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On the roster: Mueller exits, says Congress must decide Trump’s fate - Dems look to shrink field with third debate - McConnell says Garland standard wouldn’t apply in 2020 - Roy Moore bedevils trump - Even the best (man) fall down sometimes

MUELLER EXITS, SAYS CONGRESS MUST DECIDE TRUMP’S FATE
NYT: “Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, on Wednesday declined to clear President Trump of obstruction of justice in his first public characterization of his two-year-long investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. ‘If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,’ Mr. Mueller said, reading from prepared notes behind a lectern at the Justice Department. ‘We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.’ He also said that while Justice Department policy prohibits charging a sitting president with a crime, the Constitution provides for another process to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing — a clear reference to the ability of Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. Although his remarks closely matched statements contained in his nearly 400-page report, Mr. Mueller’s portrayal of Mr. Trump’s actions was not as benign as Attorney General William P. Barr’s characterizations. While Mr. Barr has seemed to question why the special counsel investigated the president’s behavior, Mr. Mueller stressed the gravity of that inquiry.”

Says department policy precluded criminal charges against Trump - WaPo: “Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III announced Wednesday he was closing his office and offered his first public comments on the results of his work, asserting that Justice Department legal guidance prevented him from accusing President Trump of a crime and noting cryptically that the Constitution ‘requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing.’”

Trump tweets vindication - N.Y. Post: “President Trump crowed ‘the case is closed!’ after special counsel Robert Mueller announced on Wednesday that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has ended. ‘Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you,’ the president wrote on Twitter about a half-hour after Mueller completed his remarks.”

Impeachment pressure mounts on Pelosi - USA Today: “Democratic calls for an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump increased Wednesday after special counsel Robert Mueller weighed in for the first time on his two-year investigation of the president and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Democrats honed in on Mueller's comment that charging Trump with obstruction of justice was ‘not an option’ for the special counsel's office because of a Justice Department policy. Several argued that it was now the task of Congress to hold the president accountable by starting an impeachment inquiry. David Cicilline, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was one of the first of many to make the call Wednesday, thanking Mueller for his work and adding, ‘Now it is time for Congress to do its job.’”

Amash gets hero’s welcome at town hall - Politico: “Rep. Justin Amash is a lonely man in Congress, the sole Republican to back Donald Trump’s removal from office. But back home on Tuesday night, the Michigan lawmaker got the red-carpet treatment in his first face-to-face encounter with voters since his call for impeachment. During a packed town hall in Grand Rapids, attendees in the mostly-friendly audience gave Amash several standing ovations and heaps of praise for his solo rebellion against Trump.”

THE RULEBOOK: BALANCING ACT
“IT WAS a thing hardly to be expected that in a popular revolution the minds of men should stop at that happy mean which marks the salutary boundary between POWER and PRIVILEGE, and combines the energy of government with the security of private rights.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 26

TIME OUT: WORDS MATTER
Atlantic: “‘Now is the time, and this the country ... Let us then seize the present moment, and establish a national language, as well as a national government.’ That is what Noah Webster wrote in 1789 at the age of 31, long before he had compiled the nation’s first major dictionary. It is a clarion call for American linguistic unity and independence in his Dissertations on the English Language—a 409-page treatise remarkable for its boldness and length as much as for its sweeping, generalized history of the language. The book’s main argument goes something like this: There is to be no elite in America, no linguistic differentiation between classes and regions. For Webster, new nationhood provided unique opportunities for language reform… The Dissertations illustrates, at a young age, Webster’s copious memory and tireless and detailed attention to what would become self-defining themes in his efforts to reform the profile of the English language in America…”

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SCOREBOARD
Trump job performance
Average approval: 41.6 percent
Average disapproval: 53.2 percent
Net Score: -11.6 points
Change from one week ago: no change
[Average includes: CBS News: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; Monmouth University: 41% approve - 52% disapprove; Quinnipiac University: 38% approve - 57% disapprove; Fox News: 46% approve - 53% disapprove; Gallup: 42% approve - 52% disapprove.]

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DEMS LOOK TO SHRINK FIELD WITH THIRD DEBATE
WaPo: “The Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday new criteria for the party’s September presidential debate that could dramatically winnow the sprawling field of 23 candidates, raising the stakes on the summer campaign season. To appear in the party’s third debate, which will be broadcast by ABC News and Univision, candidates will have to earn 2 percent support in four party-sanctioned polls between late June and August. In addition, they will have to show they’ve attracted at least 130,000 donors since the start of the campaign, including at least 400 from 20 different states. That third debate will be held on Sept. 12, with the possibility of a second session on Sept. 13 if there are enough qualifying candidates to require two stages. As the race now stands, only eight candidates in the field would meet the 2 percent threshold in recent party-sanctioned polls, according to an assessment by FiveThirtyEight…”

O’Rourke unveils immigration plan - AP: “Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping immigration plan to seek a pathway to U.S. citizenship for 11 million people in the country illegally, deploy thousands of immigration lawyers to the southern border to help with asylum cases and earmark $5 billion to bolster the rule of law in Central America. The former Texas congressman becomes just the second major candidate in the packed field of Democratic presidential hopefuls to offer a comprehensive immigration proposal, even though the U.S.-Mexico border and the thousands of people streaming across it illegally have dominated headlines and U.S. policy discussions for months. Other policy goals — including plans to slash carbon emissions nationwide to combat climate change and extend universal health care coverage — have overshadowed immigration, despite President Donald Trump fixating on calls for tightening border security and extending a wall along the border…”

Moulton shares PTSD with military mental health proposal - Politico: “Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran who is running for president, [introduced] a plan Tuesday evening to expand military mental health services… [Moulton said] he hoped that opening up about his experience [with PTSD from the Iraq war] would help ease the stigma that veterans and nonveterans alike feel when confronting mental illness. … His policy proposal would require ‘mental health checkups’ in addition to annual physicals for active-duty military and veterans. It would also mandate a counseling session for all troops within two weeks of their return from a combat deployment. And it would provide money for yearly mental health screenings for every high schooler in the country.”

MCCONNELL SAYS GARLAND STANDARD WOULDN’T APPLY IN 2020
Fox News: “Democrats are livid after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stated that Republicans would confirm a new Supreme Court justice in 2020 if given the chance, despite refusing to do so when Barack Obama was president during the last presidential election. McConnell made the comments during a speech in his home state Tuesday afternoon. Asked what Republicans would do if there was a vacancy on the court in 2020, he replied, ‘Uh, we'd fill it.’ In 2016, McConnell and his fellow Republicans chose not to vote on Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, claiming that the next president should get to make that decision. As a result, President Trump later successfully nominated the conservative Neil Gorsuch to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland is widely considered more centrist. Democratic presidential candidates quickly took the opportunity to accuse McConnell of hypocrisy.”

ROY MOORE BEDEVILS TRUMP
The Hill: “President Trump on Wednesday signaled that he's opposed to Roy Moore running for Senate in Alabama again, arguing the former judge ‘cannot win.’ ‘Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two,’ Trump tweeted. ‘I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t,’ the president continued. ‘If Alabama does not elect a Republican to the Senate in 2020, many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost, including our Pro-Life victories. Roy Moore cannot win, and the consequences will be devastating....Judges and Supreme Court Justices!’”

Meadows under pressure for choosing against female GOPer - Roll Call: “The runoff in North Carolina’s 3rd District is dividing the House Republican Conference between one powerful man and more than a dozen women. It’s North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows and the political arm of the House Freedom Caucus versus the Republican women in the chamber — all 13 of them — plus another male lawmaker from the North Carolina delegation. Meadows, whose 11th District is in the western part of the state — far away from the open 3rd District on the East Coast — has endorsed state Rep. Greg Murphy… The House GOP women have backed pediatrician Joan Perry, who represents the party’s best chance to add another woman to its dwindling ranks this year. Murphy … finished first in the 17-candidate primary on April 30, with 23 percent of the vote. Because he didn’t surpass 30 percent, Perry, who was second with 15 percent, was able to request a runoff.”

Lindsey Graham picks up a potential 2020 opponent - The [S.C.] Post and Courier: “Former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jaime Harrison formally launched his campaign Wednesday morning to challenge U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, kicking off an underdog bid to become the first Democrat to win a Senate race in South Carolina in more than two decades. In a 3-minute, comic-book-themed announcement video released early Wednesday, Harrison charged that Graham has ‘forgotten about the people he represents’ and cast himself as a candidate who would look out for South Carolinians from all walks of life. ‘I won’t care who you voted for, what education you’ve gotten or what career you have,’ Harrison said. ‘I remember a time when senators helped the people they represent. I want to bring the spirit of helping back.’ Harrison, an Orangeburg native who is now a top official at the Democratic National Committee, previewed his plans Tuesday night during an appearance on MSNBC. He has been actively exploring a bid since February.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY
Pergram: ‘How Congress is still trying to pass a disaster aid bill -- while ‘out’ of session’ - Fox News

Younger voters surged past Boomers and older voters in 2018 midterms - Pew Research Center

AUDIBLE: SAY YES TO THE DRESS
“It wasn’t a big, poofy wedding dress, so it wasn’t totally out of the question.” – NYT reporter Annie Karni told People magazine. Karni was one of the six reporters covering President Trump’s state banquet Monday with Japan’s Emperor Naruhito. Karni explained the guidance for a floor-length gown for the banquet came hours before her flight and she only owns the one floor-length gown.

FROM THE BLEACHERS
“Just wanted to say thanks. I enjoy the Halftime report and also watching your spots on Fox Nation. I also have to say that working with Brianna must be such a hoot. I watch her trying to look serious while you are talking, but you can see that she is just waiting for you to make a witty remark. One question I have is, did Brianna ever do a follow up on Porkchop the wayward pig? Did he get caught or is he still
running free? Keep up the great work you two!!” – Thomas Duan, Miramar, Fla.

[Ed. note: As far as I know, Brianna has left Porkchop to his own devices! Thanks for reading – and watching!]

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EVEN THE BEST (MAN) FALL DOWN SOMETIMES
Fox News: “A best man broke his arm the night before his friend’s wedding only for his replacement to break his foot just half-an-hour later. Steven Jackson, 39, snapped his humerus bone falling off the bed as he and the groom, childhood friend Michael Jackson, 40, prepared to turn in the night before the wedding. Steven was taken to hospital by ambulance and another pal Brendan O’Mara, 41, stepped in as a replacement best man and began frantically writing a speech. But thirty minutes later O’Mara tripped on a pavement outside the hotel as he went for a cigarette — and broke his foot. … Luckily, both friends made it to the big day at Chadderton Town Hall, Oldham, England, where Michael married 31-year-old partner Kelly. Steven got to deliver his best man speech, changing the opening line to: ‘I intended on getting drunk tonight, but ended up getting plastered!’”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“But given the contemporary state of hyperpolarization — the liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats of 40 years ago are long gone — the supermajority requirement today merely guarantees inaction, which, in turn, amplifies the current popular disgust with politics in general and Congress in particular.” – Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) writing in the Washington Post on April 6, 2017.

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox News. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Want FOX News Halftime Report in your inbox every day? Sign up here.