'He didn't have to explain anything': NYT reporter says Mueller's report feels incomplete without Trump interview
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said the attorney general's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report left some big questions unanswered.
Attorney General William Barr said Mueller had found no evidence that the Trump campaign had conspired with Russia to influence the election, but the "Morning Joe" host asked why the president and his associates lied about their contacts with Russia.
"The question remains, why did Donald Trump lie about his contacts with Russia?" Scarborough said. "Why did the vice president lie about his contacts with Russia? Why did the attorney general (Jeff Sessions) lie about his contacts with Russia? Why did his first national security adviser (Mike Flynn) lie about his contacts with Russia?
"Why did Jared Kushner lie about contacts he had had with Russia in the disclosure forms? he added. "You can go on and on. A lot of people sitting in jail because of their lies about contacts with Russians, including Michael Cohen, who going to be going to jail because he too, like everybody else around Donald Trump, lied."
New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt said Mueller's investigation felt incomplete.
"You know who has not had to answer any questions about that in the entire thing was Trump," Schmidt said. So how is it that this whole thing was done and Trump has not had to answer any questions under oath about why he took the actions that he did. The reason is that his lawyers determined that if he went in, he would lie."
"So because of that, mueller never apparently sought a subpoena because Barr said in his letter on Friday," he added, "Mueller never tried to take actions he was stopped from taking. We know of no subpoena that was served on the president, but because his lawyers thought he would lie, he didn't go in for an interview. They're the ones that stopped him. He was the one that wanted to go in and do that, but this thing was concluded and he didn't have to explain anything."