John F. Harris is editor-in-chief of POLITICO and author of "The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House."

If special counsel Robert Mueller had reached the opposite conclusion—that there was a criminal conspiracy between Donald Trump and the Russians to tilt the 2016 election—that would mean that a sitting U.S. president would be credibly accused of something very close to treason. The fact that a respected and diligent prosecutor determined that not to be the case should be regarded even by people who loathe Trump as a good thing, no?

The path to Mueller’s conclusion, of course, was so littered with troubling evidence that it took him and his investigators two years to walk it, and along the way they proved criminal deceit by several of Trump’s closest associates. He and other agencies of government have also proved beyond serious dispute that a hostile foreign power manipulated a very close election in ways that possibly, or even probably, affected the outcome. Even people who love Trump should regard these as bad things, no?


The answer to both questions seems indeed to be no. Or, if yes, only in the most sullen and grudging way. We can’t all seem to agree that it’s a good thing the president didn’t conspire with Russia, nor can we all admit that the Kremlin may have helped elect Trump.

Twenty-four hours after Attorney General William Barr announced his summary of Mueller’s findings, Washington’s main players continued to stew and snarl in ways that suggest the historical significance of his inquiry will lie partly in his conclusion but just as much in the fractious way it is being received.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he wants to keep investigating—this time, the people who promoted the Russia investigation in the first place. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said his fellow Californian, Democrat Adam Schiff, who has been outspoken in alleging Trump-Russia collusion, should resign as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; at the White House, Kellyanne Conway said he should quit Congress altogether. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress and on the presidential trail sounded a consistent refrain: They won’t buy conclusions from the Mueller probe until they see his full report, not simply Barr’s summary.

By all appearances, Mueller delivered on his end of the bargain: His investigation was thoroughly professional. Yet the notion that this would bring finality to an argument was plainly a fantasy floating down from an earlier age.

Forty-five years ago, after Watergate resulted in Richard Nixon’s resignation, even Republicans joined in the ritual sermonizing about how the episode proved the primacy of law. No doubt even in those days there was ample pretense beneath the piety—of course Democrats were gloating and Republicans were plotting payback. But the very fact that they bothered to pretend revealed a basic respect that American political culture was on the level.

These days, the one point on which warring sides all seem to agree is that American political culture in the Trump era is fundamentally not on the level. The real conspiracy was between Democrats and the media to promote a bogus narrative against Trump. Or the real conspiracy is Barr’s bland summary of Mueller’s findings—instead of turning over to Congress the actual report—and his refusal to pursue an obstruction case against his boss, despite Mueller’s view, as Barr described it, that the evidence points in both directions and “does not exonerate” the president.

The Trump-Russia episode proves the primacy not of law or even of politics, both of which are designed to reconcile conflicting values and lead to resolution. It shows the primacy of psychology, in which current events represent a nonstop Rorschach test—what does it look like to you?—and virtually no factual assertion can be embraced at face value. In this prism, the main purpose of argument is to show fidelity to the home team, and not to settle a matter but to keep it going.

Keep going it did, from the moment Barr released his letter and into today.

“Starting Monday,” tweeted Fox News host Sean Hannity, “We will hold every deep state official who abused power accountable. We will hold every fake news media liar accountable. We will hold every liar in Congress accountable.”

For the most part, Democrats in Congress were disciplined in not going beyond the official line of insisting on seeing the full Mueller report before making conclusions.

That left it to other cultural figures to harness the rage among progressives that Mueller’s conclusion did nothing to quell. “#trumpColluded beyond a doubt!” said popular actor and comedian John Leguizamo on Twitter. “Are we a rule of law country or are we a lawless lie.”

And veteran Hollywood liberal Rob Reiner tweeted that the 2020 election, rather than the Mueller report, will be the decisive arena for confronting the incumbent president: “The GOP cult is lining up behind a Criminal Autocrat. We keep fighting the lies and corruption battles, but the war of saving 242 years of self rule will be won by destroying him overwhelmingly at the ballot box. FIGHT!”

There is little doubt that warriors on all sides will heed that injunction.

Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna contributed to this report.