The Trump Campaign is rejoicing after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, as presented by Attorney General William Barr Thursday.
“The Special Counsel found no evidence that any American, including anyone associated with the Trump Campaign, conspired or coordinated with the Russian Government,” said Barr.
The 400-page report is the result of a nearly two-year investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
“Thanks to the Special Counsel’s thorough investigation we now know the Russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of President Trump or the Trump Campaign.”
However, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghuas says we're still in the same place we were before the report’s release -- at least politically.
“Most people are pretty well-informed about what they think happened, it may or may not be accurate,” he says.“There are Republicans who can never be persuaded that Donald Trump was doing something wrong and there are Democrats who can never be persuaded that Donald Trump didn’t do something wrong.”
“For the majority of people who are both reasonable and look at this evidence in good faith, I think it leads most people to the conclusion there wasn’t a whole lot of there there,” says Republican strategist Vlad Davidiuk.“There wasn’t a lot of fire, even though it seems there was some smoke.”
Shortly after the report’s release, California Democrat Brad Sherman renewed his call for impeachment hearings, claiming the information that Trump campaign knowingly benefited from Russian hacking is shocking.
“To see so many people aware that Russia was trying to help Trump, and that was obvious to everyone a month before the election, and to then vote for him anyway, that’s not the politics I grew up with,” Sherman said.
Meanwhile, the Trump Campaign says an investigation should be opened against those who "investigated this sham investigation into President Trump."