I think my favorite reaction to the Barr gloss of the Mueller Report goes to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who said: "It's better than I expected."
It's better than I expected, too. My expectations were based not on what I knew happened, but on my supposition that Trump and his team must know what happened, and Team Trump was not waiting serenely for Mueller to reach the conclusion that they are now saying he reached. It's not surprising that I'm surprised but it is surprising that Rudy is surprised--that the news is so good. Is he:
1. Revealing himself to be an inept P.R. spinner?
2. Letting drop that Mueller didn't get to the bottom of it?
3. Tacitly acknowledging that Barr's summary of Mueller's Report is as friendly to the president as is possible without leaving him (Barr) open to the charge of lying--in the event we eventually get to see the Report ourselves?
Only (1) is true for sure, but all three could be. If (2) isn't true, the likeliest explanation relates to the distinction between (a lack of) criminal behavior and (a surfeit of) terrible behavior. No. 3 suggests a deliberate strategy of "defining the narrative" before the public knows the facts, and is also consistent with the goal of blurring the aforementioned distinction in order to skate away, shouting, "Witch hunt!"
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