News Media Reacts To The Mueller Report

News media are reacting to the results of one of the most gripping investigations into a U.S. president in modern times — and the somewhat unexpected result of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

Attorney General William Barr summarized the results of Mueller's investigation on Sunday evening by saying that it had not found that the Trump campaign had"conspired or coordinated with the Russian government" to influence the 2016 vote.

In addition, Barr said that Mueller had not concluded one way or another as to whether Trump obstructed justice by trying to influence the investigation. As such, Barr concluded that Mueller's evidence was not sufficient to establish that Trump committed a crime.

Trump tweeted that the report's conclusions were a "total exoneration" of him. But in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday, Attorney General Barr noted that while Mueller's report "does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."

Disappointed by Barr's summary of the investigation, Democrats have called Mueller's report to be published in full. Meanwhile, much of the global media have focused on the shock result and whether or not Trump is really "exonerated."

CNBC provides a selection of media reaction and commentary to the results of the Mueller probe:

• The Washington Post is headlined Monday "Mueller finds no conspiracy," attorney general says and notes in a separate article that "No collusion!" goes from defiant mantra to rallying cry for Trump's re-election" but the Post's Senior Editor Marc Fisher also noted that Mueller's report "contains enough fuel for both sides to cling to their version of the truth."
• Meanwhile, the New York Times also headlined with Barr's conclusions but noted that the report "stops short of exonerating Trump on obstruction of justice." The paper noted that "with no impeachment in view, Democrats push forward with an investigation." Nonetheless, the paper's White House Correspondent Peter Baker notes that "a cloud over Trump's presidency is lifted" and that the results will have "fortified the president for the battles to come, including his campaign for re-election."
• Likewise, reaction in The Wall Street Journal notes that "Trump's team sees political gold" in the results and that his team were already "crafting plans to use Robert Mueller's findings as a line of attack against Democrats" in the 2020 election.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, media personalities across the political spectrum shared their thoughts on social media.

• Fox News' Sean Hannity wrote on Twitter, "CNN, MSNBC, and the mainstream media have lied to the the American for 2 plus years. Now they will be held accountable." In a subsequent tweet, he added, "MSNBC CONSPIRACY NETWORK LIARS FAKE NEWS CNN LIARS NY TIMES WAPO LIARS."
• His Fox News colleague Laura Ingraham retweeted several media outlets' anti-Trump tweets with criticism and also offered this: "It is imperative that the DOJ doesn’t let this go. Hoaxes must not come and go without consequences. #RussiaHoax."
• MSNBC's Joy Reid said, "So presumably everyone will now be in bipartisan agreement that there’s no reason why the full Mueller report should not be released, like the Starr report was. If it’s as good for the president as AG Barr says it is, it can only be good for everyone to see it published."
• MSNBC's Rachel Maddow retweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who wrote: "Congress didn’t ask for a 'summary,' Attorney General Barr. Members of the House voted 420-0 to release the report. The American people deserve to see the full report. #ReleaseTheFullReport."
• "Let me be clear, I CONCEDE NOTHING! If #MuellerReport didn’t look into Trump’s business ties with the Russians before the elections and didn’t look into his secret meetings with them after the election, then this is an epic debacle that looked into the exact wrong things," wrote Cenk Uygur, host of online news show The Young Turks, adding: "I also blame Democrats for maniacally looking at the election interference as excuse for Hillary losing. They should have been focused on Trump’s business relationship with Russians. That’s the real problem and now they’ve given @GOP a golden opportunity to bury the real issue."