— President Trump, remarks to reporters, July 22, 2019
The president’s approach to former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report — and Mueller’s testimony before Congress on Wednesday — reminds us of the line from the opening of “Annie Hall”: Two women are eating at a Catskills resort, and one says, “The food at this place is really terrible.” The other replies, “I know, and such small portions.”
For Trump, Mueller’s report is both an exoneration and a source of bitter complaints. The former FBI director and longtime Republican is derided as a partisan hack — except when he is not. The president has hailed some of the report’s findings — usually by mischaracterizing them — while denouncing its other conclusions.