NBC "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd on Thursday said President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE and Attorney General William Barr Bill BarrHarris faces pivotal moment with Supreme Court battle Hillicon Valley: DOJ proposes tech liability shield reform to Congress | Treasury sanctions individuals, groups tied to Russian malign influence activities | House Republican introduces bill to set standards for self-driving cars McCarthy threatens motion to oust Pelosi if she moves forward with impeachment MORE "successfully neutered the impact of the Mueller report politically" by their actions in the weeks following the report's conclusion.

Todd said the political implications of the report would have been very different if Barr "simply released a statement saying there were no recommendations for criminal charges" and if he said, “'I'm looking into everything regarding how this investigation started, the investigation itself, all of those things, period.'"

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"Had he said all those things without using buzzwords, without doing a press conference, without writing a summary and without making a decision on his own and taking matters into his own hands, we'd have a different conversation right now," Todd said during an MSNBC segment reviewing the release of the report. "And we'd have a much different interpretation of Bill Barr as attorney general."

"The president and Bill Barr have successfully neutered the impact of the Mueller report politically. That's the bottom line," Todd added.

Mueller wrote in his highly anticipated report that he was unable to "conclusively" determine that no criminal conduct occurred in regards to whether Trump obstructed justice.



The report also states that while Russia sought to help Trump defeat Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDemocratic groups using Bloomberg money to launch M in Spanish language ads in Florida The Hill's Campaign Report: Presidential polls tighten weeks out from Election Day More than 50 Latino faith leaders endorse Biden MORE in the 2016 election, investigators did not establish that the Trump campaign directly assisted in that effort.



Barr sent Congress his four-page summary of Mueller's report in late March, saying investigators did not find that there was collusion but that Mueller did not make a determination about obstruction of justice. Barr said in the summary that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Rod RosensteinDOJ kept investigators from completing probe of Trump ties to Russia: report Five takeaways from final Senate Intel Russia report FBI officials hid copies of Russia probe documents fearing Trump interference: book MORE determined no obstruction occurred.

Barr held a press conference at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday to discuss the report, about 90 minutes before Congress and the public had access to the redacted version.

President Trump took another victory lap on Thursday after the report came out, declaring as he did after the Barr summary that no collusion or obstruction had occurred.



“No collusion. No obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats— Game Over,” Trump tweeted with text in a font similar to that used in promotions for HBO's popular series "Game of Thrones."