For two years there's been the drip-drip-drip of the Russia investigation and the tweet-tweet-tweet of President Donald Trump assailing it. Numb yet?
The slowly rolling revelations may have worked in Trump's favor by diluting the impact of a damaging report by Robert Mueller laying out "substantial evidence" of the president interfering in a probe to protect himself. By now, people's positions on Trump are largely locked in. As Kansas farmer Donn Teske asks: "Did it really take this report to point out the irony of this presidency?"
Americans prefer their scandals in a New York minute, ideally with videotape and the whiff of a smoking gun from Watergate lore. Instead the New Yorker in the White House has been the subject of a slowly assembled puzzle, forming a complex portrait in a special counsel report that neither clears nor nails him but leaves it to Congress to take the next steps.
The dawn of the Russia episode made heads turn. Revelations that Russia mounted a sophisticated effort to interfere in and influence the outcome of the 2016 election (favoring the Republican, to boot!), provided a "wow" moment. The prospect that the Trump campaign cooperated with Moscow's machinations elevated the stakes, placing Trump's presidency in peril.
Mueller's report affirmed much of what was already known while offering plentiful new insights into how Trump acted on multiple fronts to contain the scrutiny of his behavior by prosecutors. But Mueller exonerated Trump and his aides of collusion with Russia while reaching no conclusion about obstruction of justice, pointedly declining to vindicate the president on that matter.
So where's the "wow" now?
Americans are still absorbing the thick report. But at this point, it seems baked into the body politic that the president is something of a rogue cop.
"The country is both numb and actively rooting for Trump the way we rooted for Dirty Harry to violate a perp's rights in the 1970s," said scandal-management expert Eric Dezenhall, speaking at least of a big chunk of the public. "He was elected to do two things: to light the system on fire and to entertain." And at least among his supporters, he offers the "sheer spectacle, the joy, of watching this guy get away with stuff."
Trump's defense has unfolded in the public square over the course of his presidency.
On Twitter alone , he's denounced the Mueller probe as a "witch hunt" at a pace of nearly once a day since last summer. He's slammed Mueller's team untruthfully as "Angry Democrats," one day saying there are 13 of them, then 17, then 18. Mueller is a lifelong Republican. Some on the team have donated money to Democratic candidates. (The color of their mood rings is not known.)
In the fog of tirades it was easy to forget that the U.S. intelligence findings about Russian meddling and the prospect that Trump or his people might have been involved were disturbing enough to persuade Trump's Justice Department to appoint the special prosecutor.
In Congress, at least at first, Republicans as well as Democrats wanted answers. In another nod to old-timey process and norms, Jeff Sessions recused himself from matters involving the probe because he had been part of Trump's campaign. "BLANK Jeff Sessions," as a livid Trump called him, resisted Trump's pressure to reverse the recusal and was eventually forced out as attorney general.
Since then Trump's hold on the party in Congress and its national apparatus has strengthened, even as GOP numbers fell in the midterms, and Trump has made clearer with each re-election-focused rally that what he cares about most is keeping his core supporters roused and Republicans overall from straying. Democratic presidential candidates, meanwhile, have largely been talking about other things, and not much about Trump at all, in the campaign.
That suits Sal DeFrancesco, a Harvard College student who attended an event with Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke on Thursday in Nashua, New Hampshire. "Anything that the Democrats do to help Trump rile up his base will only increase voter turnout and make it harder for them to win in 2020," DeFrancesco said. "So I am perfectly fine with this dying out to the background and letting the voters in 2020 make the decision about how big a deal this is for them."
Against that backdrop, a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found evidence of scandal fatigue and so-whatism among Republicans on the eve of the Mueller report even as a slight majority of respondents overall wanted Congress to keep investigating Trump's actions in the Russia matter, which Democrats plan to do. His anemic approval rating of 39% remained unchanged from before Mueller completed his investigation.
But on these questions, as on so much else, the polarization is stark. Democrats in the poll want him impeached — even if he did nothing wrong with Russia — and the investigations to continue. Republicans want the country to move on.
"His supporters are going to support him," said Teske, 63, who raises cattle near Wheaton in northeast Kansas, leads the Kansas Farmers Union and "held my nose" to vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. "It doesn't matter what the report says."
"I don't consider Trump an evil man," Teske went on. "I just consider him a symptom of our society."
By that, he means a fragmentation that frightens him: "I see people ready to start shooting guns and that is really scary. I don't think his supporters will allow him to be prosecuted. I think Mueller may have been very wise in how he dealt with this."
For Dezenhall, who counsels his clients on how to get through scandal, the Mueller report doesn't have the flavor of a takedown. The public, he says, doesn't parse muddy differences between meddling, collusion, hacking and the like. "Did he do it or did he not do it? Nobody wants to hear, he didn't technically do it."
More broadly, though, he sees a public figure who has lived a life of "utter exemption from consequences" pretty much since birth.
In a sense, he said, "Donald Trump has been dodging the Mueller report since 1946. This is just another stop along his journey of impunity."
Associated Press writer Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kansas, and Hunter Woodall in Nashua, New Hampshire contributed to this report.
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union.
Prime Minister Miloš Vučević's government got backing in a 152-61 vote in the 250-member parliament. The remaining 37 lawmakers were absent.
The government includes former intelligence chief Aleksandar Vulin, who has made several visits to Russia in recent months, as one of several vice-premiers, along with Nenad Popović, another Russia supporter who has faced U.S. sanctions.
The foreign minister in the previous government, Ivica Dačić, also a pro-Russia politician, will be in charge of the Interior Ministry in the new Cabinet.
The vote followed a heated two-day debate. President Aleksandar Vučić's ruling nationalist conservative Serbian Progressive Party holds a comfortable majority after an election in December that fueled political tensions because of reports of widespread irregularities.
The increasingly authoritarian Vučić has refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though Serbia has condemned the aggression.
Vučević, the new prime minister, reiterated that Belgrade doesn't intend to impose sanctions on Russia and “cannot and will not give up" the friendship with Russia. Integration into the EU remains a ”strategic goal," Vucevic said.
"Best possible” relations with the U.S. also are in Serbia's interest, Vučević added. “I firmly believe that our relations can once again be on a high level.”
Security analyst and a Belgrade university professor Filip Ejdus described the new government's composition as a “spin" designed to send a message both to the West and Russia, and to voters at home.
“It sends a message to the EU that they should not push Belgrade too much over democracy, rule of law, or Kosovo if they want to keep Serbia in its orbit,” Ejdus said. “At the same time, it signals to Moscow a readiness to strengthen the strategic partnership with Russia.”
The U.S. imposed sanctions on Vulin in July, accusing him of involvement in illegal arms shipments, drug trafficking and misuse of public office.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said that Vulin used his public authority to help a U.S.-sanctioned Serbian arms dealer move illegal arms shipments across Serbia’s borders. Vulin is also accused of involvement in a drug trafficking ring, according to U.S. authorities.
Vulin, who in the past had served as both the army and police chief, has recently received two medals of honor from Russia, one from the Federal Security Service, or FSB, and the other was awarded to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Popović, a businessman and a former government minister, has “used his Russia-based businesses to enrich himself and gain close connections with Kremlin senior leaders,” the U.S. Treasury said last November in a statement.
The U.S. sanctions against individuals and companies in the Balkans are designed to counter attempts to undermine peace and stability in the volatile region and Russia's “malign” influence.
The West has stepped up efforts to lure the troubled region into its fold, fearing that Russia could stir unrest to avert attention from the war in Ukraine. The Balkans went through multiple wars in the 1990s, and tensions still persist.
Serbia's falling democracy record has pushed the country away from EU integration, explained Ejdus. Reports of election fraud at the Dec. 17 vote triggered street protests and clashes.
“Vučić is still pretending to be on the EU path because it’s beneficial for Serbia’s economy, and the EU tolerates his authoritarian tendencies out of fear of instability that could be caused in its backyard if Belgrade was lost to Russia and China,” Ejdus said.
Aleksandar Vulin, former director of Serbia's intelligence agency, right, smiles during a parliament session while Serbia's prime minister designate Milos Vucevic presents a plan for the new government to the parliament members in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Serbia's new government will include a former intelligence chief, Aleksandar Vulin who has fostered close ties with Russia and is sanctioned by the United States. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's Prime Minister designate Milos Vucevic presents a plan for the new government to the parliament members in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's Prime Minister designate Milos Vucevic presents a plan for the new government to the parliament members in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's former Prime Minister and Parliament speaker Ana Brnabic, left, speaks with Serbia's new Prime Minister Milos Vucevic at the parliament session during her cabinet's swearing in ceremony at the Serbian Parliament building in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's Prime Minister designate Milos Vucevic presents a plan for the new government to the parliament members in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's new Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, front, speaks with Aleksandar Vulin, former director of Serbia's intelligence agency, who has fostered close ties with Russia and is sanctioned by the United States at the parliament session during the cabinet's swearing in ceremony at the Serbian Parliament building in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, left, kisses Serbia's new Prime Minister Milos Vucevic after taking the oath during the cabinet's swearing in ceremony at the Serbian Parliament building in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbia's new Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and ministers of the new government of Serbia read their oaths at the parliament session during her cabinet's swearing in ceremony at the Serbian Parliament building in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Serbian lawmakers on Thursday voted into office a new government that reinstated two pro-Russia officials who are sanctioned by the United States, reflecting persistent close ties with Moscow despite the Balkan nation's proclaimed bid to join the European Union. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
