i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. happy passover. happy easter, everybody. after a nearly two-year investigation it turns out that president donald trump was never at any risk of a finding of criminal conduct by special counsel robert mueller. that is the stunning conclusion i reached after reading the mueller report. and here's how i get there. on march 22nd, mueller delivered his report to attorney general bill barr. then two days later on march 24th, barr wrote to congressional leadership. the four-page barr letter said this, the special counsel

considered whether to evaluate the conduct under department standards governing prosecution and delineation decisions but ultimately determined not to make a prosecutorial judgment. he suggested that mueller didn't or couldn't reach a conclusion on obstruction because it was such a close car. barr wrote this, the special counsel's decision to describe the facts of his obstruction investigation without reaching any legal conclusions leaves it to the attorney general to determine whether the conduct described in the report cons constitutes a crime. and when where mueller didn't reach a conclusion, barr did. he wrote, applying the principles of federal prosecution that guide our charging decisions, deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and i have concluded evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense.

on thursday, before the report was delivered to congress and the public, ag barr held a press conference and said this -- >> as i addressed in ply march 24th letter the special counsel did not meet a special prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation. instead, the report accounts ten open societies involving the president and discusses his potential legal theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offense. >> again, the implication in the barr letter and the barr press conference was that mueller couldn't make up his mind as to whether the president obstructed justice, so he, barr, along with deputy ag rod rosenstein the tiebreakers. that's not what happened. it turns out that mueller claims it would be unfair to say that the president broke the law as there will be no trial where the president could seek exoneration. this ignores several things.

first, that mueller was hired to determine whether the president broke the law. second, congress needs to know what mueller thinks. third, the public needs to know what mueller thinks. fourth, the idea that a president can't be tried is disputed. and fifth, this president has the ability to defend himself with or without a trial. i'm about to go into the weeds. hang with me. in the report, mueller wrote this, we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment. the olc has issued an indictment finding that the indictment would undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions in violation of the constitutional separation of powers. and in part of olc's constitutional view, we

recognized that a federal criminal accusation against sating president would place burdens on the president's capacity to govern and preempt constitutional process. key line, most important line in the entire mueller report "we determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the president committed crimes." fairness concerns counseled again potentially reaching that judgment when no charges can be brought. the ordinary means for an individual to respond to an accusation is through a speedy and public trial with all of the procedural protections that surrender a criminal case. an individual who believes he was wrongly accused can use that process to seek to clear his name. in contrast, a prosecutor's judgment that crimes were commit but no charges will be brought

affords no such adverse able opportunity for public. the concerns about the fairness of such a determination would be heightened in the case of a sitting president where a federal prosecutor's accusation of a crime can extend beyond the realm of criminal justice. the report goes on to say, while it says the president did not commitment a crime, it also does not exonerate him. mueller was never going to make a criminal finding against the president, regardless of what he would uncover. mueller would say that the president is not guilty, if mueller thought he was not guilty. after all, that's what he said with regard to collusion. but with regard to obstruction, mueller did not say the president is not guilty. in fact, it seems entirely likely that mueller believes the president is guilty. stunning as it sounds, there was never any chance that mueller

would find the president broke the law for either collusion or obstruction. and so, despite 675 days of investigation, 19 lawyers, 40 fbi agents, 2800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, the president was never at any legal risk. i want to know what you think. go to smerconish.com. answer today's survey question, when all is said and done, was the mueller investigation worth it? joining me now to discuss is tara setmeyer, former communications director and columnist where he wrote this piece. the obstruction case against trump that barr tried to hide. take shots at my commentary and tell me how surprised were you to see the report and see what

mueller's rationale was on the issues i just laid out? >> you know, i will tell you. i don't really have shots to take. i think we see things fairly similarly. to me, the big surprise, really, from all of this was that barr misrepresented what mueller's reasoning was regarding obstruction of justice. and misrepresented a number of other things as well. i mean, frankly, i don't know who the mueller report was worse for, trump pour baror barr. certainly when i look at the obstruction of justice section, when i wrote my report, what am i looking for, difficult questions of law and fact that mr. barr told us that mueller was wrestling with this obstruction of justice. and what i found instead was robert mueller going episode by episode in potential obstruction of justice and laying out how each of the elements, in other words, the pieces that a prosecutor must prove in order to make a case. he walked through each of those.

eight of the episodes, by my count, that mr. mueller says there's substantial evidence to prove each of the elements. that's essentially what a prosecutor would need to prove a crime. it really was nothing what barr had said. in fact, what mueller said, as you pointed out, michael, that the reason you did not reach a conclusion that trump had committed a crime was that it wouldn't be fair to trump, given that there was doj guidance that prevented him from charging mr. trump. this way, mr. trump couldn't go to a court of law and rebut it. >> tara, this is don fusing stuff. and maybe i'm wasting my breath by trying to go into the weeds. you can tell i'm of the opinion that the public is being misled in so far as people think it's a coin toss on obstruction of justice, when in fact, robert mueller was never going to say the president obstructed justice. >> right.

and you're not incorrect that the public is being misled. it's interesting that throughout the entire process, and the mueller report lays this out pretty clearly, the president was terrified about any information coming out through the investigation. about his actions, what was going on. he asked several people to lie on his behalf. and when they wouldn't or ignored those directives, he would ask them again. he repeatedly did this, particularly with don mcgahn, concerning various aspects of the obstruction side of this case. and the president continues now to yell fake news to try to cast as persi aspersions on people. all you have to do is go to page 88 that said don mcgahn was credible and had absolutely no reason to lie about any of his depictions about what took place. the president is very upset about this because it lays out a

very damning road map to obstruction of justice. he's continuing this propaganda attempt to try to confuse people. the average american, all we hear is no collusion, no obstruction. i'm not guilty. but this report really spells out a lot more in detail what this president was doing that should be alarming to the entire american public, but particularly republicans. is this the kind of president you want? where's the rule of law, what happened to that? republicans impeached bill clinton for a sexual affair, this is way worse, in a number of ways, not only in the obstruction side, but where is the concern about the russian interference side. the counterintelligence side of this, too, is being lost a little bit. but that's important also because the administration really has done anything to try to stop the russians from doing exactly what they did again. the president is too worried about his reputation. yelling fake news and trying to cast aspersions on people like

don mcgahn who took notes. i think this does the president a disqualifiservice that contin make him look a conscious of guilt here that does not rely on the report. >> renato, how about my observation that mueller was willing to say there was no collusion if he believed there was no obstruction, he would have been comfortable saying that? and can we then imply he does believe there was obstruction of justice in this case? >> well, first of all, there's no question that mueller said explicitly in the report that if he found there was no obstruction, he would have said so. now, it's not an either/or. in other words, what mueller down have found, for example, that he couldn't clear the president on obstruction, but that there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed obstruction. but ironing it think it's very m

reading it that he didn't find that evidence. what he essentially said, he went through a lot of effort, walking through and debunking barr's kind of unconventional bizarre view that a president cannot obstruct justice, except his very limited ways. mueller walks through, debunks that. makes it clear that he believed it was important for congress to consider those questions. to give them a road map for how to do so. and he walks through the elements of each of the offenses and explains how the evidence is there. so, to me, as a prosecutor, i'm looking at this and he basically said everything other than the ultimate conclusion. and i think the reason he did that is fairly clear from the report. he said that there's fairness concerns that would have arisen if he made that conclusion. so, i think he did make that decision. >> renato, tara, thank you so much. everybody at home, it's a holiday weekend. if you have the time, i know it's 400 pages, but i think i can distill it into that one

line, we termed not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the president committed crimes. the president was never at any risk of a finding by robert mueller that he'd broken the law. what are your thoughts? tweet me @smerconish. to the facebook page. i'll read some. what do we have, kathryn? you're twisting this in a weird lawyerly way? the mueller report may not have been a document to indict a president. i'm not trying to at all, trevor. respectfully, i waded through it. there was never a scenario, where he was going to say that he believes the president broke the law. and the expectation for 22

months is that he would make that kind of a call. remember, i want to hear from you, if you go to my website, please this hour, smerconish.com. and answer this question. was it worth it? when all is said and done, was the mueller investigation worth it? mine is a yes vote. monday, the doj will share a less redacted report with hill leader and leaders and i'll ask a member of the committee what they expect is the impeachment part of the equation and what that would be politicalwise? plus, what has been the media response been to the mueller report? like so much else, it depends which media outlet you consume. plus, the version of god bless america has been pulled because other songs in the singer's catalog has been labeled racist. is that fair?

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with the mueller report out and hill leaders seeing a less redacted version on monday, the decision about what to do about the findings is nowp to the house of representatives. joining me now two members of the house judiciary committee representative mary day represe. congressman, i'll begin with you, i want to air for you, a radio caller to me on my sirius xm radio program this week with a very interesting take. roll that tape. >> caller: i think we're missing the point here, ultimately, if you look back, russia's goal was not to tip the scales of who won the election but to undermine the credibility of who won regardless. it's what they've done in the ukraine. it's what they do everywhere.

it's to sow the seeds of discord. so the mueller report, all these sides taking camp and going down to whatever they want to see. it's like a mini civil war and they've planted the bomb. >> congressman gates, isn't he right, that was casey from orange county, california, isn't he right in saying the russians got an enormous bang for the st ourselves. >> we're certainly right about intelligence community to be politicized. when we allow political opposition research to function as a basis for a warrant to spy on american citizens. that not only calls into question, our democracy and our political process. but also the critical intelligence tools we need to combat russia's maligned influence around the world. i would take one exception with the caller's note. and that would be, i do believe russia wanted hillary clinton to

lose. i think that strings back to her calls for the russian people to revolt against putin. >> well, that's the way it turned out. in other words, they just wants to foment disorder and ultimately rely on the record. ultimately, they wanted to benefit donald trump. wait a minute, i keep hearing this, particularly on fox news in prime time, you are again raising the whole issue of the origin of this investigation. was this investigation not worth it where 37 individuals and entities were indicted by mueller for having meddled in our election? do you want that there had been no investigation? >> yeah, i'm a no vote on this smerconish poll. the reason is none of those 37 people will ever face justice. and god forbid if they showed up and tried to use our criminal process to try to uncover sources and methods that our intelligence communities use. those are ghost indictments. they're never going to result in

consequences. they confirm what we've already known. that is in the past and sadly in the future, russia has undermined a campaign to undermine democracies both in the united states and around the world. >> but don't you, as a member of congress, need the information that mueller just provided you, so as to make sure this never happens again? >> well, we actually have that information, michael. we get a lot of briefings around the world and into congress. a lot of those briefings go into detail not only the goals and strategies that officials use. whether it's bribing officials. co-opting nice agencies. trying to record them. these are issues that are not particular useful to the united states states. >> respectfully, you're telling me you didn't learn anything? you knew all of this, all of this contained in the 400 pages

about the vast way putin sought to undermine our election and our society? i'm shocked by that. >> yeah. no, we get a lot of briefs, and they rur in multiple layers of government, whether it's secretaries of state, elected officials around the country. we get a lot of briefs not only about what russia has done but what they will do. i'm very interned about what they do and the mueller report doesn't create a new set of revelations among the intelligence committee, armed services committee. judiciary committee about how russia engages. as a matter of fact, the judiciary committee took a trip to the balkans and we learned a lot to learn there. >> senator mitt romney has interesting things to say. it is good news that there was insufficient evidence to change the president of the united states with having conspired with a foreign adversary or with

having on instructed justice. even so, i'm sick of the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the president." does he have it wrong? >> mitt romney is not a big fan of the president, unless he wants to be secretary of state. that's in keeping with mitt rormny with the way he behaves with his staff. i do take issue with your commentary that the president was never at fact. first, it's hard to figure out where attitude ends and activity begins. a lot of the president's action occurred in public. and typically, you don't obstruct justice on twitter. you know, it's typically a clandestine activity that demonstrates contempt. none of those would be a complete defense. but when you combine all of them, there are questions of

law, in fact, i think that's the reason that there wasn't a determination that the president should be charged. your analysis that mueller will have to decide if he's guilty or not was never the call of the prosecutor. it was never the call of the special prosecutor. he would determine whether there was a basis for the charge there wasn't. he was never assigned to be judge, jury and executioner. >> i beg to disagree, the way he approached this job in his mind was not to determine whether the president had committed a crime. not to determine whether there was sufficient information to bring forth a charge. and he told us so in black and white, with regard to your three points by mueller's analysis. i'll give you the final word, but by mueller's analysis, if he could check each of the three boxes, he was not going to tell us so because he would think that would be fundamentally unfair to a president who would be then publicly charged in the public court of opinion, without the ability to defend himself in a court of law. you get the final word.

>> respectfully, what i think you missed is the distinction between a determination that a crime has been committed. and a determination that charges can be brought. i think that mueller made the decision that criminal charges could not be brought as a consequence of those difficult questions of law. but in fact, prosecutors aren't hired to exonerate people. thatot what they do. it was abojurational that he exonerated. that's just the cherry on top of the president. >> could be continued. the vice chair of tthe judiy committee, the president tweeted, game over. is it game over? >> no, i think you have to carry it out because subpoenas are coming. >> so, what wouldf you get a

look at the full report, what is it that you hope t thas not already in the public view? >> well, like you, i was really, really focused on that page 2 of the second volume of the report, where mueller talks about what he was doing with respect to obstruction of justice. i completely agree with you that he went into this saying, i am not going to reach a conclusion because the department of justice rules say that i can't. but what's really important is what he says after that. he says, if i was able to conclude that the president did not on instruct justice, if i could exonerate him, i would. and he explicitly says, there is evidence there i can exonerate him. so then he goes on. and he says, just because we cannot bring criminal charges against a sitting president, doesn't mean that didn't can't be criminal charges against a president after he leaves office. and it doesn't mean that congress doesn't have a duty to

investigate and address conduct that constitutes obstruction of justice. and he then proceeds to lay out a very detailed road map of where he saw evidence of obstruction of justice. he walks it right up to the line without making a conclusion. basically, that volume two reads like a prosecutorial charging document. >> okay. notwithstanding the observations you've just made, how do you feel about the impeachment issue? doesn't it come with some political costs if democrats are perceived as banging this drum where there were no findings by mueller, for whatever reason, of criminal conduct? >> well, first of all, i disagree that there were no findings. he decided not to charge, but he lists ten different instance where is he found evidence of criminal conduct. of obstruction of justice. and he lays them out in great detail. so just because he doesn't say charge on it, he did have findings.

on the very first pages of the document, he lays out what he means when he says the evidence did or did not establish. and he doesn't find -- he does not exonerate. he doesn't find that there wasn't evidence. so, i think we've still got work to do. he's laid out what he did find. he further lays out 14 additional prosecutions of criminal activity. that he referred out because they were in addition to what he had the authority to cover. the redacted report only says what two of them are. there are 12 unknown instances of criminal activity that he discovered in the course of doing his investigation. >> congresswoman mary gay scanlon, thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> i want to remind everyone to answer the survey question @smerconish.com. congressman gates said he's a no vote. was the mueller investigation worth it? cast your ballot.

up ahead, a look at the media reaction that the mueller report received which may have as well landed on two different planets. ts tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees are structured so we do better when you do better. maybe that's why most of our clients come from other money managers. fisher investments. clearly better money management. [outdoor♪ambiance] hi, mrs. gorman. hey, theo. police radio: i have the stolen vehicle in sight. [police siren] ♪ [police siren] ♪ ice siren] police radio: onstar, it's safe to slow it down. ♪ onstar advisor: mr. grantham, this is onstar. onstar advisor: the police have your vehicle.

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did the mueller report change any minds to get a sense of how divided the media reaction has been, the look at the front pages of two new york newspapers. the "times" devoted its entire front page to in-depth analysis including whether the democrats should move to impeach. the "new york post" had a simpler take, trump clean, no crimes committed. democratic hoax destroyed. the same chism. >> the president of the united states has been totally vindicated. >> he is told unfit to be president of the united states. 91 who suggests otherwise has

not read the report. >> the report was real. nobody met with vladimir putin. nobody met secretly in prague or a. p-tape whatever that means. >> this report could have been issued in one page. we found no evidence of collusion between the russians and the trump campaign, period. >> that's the public trump. the witch hunt trump. the private trump, the real trump, this is the end of my presidency. i'm -- >> joining me now is frank se o sesno, he's the director of george washington media affairs. he's the author of "ask more, the purchase of suggestion and to spark change." frank, you're getting a totally distorted view of the world? >> totally. you just took us into the

episode of "star trek" that hasn't been shot yet which is alternative media. the aftermath of the mueller report, this is particular medi is putting politics aside, actually look at what mueller reports out. who is the quote. with all of the speculation on the left and right, for two years now what mueller was going to find, bits and pieces. suddenly, we have it with names, with dates, with quotes. if anything, mueller should get the pulitzer prize because he actually did investigative voting here. and all of the popinionating around it. >> all of the opinionators have so polluted the landscape.

i'll give you an example. i did an opening commentary that i think is an evidentiary analysis of the mueller report. i'm being told i'm flooded with social media reaction. half of it, you hate trump. half of it you love barr, you hate barr. no, ladies and gentlemen, you're all wrong. i'm simply trying to look at data. >> let's think of it as this way. you're sick, okay. you're not feeling well. you go to your doctor. you've been online, you have gotten opinions about what's wrong with you. you finally go to your doctor. you get the tests back. do you set all of that other stuff aside and say what did they really say here? that's what mueller is. mueller is back with the test. whether this is about collusion or indictable crimes and whether the president will or should be impeached, it's a picture of presidency. it's bob woodruff's book with

quotes, right? any american should look at that and say, is this behavior, whatever threshold is reaches that i'm comfortable with, or that says, conveys a picture of a presidency. that's what disturbs me the most. so much of the media, so much of certainly conservative right wing media is just change the subject. move on. we've been through too much to simply change the subject and move on, regardless of where you come from on the political spectrum. >> one other observation. maggie haberman said this in a tweet. philip bump wrote a great piece making the same observation. we saw so much of this story unfold, is that when it finally landed, we knew a lot of the story. but up that haberman tweet, if you guys would. and the point is, what if -- no, not that one either -- what if it had come out -- there it is -- in one thud, and we hadn't known anything? >> that's exactly right. that's what we would be talking

about. and that's why if we could rewind videotape that no longer exists and go back two years and change this. and i will say this, i will say the cable news universal. the cable news universe, i'm getting close to you, michael, i apologize, but you've fed off of this for so long, it's diluted the extent what we're really p away. this is not the behavior that any other president from any party could have done without enormous sequenconsequence, but heard so much for so long, we say what else is new. >> let me thi to give credit to and to "the washington post" and "the new york times." all of the reports that the president was lambasting ended up being accurate. and footnoted. >> yeah, yeah. it's not that you're saying you shouldn't have reported on this.

it's the amount of reporting. proportion nalalit proportionality. >> understand. >> that's what carries it and says you're trying to feed your addiction. there's a real news story here, okay? there's a real question about how a president and those around him operate. and mueller takes us deep, deep inside with names, dates, quotes, places, times, under oath. so people have an unprecedented view of the presidency. i mean, think about it, when else have we seen a presidency peeled back like this with such shame? maybe never. >> i have ordered my bound version. i intend to read it at the beach this summer again. >> at the beach? get a life, michael. >> thank you. answer the survey question @smerconish.com. when all said and done, was it worth it? congressman gates says no. i say yes. >> s

statue of singer kate smith now under wraps in my hometown? because songs in her catalog have racially charged lyrics. that's why. is this sufficient reason for sports fans to never again hear her classic rendition of this. ♪ god is bless america land you got this! ♪ woo! ♪ ♪ ♪ how do you get skin happy aveeno® with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this...

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have had cancer, or develop new skin growths, or if anyone in your house needs or recently had a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. talk to your doctor today, and learn how janssen can help you explore cost support options. and now, the controversy over "god bless america. "i grew up idolizing the nhl's philadelphia flyers. had the team poster hung in my bedroom. proudly wore the number 1 jersey. when they conthe stanley cup in the '74 season it ended a drought for the city. the city went berserk, 2 million celebrated at a parade. but the flyers had help, an unusual lucky charm, a singer much older than any of the

players kate smith. "national enquirer" recounts since 1969, the team has played smith's "god bless america" for must win games which has proven to be a good luck charm. they went 101-39-5 in games, where smith's version of the song aired. i remember when in 1974, she sang in person before the flyers won the stanley cup. ♪ god bless america land that we love ♪ ♪ stand beside her and guide her ♪ >> for last eight years the

yankees have similarly played the version of "god bless america." this week, after being reminded, the yankees announced that would end. the issue at hand, 1931 recording a song called "that's why darkies were born." the song includes the lyrics, quote, someone had to pick the cotton. and in the film "hello anybody" smith sings pickaniny. and the sports stadium was just covered up, as the flyers decide what to do next. joining me now "the new york times" opinion columnist charles

blow. charles, weigh in on this, please. >> well, i think it's perfectly legitimate for people to reconsider whether or not they want her version -- it's not really about her version of "god bless america." let's just put that to the side. it's really about her to be -- incorporated into a modern presentation of any sort, including sports games. and so, the idea that something happened a long time ago, actually does not absolve you if you're including that person as a present phenomenon. so, i think that is perfectly reasonable to think about it. and, you know, i don't think -- i don't think that's a controversial thing for the teams to do. >> what i hear you saying is no statute of limitations. in a case like this, we uncover it whenever you're done? >> absolutely.

because sometimes people say, oh, this was of a time. i always recall, think about it this way, the inverse of that, which is there are also black people who were living at the time. and i try to think what they were thinking when people were doing things that were rationally insensitive to them at the time. right? they weren't different people than me. they were the same person as i am today. and they had to live through things that were indicative to them. so, i think of them not the person who did it and the morays of the time allows them to do it, but rather, they suffered through. >> and the presidential medal of freedom in 1982, i'm floored now, even recognizing that we all have access to information that now this comes to life. you know, where was this awareness for all those years that in philadelphia, we

idolized her version of the song? >> but, this is not the first time, it took decades, generations for something to be corrected like this. you may recall the controversy over "carry me back to old that song was incredibly, racially offensive to a lot of people but it was written in the 1800s by a black man, right? it was -- virginia made it their state song in 1940. ray charles recorded it on an album in the '80s and it wasn't until the 2000s -- it was 1990s that people in virginia were like enough of this. this doesn't make sense. this is a modern age. this song is inappropriate and we should do something about it. sometimes it takes a time for people to have an awakening about something but they do it and it's perfectly fine do that. >> and in this case, paul

robeson records one of these songs that is indefensible. >> exactly. >> appreciate your time. thank you. still to come, your best and worst facebook comments. we'll give you the final results. go vote. when all is said and done, was the mueller investigation worth it? lergy pills? flonase relieves your worst symptoms including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. flonase helps block 6 key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. flonase. wouldn't it be great to get a when yophone too?reless plan, switch to sprint and get an unlimited plan with the samsung galaxy s10e included for just $35 a month. it's a big deal. how do you get skin happy aveeno® with prebiotic oat. it hydrates and softens skin. so it looks like this... and you feel like this. aveeno® daily moisturizer

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a lot of social media reaction. 10 plus sealed indictments to come. it's not over until kate smith sings. chris, i'm not sure she'll be the one singing when it's over. here are the survey results from smerconish.com, was the mueller investigation worth it? oh, my god, 18,362 votes, the yess 86%, the 14% include congressman matt gates. happy easter. see you next week.

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good morning. it's saturday april 20th, we're so glad you're hear. i'm christi pauls. >> i'm victor blackwell. you're in the cnn "newsroom." breaking news right now out of paris. antigovernment protesters have been setting fire in the streets. you see it on the left of your screen and police have been using tear gas to try to separate the protesters, disburse the crowds. according to the paris prosecutors' office, there are 110 people in custody right now. more than