In his initial reaction to Robert Mueller speaking out on his investigation, Fox News anchor Bret Baier said the special counsel’s announcement flies in the face of Donald Trump’s insistence that he was completely exonerated.

In Mueller’s announcement, he said that because of Justice Department policy the special counsel didn’t have the option of charging Trump with a crime, but he also that “if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not.”

In Baier’s response on America’s Newsroom, he said he was “struck by the tone and tenor of the remarks” and how very different they were from how Trump speaks about the report’s conclusions.

“This was not – as the president says time and time again – no collusion, no obstruction. It was much more nuanced than that. He said specifically they couldn’t find evidence to move forward with the crime of collusion for the investigation of the Trump campaign. He said specifically if they had found that the president did not commit a crime on obstruction, they would have said that, and then went into specific details about the DOJ policy and why they couldn’t move forward with anything else than their decision.”

Baier continued to say “it was not anywhere as clear-cut as Attorney General Bill Barr. In fact, it was almost exactly the opposite: not clear-cut.”

WATCH:

Bret Baier on FOX: "This was not, as the president says time and time again, 'no collusion, no obstruction.' It was much more nuanced than that."

Adds Mueller's statement "was not anywhere as clear-cut as attorney general Bill Barr. In fact, it was almost exactly the opposite." pic.twitter.com/rROOUdSLql

— Frank Dale (@fwdale) May 29, 2019