RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “By the time President Trump woke up on Thursday [4-18-19] morning, he was ready for the Mueller report. The day before, his lawyers had given him a matter-of-fact recounting of the special counsel’s sprawling, 448-page document during a briefing in the White House residence. It left Mr. Trump concerned about its damaging details but convinced that the report would help further the White House’s narrative that he had been cleared of all wrongdoing. Before 9 a.m., the president began that public relations effort in earnest, using Twitter to confidently urge people to watch a morning news conference by Attorney General William P. Barr. The moment Mr. Barr ended the news conference — having repeatedly insisted there was ‘no collusion’ — the president tweeted again…But as the day wore on, and more details from the report emerged about the president’s behavior — and the ways in which he urged those around him to mislead the public — the president and his top aides went uncharacteristically quiet. Despite having told a radio interviewer on Wednesday that he might hold a news conference after the report’s release, he purposefully avoiding one of his favorite pastimes: talking to the press.”
–Michael D. Shear and Annie Karni, “Trump Says He’s Having a ‘Good Day,’ but Avoids Questions,” The New York Times online, April 18, 2019