference effort was serious. He made that point specifically. And ongoing. And ongoing. So i think he wanted to make that National Security point for the country and make sure that that doesnt leave our consciousness as we talk about the politics and everything else. But this obstruction point is also impossible to look away from, because i think what he was really saying is congress has a job to do. And he, as a prosecutor, as a Justice Department prosecutor under the regulations has done as much as he possibly can. He cant do more. Its not prosecutors job to charge a president of the United States. And juliette, mueller said nice things about attorney general barr, and suggested whatever disagreements he had were in good faith. But if you look at what mueller said about how much he relied on the office of Legal Counsel guidance that a sitting president cannot be indicted and what the attorney general said in april, theres a real disconnect. I think we have the sound of the attorney general, question three, if we can run that. He made it very clear, several times, that that was not his position. 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. That a contradiction, do you think . Absolutely. And i think people like to always say that mueller is not political. I think hes incredibly political. In a good way. I dont mean that in a bad way, that he did not want the story to be, barr completely misled the american public. He wanted the story to be, basically, volume i and volume ii. Volume i, the russians, as carrie was saying. Do not forget volume i. It is the russians, they will continue to do it, they will undermine our democracies, not just here, and other democracies. And then essentially volume ii that essentially says, im done. I did what i needed to do. It is now a different judgment, a different jury that has to determine where are you going to take the findings of volume ii. So i viewed him as being very political and thats okay, right . He want dss theres other audiences. Its either congress or the american public. And jeremy diamond, you cover the white house. The white house put out a fundraising email declarie ini this as a hoax and a witch hunt. And nourithe president tweeted, nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore in our country a person is innocent. The case is closed. Thank you. Relatively strained comment from the president. For now. But there was a lot of misleading commentary in the president s tweet there, where he seems to suggest that the only reason that bob mueller concluded or couldnt conclude that he committed a crime on obstruction of justice was because of insufficient evidence. That was muellers justification on the question of a conspiracy with the russians to interfere in the 2016 election. As far as obstruction of justice, mueller was very clear that it was because of the olc opinion and because of this idea that he didnt want to accuse a sitting president of a crime when he didnt have the opportunity to defend himself in that way. But Sarah Sanders also today was repeatedly making this claim that it was a question of insufficient evidence. And i think that it comes back to the idea of, why did bob mueller want to deliver these remarks today . One of the reasons, clearly, is because he feels like a lot of the central points of his report were lost on the american public, in part because of the president s efforts and his allies efforts to really obfuscate the general conclusions of that and to try to portray them in a much more favorable light to himself zp. And perhaps the other reason, justin amash, republican congressman from michigan, he tweeted, the ball is in our court, congress, thats his interpretation of this. A lot of House Democrats agree with that. Do you agree . Is that one of the messages that he was saying . The balls in your court, congress . Absolutely. What special counsel was describing was constitutional responsibilities. He viewed it as a prosecutor under department of justice regulations that it was outside the bounds of his constitutional sphere to be able to make a recommendation to charge the president with a crime. But then it is congress job. And congressman amash is standing up and saying that, as a republican, that congress has a job to do. And they cant shirk their constitutional responsibilities. The other point is that the statement of special counsel mueller shows that it is impossible to square that with what the attorney general said in his press conference and his letter, and thats just apparent now. The special counsel was specific to what he put in his report and that is just not what the attorney general led the American People to believe. And Sarah Sanders was on a different channel, the president s favorite channel, saying there was no collusion, mueller made it very clear, very specifically, theres no collusion. Actually, mueller says, im not talking about collusion in this report, because it has no legal term. Im talking about conspiracy. And the conclusion is not that there was none, but that there was insufficient evidence of it to bring a prosecutable case. Absolutely. If he could have exonerated the president i thought that was just a key line, if i could have exonerated the president , i would have. To say that out loud. Of course you would have its up to us to read the silences. Mueller has given us enough. It means, their failure to exonerate the president or their not exonerating the president means that there is something to move forward with. Now, whether that is the cases that are ongoing, whether its impeachment, thats up to us. And i think, just going back to the russia issue on volume i, because we cannot forget volume i, because we have an election coming up. He was clear to say that was the reason why he indicted all of these russian entities, because even if we cant get them into court, youre basically naming and shaming them. And theyre doing it again. Hes made it very clear, as have Trump Administration officials, if not the president himself. The white house says, bring on the impeachment proceedings. It could actually help the president , they believe. Should democrats proceed with caution . Next, ill talk to president ial candidate and member of the house judiciary and Intelligence Committees, congressman eric swalwell. Stay with us. Fidelity is redefining value for investors. Introducing zero account fees for brokerage accounts. And zero minimums to open an account. We have Fidelity Mutual funds with zero minimum investment. 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The allnew frenchie, a combination of allnatural salami and capicola, handsliced provolone and salted butter on a baguette. Do you battery sound. Want a charge . Handsliced provolone and salted butter on a baguette. Yeah battery charging. Thank you so much. Battery charging. In our politics lead now, President Trump watched Robert Mueller deliver his first public remarks on the investigation in years, from the white house residence today, sources tell cnn. And the president , as of now, has sent just one tweet with a fairly muted reaction. But a senior white house official predicts that the mueller statement will drive democrats towards impeachment and that will help the president , the official claims. Cnns abby phillip is live for us at the white house now. Abby, what are sources telling you about how the president is feeling about mueller and today. Reporter earlier today, sources were telling us that the president was pretty even keeled about what was to come. And shortly after mueller gave his statement, white house officials were telling me that they felt that there was nothing to pit. One official described it as a nothing burger. And i think the sense that we are getting from the white house this afternoon is that they dont think that what mueller had to say really moved the ball in any substantiative way. However, to the extent that it might drive democrats toward impeachment, the response from President Trump, the white house, and his allies is essentially, bring it on. A white house official telling me that this would be a great way for them to retake the house of representatives, believing the white house believes that democrats will go too far on this. But there is a sort of lingering question about how the white house is describing all of this. Sarah Huckabee Sanders basically said, you know, this is a done deal. If mueller had any evidence that President Trump should have been charged with obstruction of justice in particular, he should have said so in his report. But, of course, muellers made it clear that he couldnt accuse the president of obstruction of justice, because the president cannot be charged while in office. Sarah sanders response to that was that congress should not even bother to take it up, because that has already been investigated thoroughly by the special counsel. So there is a little bit of spin happening here, as the white house tries to reframe what Robert Mueller had to say. But at the end of the day, i think the president is looking forward to making this a political issue for 2020, believing that it will ultimately help motivate his base going into his reelection bid. Jake . All right, abby phillip at the white house for us, thank you so much. We have some news breaking in our politics lead. Just moments ago, the chairman of the house Intelligence Committee, adam schiff, democrat of california, responded to muellers comments saying, we look forward to muellers testimony before congress. While i understand his reluctance to answer hypotheticals or deviate from the carefully worded conclusions he drew on his charging decisions, there are, nevertheless, a great many questions that mueller can ans