Dan Balz: ‘The Trump Presidency Has Been an Exercise in Testing the Limits of Extraordinary Behavior’

EXCERPT:

BALZ: "My lead is that this is a very damning report about the Trump presidency. I think you can look at it in two ways, Chuck. One is on the legal side and there’s certainly dispute between the Attorney General and people who do not take his conclusions at face value. But on the issue of conspiracy, the Mueller report gives the President a clean bill of health. There’s obviously lots of contacts, but he didn’t bring a conspiracy on the issue of obstruction. There is going to be a big debate about obstruction. But I would go beyond that and look at this report in another way. And that is, what does it tell us about the Trump presidency? And in that, this report is quite damning about the Trump presidency and the way the President has acted. One of my bottom lines on this is that the Trump presidency has been an exercise in testing the limits of extraordinary behavior. And I think what this report lays out is behavior that is beyond the norm that we normally expect of a president."