i think it s real simple. i say what we have said is that they were looking at whether or not there was collusion. that would be the crime that would have been committed, collusion or obstruction, and all of those things have been determined to have not taken place, collusion, conspiracy, obstruction. and again, we consider this very much to be case closed. joining me now again, what she said there is just now true gore loria borger, davi chalian, paul begala and former republican u.s. senator and cnn senior political commentator, rick santorum. senator santorum, sarah sanders, you know, continuing to claim the president is exonerated. mueller made it very clear today, he s not. the president tweeted out, well, it s insufficient evidence and in this country it means not guilty. mueller didn t say there s insufficient evidence. well, i thought mueller was a little twisted when it came to that whole issue, because before
i think it s real simple. i say what we have said is that they were looking at whether or not there was collusion. that would have been the crime that would have been committed, collusion or obstruction, and all of those things have been determined to have not taken place, collusion, conspiracy, obstruction. and again, we consider this very much to be case closed. joining me again, what she said is just not true gloria borger, david chalian, paul begala, and former republican u.s. senator and cnn senior political commentator, rick santorum. senator santorum, sarah sanders, you know, continuing to claim the president is kporexonerated. mueller made it very clear today, he s not. the president tweeted out, well, it s insufficient evidence and in this country it means not guilty. mueller didn t say there s insufficient evidence. well, i thought mueller was a little twisted when it came to that whole issue, because before he talked about the president not being, you know, proven,
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. so me made it clear he could not say the president didn t commit a crime, but he then went on to speak at length about why he couldn t do anything about it. couldn t do anything because of the rules barring the indictment of a sitting president that hemmed in the obstruction probe. the special counsel s office is part of the department of justice. and by regulation, it was bound by that department policy. charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider. listen to that. he and his team could not even consider charging the president with a crime. those are the olc, the office of legal counsel of the department of justice rules that mueller was operating under, that he accepted. now, before we go any further, just contrast what you just heard robert mueller say with
get the picture he seemed to be painting today on obstruction. as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. and they did not say so. did not say the president didn t commit a crime, not in the report and not today. the president has been saying no collusion, no obstruction. mueller didn t say that, which of course didn t stop the president from tweeting just today, quote, nothing changes from the mueller report. there was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our country, a person is innocent. the case is closed. that that is not true. what the president just wrote is not true. robert mueller didn t say there was insufficient evidence. he didn t. he said they couldn t bring any charge because of doj rules. but you know the thing about gaslights, once they re lit, they re spread. cue sarah sanders. he concluded that there was no collusion, there was no
shortly after bob mueller spoke today, sarah sanders did her best impression of the tv cop who says, move along, nothing to see here. move along. the white house press secretary declared to reporters, quote, there was no real news here. which is true, except about the part that mueller stating publicly that if his team thought the president didn t commit a crime, he would have said so. sanders had an answer, though, saying if bob mueller determined there was a crime, he would have had a moral obligation to report it, he didn t. that s not really true. mueller explained because of the guidelines he was working under, no president could be unindicted. it would be unfair to the president or any defendant to be charged, but not able to have their day in court. mueller did report what could be considered efforts of possible obstruction that could be determined defenses by congress, but sanders had none of that.