MSNBC’s Chris Matthews livid over Mueller report: ‘How could they let Trump off the hook?’

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The politics and the fallout from the completion of the Mueller report

MSNBC host Chris Matthews expressed outrage on Friday upon hearing reports that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had completed his Russia investigation and submitted it to the attorney general -- with further indictments not expected.

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Matthews began his show by summarizing the breaking news, but stressed that Mueller handed his report to the Department of Justice “without ever directly interviewing the president of the United States.”

“That means no charges against the president, his children or his associates after all those meetings with the Russians,” a visibly upset Matthews told his viewers.

The liberal cable news host opened the discussion to the panel, telling them his “biggest question” was “How can the president be pointed to as leading collusion with Russia, aiding a Russian conspiracy to interfere with our elections if none of his henchmen, none of his children, none of his associates have been indicted?”

NBC News national security reporter Ken Dilanian responded by telling Matthews that Trump couldn’t be indicted “in a criminal sense” since Mueller’s office “didn’t have it,” adding that the president “couldn’t conspire with himself.”

“Maybe he missed the boat here,” Matthews responded. “Because we know about the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, we know about the meeting at the cigar bar with Kilimnik. My God, we know about all of those meetings with Kislyak at the Republican convention in Cleveland. All these dots we’re now to believe don’t connect.”

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“Well, that’s the conclusion in front of us,” Dilanian told Matthews. “All of that stuff was suggestive, it didn’t prove anything.”

“Why was there never an interrogation of this president?” Matthews shot back. “We were told for weeks by experts, ‘You cannot deal with an obstruction-of-justice charge or investigation without getting the motive… How could they let Trump off the hook?... He will not be charged with obstruction of justice or collusion without having to sit down with the Special Counsel Mueller and answer his damn questions. How could that happen?”