Although President Donald Trump repeated the words "no collusion, no obstruction" again Thursday following the release of a special counsel's report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, it's not the end of the story.
It may be the truth, or the legal truth so far as Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney General William Barr are concerned, but the president's political opponents will never let it be the end of the story.
It won't be the end of the story until Trump's last day in office, be that Jan. 20, 2021, or Jan. 20, 2025.
A lightly redacted version of the special counsel's report, which the attorney general said is not "supposed to be made public," was released Thursday. In releasing it, though he did not have to, the attorney general was fulfilling what he said he would do and what the president also encouraged.
Barr also said Trump was not invoking executive privilege over any portions of the report.
So the report either says what the attorney general said it did in a brief letter to the public about its contents last month, or the attorney general was telling a lie that could easily be disproven by Mueller, his friend of 30 years. And the president by not invoking executive privilege either believes the report legally clears him or is naive enough to think his political opponents wouldn't take advantage of what he might have protected by executive privilege.
Going forward, Democrats and their national news media supporters will pick at the special counsel's wording concerning obstruction of justice, which the report concluded, according to Barr, evidence was "not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."
On Thursday, the attorney general noted the report detailed 10 episodes involving Trump and the legal theories that might connect his actions surrounding those episodes to elements of an obstruction of justice offense.
Barr said while he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein "disagreed with some of the Special Counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law," they didn't rely solely on their own beliefs.
Instead, he said, they consulted with the Office of Legal Counsel and other Department of Justice lawyers in coming to their conclusion that Trump did not commit a chargeable obstruction offense.
Democrats began their counterattack by berating Barr as a "lackey" for the president, by saying they will use a subpoena to get the unredacted report and by vowing they will haul Mueller before a House committee. So even more taxpayer money will be spent for partisans to come to a conclusion different from the one it already took two years to reach.
However, the public already can see the attorney general would have been stupid to have summarized the report's conclusion as anything substantially different from what it is and that he has been a man of his word by releasing the redacted full report as soon as possible. They further might have heard him say Thursday that Congress "will be able to see all of the redacted material for themselves - with the limited exception of that which, by law (grand jury material), cannot be shared.
So, the reactive exasperated comments of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, of "regrettable partisan handling," "slanted summary letter," "irresponsible testimony" and "indefensible plan to spin the report" are only that - exasperated comments, dust in the wind.
As for Democrats getting a copy of the report with the grand jury material in it, legal analysts say it's not likely to happen.
And as for Mueller appearing before a committee, what do they expect him to say that is not in his report? And if they wind up attacking his testimony, they will look even more ridiculous in the public's eyes after pinning all their hopes on him for two years to conclude that Trump flagrantly did something for which he deserved being impeached.
No, Democrats have run out of legitimate options on what Trump again Thursday called a "hoax." Oh, their combing of the report will legitimately underline things he did that likely were careless, clueless and petty. But careless, clueless and petty are behaviors exhibited at some time or another by most presidents (and humans, for that matter).
Nevertheless, we believe they'll continue this pursuit - hearings, faux polls, special media reports, for instance - at their peril. Many in the public, including those who voted for the president, were anxious to see what the special counsel found. Now they know definitively there was no collusion by Trump and his campaign involving Russia's interference in the 2016 election, which is the reason the special counsel was appointed in the first place.
In the end, their continued pressing of this issue only points to their continued sour grapes over his election and increases the chances for his re-election in 2020.