John Oliver thinks Mueller's Trump report is plenty damning, despite the oddly favorable headlines

John Oliver writes his own headline post-Mueller report
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Last Week Tonight)

John Oliver didn't have too much to say about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Russian election meddling and possible malfeasance by President Trump's campaign, mostly because almost nobody has seen that report. "We only know what Trump's own attorney general thinks we need to know," he said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, and William Barr is a suspect source. Despite the ostentatious victory lap by Trump's supporters and Fox News friends, however, there's plenty of bad news even in Barr's four-page summary.

Mueller's "report did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump's campaign, which is undeniably good news for the president," Oliver said. But "Trump was not completely exonerated. In fact, the report literally says it 'does not exonerate him.' The only way Mueller could have been clearer on that point is if he put hand-clap emojis between every word." Ordinarily, such news "might prompt headlines like 'President May Have Obstructed Justice,'" he said, but news organizations, like Trump's supporters, took "one piece of good news and rounded it up to two."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.