President Donald Trump and CNN have been at odds with each other since the 2016 presidential election. There have been many, many tiffs between the president and the news network, especially concerning their reporting of the Trump administration.
Now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report has landed on Attorney General William Barr's desk, and it has been revealed that no collusion took place between Russia and the Trump campaign, CNN panelists are forced to say the news "vindicates" the president.
"So if, if as Jeffrey [Toobin] is saying, they [Trump administration] get great news, the great news is, first of all, there’s no more indictments," CNN political analyst Gloria Borger said on Friday. "But if suddenly the president has to say those angry Democrats who were working with Bob Mueller were actually just part of a Justice Department doing its job after he has criticized the Justice Department, then he’s now vindicated.”
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin agreed with Borger.
“Let’s be specific. This is really good news for a lot of people around Donald Trump. Donald Trump Jr. Jared Kushner. Jerome Corsi. The writer who had a draft indictment presented to him by Mueller’s office and they decided not to go forward with this," Toobin explained. "Let’s be fair here. There has been a lot of suspicion around certain people. And a lot of negative things have been said and imputation of criminal activity. Mueller has said, ‘I am not proceeding.’ There is no better news to receive than you are not being indicted by the United States government.”
During another segment, CNN justice reporter Evan Perez made a similar admission: Muller's report vindicates Trump.
"No more indictments and that's an important thing for the president. After 675 days of this investigation, after an investigation that has, frankly, clouded his administration since the beginning of his presidency, the president can begin to probably breathe a little easier that the idea that his vindication is coming," Perez said.
"He knows that, so far, from the Mueller investigation, the public information that’s been released by Robert Mueller, there’s been nothing that comes close to what looks like collusion or conspiracy, which has been at the focus of this investigation, the idea that there was somebody in the president’s campaign who was colluding with the Russians," Perez explained. "None of that has come forward in any of the public court documents, indictments that have been brought up. This has been a very comprehensive investigation. This has been a very fruitful investigation."