SUSSEX COUNTY, Del.- Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 election is already eliciting reaction on Delmarva. According to a summary from Attorney General William Barr, the investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Mueller did not make a judgment on whether President Trump tried to obstruct justice, leaving that decision to AG Barr. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein have said President Trump's behavior was not criminal. Former Sussex County Councilman and Trump State Chairman Rob Arlett says the report proves what he and others in the campaign already knew. "The national narrative in the 2018 election cycle was fear of President Trump and that was brought into Delaware, that was brought into Maryland and the Eastern Shore and some people gravitated towards that," Arlett says. "I believe it will only enhance and help Republicans." Senator Tom Carper says he respects Mueller's findings, but questions Barr's decision this early on. "Several weeks before he was confirmed as Attorney General basically said presidents cannot be prosecuted for pretty much anything," Carper said. "It seems peculiar to me that the Attorney General who said that before he was confirmed as Attorney General has now concluded within hours of receiving a huge report that there should be no prosecution. It just doesn't ring true." There have been bipartisan calls for the report to be released to the public. Also bipartisan are calls for moving forward and working together, a point Senator Carper stresses is critical due to Russia's past meddling. "I think maybe the most important lesson for us to remember as Americans, we are not at war with one another," he says. "We are in a form of war with Russia and we can't allow them to win this war."
Says Arlett, "I think we need to focus on solutions and truly coming together and not the words of coming together, but actions of coming together."