Are you watching Mueller Testify?

I’ll watch the redacted redacted version, if that comes out later.

No, I’ll read it in the paper tomorrow. I have real work to do.

Listening while I work, wow, I almost feel sorry for Mueller right now.

Snitches and snatches.

@KNOWITALL Me too.

@KNOWITALL Because?

No. It will be talked about for a very long time after today and I’ll get an earful then.

@rebbel They’re pressuring him to say things that were already stated in the report, which he keeps referring them to. It feels like badgering, not much new information, just a re-hash of known facts so far. He looks defeated and defensive.

I’m not sure what the point of this hearing is. He said he would only speak about what was in his report.

@chyna I think Congress wanted the public who have not read the report and accepted Barr’s fallacious summary to hear more details.

Mueller is coming across as unsteady.

@filmfann And perhaps biased. If a Dem does the same thing a Rep does, and one is held accountable and the other is not, feels like bias.

Viva la resistance by a Mueller employed atty, certainly sounds like collusion to undermine the President to me.

This is going to add fuel to the Reps who always thought the investigation was shady. Bad idea imo.

@KNOWITALL I disagree. The Republicans are coming off as petty, sniveling, partisan hacks.
The Democrats are working to get the report into public knowledge.
This will continue damaging the little credibility the President has. It isn’t as effective as I hoped, but it is partially effective.

I also think it will fuel Republicans. I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned it off after the first ten minutes. They won’t hear most of it, even if they had planned to listen initially.

I know they are there to question him, but their tone is so disrespectful. Mr. Gaetz turns my stomach, cocky, young, and obnoxious. He’s not the only one. Meanwhile, Mueller seems over his head, which I know is not the case, unless he is losing some of his compos mentis. There is weakness in his voice.

I too think the purpose of this was so America knows what was in the report in the voice of the author, because most Americans aren’t, going to read it and moat of America is getting their interpretation of the report from biased media whether it be on TV, in print, or social media.

Maybe there will be a surprise later today, but for now, I think this changes nothing in the end.

@filmfann Okay, we’ll agree to disagree.

@JLeslie Well yes, they are trying to demean everyone involved for not being able to charge Trump. Mueller is the scapegoat, but it’s hard to watch.

Here is my executive summary of the event:
“I can not speak to that. I refer to the report. I will not speculate.”

@ragingloli Repeat 5,000 more times….haha!

No

My impression of the man is, he got subpoenaed, and said to himself; Ok, I will go, but I will say as little as possible, because I did my job, and now I want nothing to do with anything that happens next, so leave me the fuck alone, y’all.
He refused to give explanations of the text, he refused to give clarifications to things unclear or ambiguous, there was even a moment, where he refused to read from his own report, as if he wanted to avoid being caught on tape saying anything substantive.
Really, the only moment when he spoke without having someone trying to pull his teeth, is when he defended his hiring practices, after one of the reps tried to smear his employees.
Very peculiar, that man.
And a bit cowardly.

There are a lot of information that he CANNOT disclose now as further invetigations are ongoing still.

It was almost like someone had “gotten to him” but I think it’s probably what @ragingloli said, he resigned and wants to be left alone.

I listened to NPR for about an hour. The takeaway was if trump wasn’t president he could be charged with “multiple felonies.”
He can be indicted after he is no longer in office tho.
Bet we wake up one day to find he fled the country.

That was the narrative the Democrats were driving. But Mueller himself seemed oblivious to the running spiels, narratives, and other words put in his mouth. He just said ‘Yes’ or deferred to the report. If its in the report, he said, it must be true.

As for Mueller himself, I don’t think he ever even read the Mueller report..

“I can not speak to that. I refer to the report. I will not speculate.” I don’t see the problem. He was there to deliver the report, not speculate, or opine. He stuck with the law. Why do people seem to have a problem with it?
What he DID say was pretty damn damaging though. That trump could be charged with multiple felonies if he wasn’t president. That he can be indicted for said felonies after his term has ended.
What exactly are people bitching about?

I agree with you @Dutchess_lll. I don’t understand what people were expecting. Some damning gotcha moment not included in the report? The report itself is damning and many people didn’t read it. They just believe what they hear from their president, the media or Barr.

If Trump were any other citizen he would be charged with crimes but he’s a sitting president so he can’t be indicted.

What we learned: Asked if Mr. Trump “wasn’t always being truthful” or complete in his written answers under oath to the special counsel’s questions, Mr. Mueller responded, “I would say generally.” He called Mr. Trump’s encouragement of the WikiLeaks releases of purloined Democratic emails “problematic” to say the least. He fretted that the Trump campaign’s openness to accepting Russian assistance would prove to be “a new normal.” And he warned that not only had the Russians not been deterred from election interference, but “they’re doing it as we sit here.”

Under questioning by Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the Intelligence Committee chairman, Mr. Mueller agreed that receiving campaign assistance from a foreign power was “unpatriotic” and “wrong.”

The most helpful moment to Democrats may have come as Mr. Mueller faced his first questions, from Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. It is a sequence that is likely to play out on television and in political ads for months to come.

“Director Mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him. But that is not what your report said, is it?” Mr. Nadler asked.
“Right, that is not what the report said,” Mr. Mueller replied. *source

Everything that Trump is saying about this report is false and that was proven today.

“Everything that Trump is saying about this report is false and that was proven today.”
The republicans knew that, that is why their strategy was to try to discredit and smear the report, Müller, and the people who worked on it.

I’m waiting for it to come out on DVD.

The report said there was no collusion and insufficient evidence to make an obstruction case.

The words and phrases about high crimes and misdemeanors came mostly from Nadler or Democrat congress members. Nadler also concluded that the Russia narrative has been re-opened and they were somehow going to outdo what Mueller couldn’t do.

As for the feeble interview, Mueller would say anything he was asked to. He did not sit in on most of the interviews, did not even KNOW about Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS, or the Dossier even though they were referenced in what was supposedly his own report, and critical in understanding what the entire investigation was about.

Mueller also said that he was not fired. no one impeded or interfered in the investigations, and that Trump never ended the investigations. And there was no evidence of collusion with Russia on the part of the Trump campaign. The fact that there is no underlying crime and that Trump knew he was innocent, and no evidences withheld or destroyed, makes it extremely difficult to make an obstruction case credible.

Willful ignorance knows no bounds, apparently.

Acts of obstruction are not required to be successful. They are still crimes.
There does not have to be an underlying crime, for the crime of obstruction of justice to occur.
see https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/judge-andrew-napolitano-did-president-trump-obstruct-justice
The investigation resulted in several indictments. There were crimes, and Drumpf attempted to interfere with the investigation thereof. Attempting to interfere with the investigation of someone else’s crime, still obstruction of justice.

Reality check.

Even if the impeachment proceedings of Trump started yesterday the endless hearings would very likely drag out for a year and a half especially if we get into another war (looks likely with Iran).

Also if Trump is impeached and removed from office (and that ain’t happening with the Republican controlled Senate) then President Pence will pardon Trump of all wrong doing.

Trump will not be impeached. Why? Democrats in charge of the House are too smart for that. The impeachment posturing is all about making Trump look bad in preparation for the 2020 election. It has nothing to do with removing Trump from office.

I agree. We’ll wait for 2020 and nail his ass to the wall.
I expect to wake up one day to find that he’s flown the country tho.

^Most likely to Russia.

^ Where he’ll run for president and ultimately meet his demise, while pigging out on polonium pizza pies! ;-D

Or to North Korea where he’ll find out what they REALLY think of him when he has no money, no nothing to offer.
Will his kids and their families have to run?
And didn’t his grandfather have to flee Germany in similar circumstances?

His grandfather was stripped of his Bavarian citizenship for dodging military service.
Runs in the family, I guess.

Hmm…