Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s mythic profile — built over a period of two years by Trump detractors hoping his investigation and later his testimony would pave the way for the president’s removal from office — took a hit Wednesday as the veteran lawman was seen stumbling through questions and at times unclear about the contents of his own report.
Now, some of President Trump’s biggest critics are turning their ire toward the legend himself, panning his performance at this high-stakes forum, even though Mueller repeatedly made clear he did not wish to testify in the first place.
“Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster,” Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe tweeted, in reference to Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Tribe is an outspoken critic of Trump who often calls for his impeachment and indictment. He noted Mueller’s appearance failed to provide the made-for-TV moment that Democrats could rally behind in their efforts to bring down the president.
“Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it.”
Democrats did get Mueller to make certain statements that were clearly damaging to the president, including refuting Trump’s claim that he was exonerated by the investigation. But Mueller largely was retreading ground already covered in the report. And his critical comments were undermined by his stumbling in the face of Republican questioning, and confusion over key details. Several on the left readily acknowledged this was not the home run for which they hoped.
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin scored it as a win for President Trump.
“Look at who’s winning now, it certainly seems like Donald Trump is winning between the two of them,” Toobin said Wednesday.
NBC’s Chuck Todd noted that while Mueller did deliver some substance that benefitted Democrats, “on optics, this was a disaster.”
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who just a week earlier introduced a resolution to impeach Trump, recognized that even though Mueller “met my expectations,” others may have been disappointed.
“Some persons were hoping for a seminal moment. A ‘wow’ moment. It didn’t happen,” Green said. Green tweeted Thursday morning that this was because the report and Trump’s actions had been already been discussed “ad nauseum.”
@Greg: I like this headline better… Robert Mueller Failed His Country
Shouldnt the name of the online mag rag be Progressive Washington monthly?
@Nathan Blue: The final polls were within 2% in 2016—As you know DT’S razor thin wins in Pa and Mi made the difference—Dem turnout in Philly, Pitt, Det and Mil. the difference in election–Ga and NC also in play for a flip.
I believe DT has been an unpopular Prez from the git-go for reasons given and more –46% final tally in 2016–about the same now..IMO.2020 will be even tougher for DT than 2016
Greg I like Amy but I like Major Gabbard better..
@Greg:
Democrats think they need the proper combination of gimmicks to collect the votes of their dispersed interest groups with all their divergent demands. No policies, no programs, just gimmicks.
@kitt:
Maybe the country has failed Robert Mueller.
@Deplorable Me, #103:
It’s early. We’ll see what happens. I look at the presentation of a lot of differing ideas as a healthy process. I certainly favor raising capital gains taxes and high-end tax rates back to sane levels. I don’t view the forgiveness of all student debts as a responsible move, though some level of relief is in order. The minimum wage could be higher in many cases, but I consider a universal $15 per hour rate to be an oversimplification and an unworkable solution.
@Richard Wheeler:
That he fills every venue he goes to, dont look there, he doesnt provide free bands food or have much new to say, he packs them in.
Stick with the polls, they were soooo accurate in 2016 MSM, “Trumps chances for winning approaching zero.” The fireworks show for the DNC victory didnt happen.
We dont care we are going to vote anyway, not for anyone that doesnt swear to protect America and its interest, serve the people not the billionaires bankrolling the candidates and pushing far left progressive failure policies.
@Greg: Let it go brother, for your own mental health let it go, there is no there, there.
The Dems saying he can be prosecuted after leaving office only means so can Barry.
@kitt:
Getting him out of office is all I care about. Then he can go on his merry way, for all I care. I’d like to see a requirement that all future presidential candidates disclose their tax returns. Voters should never have to guess whether or not serious conflicts exist between the desire for personal gain and the good of the public and nation. Presently we’re left guessing, even when there’s much cause to wonder.
@Greg: I know getting him out of office by any means possible is all the dems care about and you as well. How quickly he showed that all the pie in the sky promises that politicians spout only to get into office and use every excuse in the book not to keep or the promise is only a lie. He is trying against every headwind to attempt to keep his promises, they cant stand for that. For them it is personal gain growing fat on kick backs, I would rather the politicians that become multi-millonaires get investigated.
Where do you think all the Federal tax dollars poured into Baltimore went? Nearly 19 billion dollars, poof do you care about the deficit spending, truly?
@kitt: He fills 5000 seat venues with the “lock her up” and “send them back” types—majority of Americans don’t buy that crap
Mick. Keith, Ronnie and Charlie get 70,000 at 200 bucks a head 3 nights a week for 3 months singing “start me up.” A lot more fun
Played to one million in Cuba last month
I say again Kitt–the final polls were VERY accurate–within 2%–can’t you accept that?
@Richard Wheeler:
Whatever that means. All night the “polls” had Hillary winning by a landslide.
Polls are biased artifacts largely manufactured, distorted, and used by the Left to induce group-think.
The questions are very subjective, and multi-varied.
@Richard Wheeler:
5,000?
In Utah we had a small dance venue but the number of searches done by the time I got to the front of that line was over 5000.
Most non-Utah sites for Trump rallies are arenas and basketball stadiums.
These usually hold over 15,000.
He fills them plus the overload rooms plus the outdoor large screen TV viewing areas.
Every time.
News media does its best to downgrade these crowds both in size and in racial diversity.
Even in Utah (90+% whites) there were many POC at the Trump (candidate) event.
There was a time Trump was running he said he was the particular stadium’s best draw for someone WITHOUT A GUITAR.
Remember when Obama was drawing crowds?
He almost always had a free concert associated with his appearance.
Even in Europe he did that.
@Greg:
Yes, we know. It’s about your identity and preference. Everyone feels that way about the guy/girl they didn’t vote for. As you’ve conceded, it’s time for you and your party to focus on the legal, sane way of changing things: running and voting for a better choice. I voted for Trump because he promised to decimate the false “legacy” of Barack Obama. He did that, and I am pleased.
As many would like to see that you can’t seal your records and you have to have furnish a birth cert before taking office. Once again, just your partisan identity.
We were left guessing with Bill Clinton, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, and now the suddenly filthy rich Obamas. Paying for your own billion-dollar campaign is the opposite of that, and I’m sure the public and nation have benefited from Trump’s election. To say otherwise is just petty partisan rhetoric.
By the way, all presidential candidates and winners…politicians in general…are there for personal gain. They are the not the best of us. Trump far outstrips most Presidents in personal success prior to office, which is why he kept his promises. He wasn’t paid for by the healthcare industry to pass a new system that benefits them, for example.
@Richard Wheeler: Greenbay alone was a 10K seat there was plenty of people who did not fit into the arena at stood for hours in 40 degree weather to get in, you dont need to lie about the crowds nor look down your elitist nose at the people that go to see the President of the USA. I guess thats why they dont vote for Dems they really are bigoted pukes. You fit right in Richie , bigoted, better than thou, pukes. Dude check your liberal privilege.
Shove your polls no one cares unless they please a bias.
How many attend one of your gals rallies, MSM ignores her she hasnt a snowballs chance.
@kitt: I do get a kick out of Donnie blasting “YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT” at his shindigs–sense of humor there.
“Liberal privilege” Thy name is Donald Trump—my daddy didn’t buy me out of going to Viet Nam.
Last time–election eve RCP had DT getting 44% of popular vote–election day he got 46%
Re Tulsi—Nathan and I hoping for her to be first female Prez circa 2024
@Richard Wheeler: So you speak for Nathan? Doesnt matter you are a bigot. I dont care about your polls, you voted for Clinton and Barry Dodger and not interested so what you think about Trump again who cares. Your girl isnt going to have to give up her current seat.
@Richard Wheeler: @kitt:
Fair to say I’ve implied that I believe what Rich says, though I’m not thinking of supporting her in 2024 because she’s a woman. It’s because I like her candor…and believe Trump has cleared the way for politicians to be real people again, with flaws and tenacity, rather than the weird pack of misfits they usually are.
To be clear, I like Tulsi and would vote Dem in 2024, if she or another closer to center candidate gets the nomination. We’ll have to see.
Also to be clear, I think Trump is possibly the best President we’ve every had in my lifetime. The Dems still don’t understand what they unleashed in America when they engineered a Kardashian-style candidate in the way of Obama — famous for nothing — then let him put his face on everything for 8 years. It paved the way for Trump, completely. Trump is what Obama pretended to be, and it’s hilarious to see the utter reversal of things.
@Nathan Blue: Look at the bills she has sponsored.
The dems are the party of Santa Clause, none of them have the reindeer to deliver.
Just like Mueller nothing in his big red bag.
@Greg:
Yeah, that’s probably it.
This hits investments and small businesses hardest. The solution is to reduce spending.
Nor do I. It sends the totally wrong message. Cut interest rates on the loans and stretch the terms out, but every nickel needs to be paid back.
The market sets the minimum wage. It was hilarious that Bernie got caught with his promises down when his workers went public and forced him to give them the $15 an hour. Then he had to cut hours, just like every other entrepreneur forced into the $15 minimum has had to do. Naturally, CNN didn’t bother to ask Bernie about that. Just another liberal gimmick.
That would be fine. However, ginning up some “suspicion” to illegal get hold of them isn’t going to fly. You know what I would like to see? Democrats hold Democrats to the same standard they hold Trump to.
Well, not completely. Get him out of office AND block him from accomplishing the things he has promised to do. If he achieves all his goals, you can’t elect more failed liberals.
That’s odd, because there WERE no such doubts about Hillary’s conflicts, yet you voted for her anyway.
@kitt:
ANYONE can be prosecuted when they aren’t President. They STILL need a crime, even more so than to impeach.
@Nan G:
You are harshing the delusion.
@Nathan Blue:
And the country has benefited tremendously for it, something the left doesn’t want to grow.
@Nathan Blue:
I have been very clear that Trump was not my choice in the primaries. But once he gained the nomination, I was in full bore. Hillary Clinton, who believed that she had a right to the office of President, was the absolutely worst candidate the Dems could have run.
I have had to come to terms with Trump’s (New York yankee) way of speaking. In my Southern mind, he was way too blunt. But after what he has gone through for the last three years, with the Democrats obstructing (yes, obstructing) everything he has tried to do and filing one law suit after another against him, I truly don’t believe any other person could have held up to the pressure. What hypocrites, like Wheeler and Greggie Goebbels, the left is. When Obama violated federal laws, refused to provide Congressionally requested documents, used the IRS as a battering ram against his political opposition, was running guns into Mexico that cost the lives of hundreds of Mexicans and at least one Border Patrol officer, the Democrats were silent. And that includes the Dems that frequent this blog.
Wheeler likes to point out that Trump lost suburban women. Why is that when everything that Trump has done puts more money into their family checking account? Look no further than Facebook and the conservative sites they shut down prior to the 2018 mid-terms. Almost all my friends, both close and casual, are on Facebook.
I do believe that the Russia, Russia, Russia!!!! coup attempt will go down in history as the worst scandal in our national history. And the Democrats will not be well represented by that history. And look what the Democrats continue to promote; guilty until proven innocent, thwarting the U.S. Constitution, cries of Racist, Racist, Racist!!! until the term has lost all meaning and real racism is then swept under the rug.
Almost every Democrat candidate is a radical left winger. Bernie is using the Stalin Constitution for his platform, and the faux Native American is right behind him. That is not a winning platform in flyover country. And how dumb are they to go to Detroit and tell auto workers they want to abolish the insurance the UAW has negotiated for over decades and get rid of automobiles because….. NEW GREEN DEAL.
@retire05: Dont you think all the members of the UAW can work on the wind as it blows through the crumbling empty assembly lines?
Then the medicare for all long lines of ill people waiting for no appointment in shut down hospitals.
@retire05: Trump was not my 1st, 2nd or even 3rd choice. I didn’t vote for him in the primary. Now, he is the only president in my life time to include Reagan who has attacked and addressed many of the issues that will make the US a stronger and safer country
@kitt:
These “Medicare For All” nitwits need to find someone who is actually on Medicare and ask to see that person’s Medicare statement. Hospitals actually charge Medicare a lesser amount for hospital services than it does private insurance. Medicare pays no more than 80% of the charge, very often being even less than 50% of the charge. In a big black headlined column on a Medicare stateent it says “You may be required to pay this balance.” No one talks about that.
News flash to the Socialists who think Medicare for All would be a great deal; if there is no longer private health insurance to pick up the tab for Medicare recipients, hospitals will go broke and out of business and even hospitals supported by charitable organizations will have waiting lines that, for some, will be a death sentence. Doctors will quit taking insurance and those practices will be limited to those who have cash up front. It is just that simple.
@Deplorable Me, #118:
Go ahead. Maybe we should take a close look at defense spending. It’s either that, or Social Security and Medicare, because spending for everything else combined is pretty much just a cupfull against what’s in the five-gallon bucket.
You can only deal with the problem effectively through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases. All other “solutions” are just the imaginary stuff pitched to gain votes during political campaigns. This is an unpleasant fact, but a fact nonetheless.
@Randy:
I will agree with you. No one, and I do mean no one, ever addressed the border issues that we Texans have been screaming about for decades. When it was just a border state issue, no one in D.C. gave a damn but now that illegal immigration has affected all of the lower 48, OMG, the Dems shout how it is a “manufactured” crisis until faced with the truth and now it’s humanitarian. Having known FIVE people murdered by an illegal, it is humanitarian, but on our side of the border, not the Mexican side.
@Greg:
Well, THAT’S wrong. First, defense spending of all you list is the ONLY thing the federal government is supposed to be funding. Second, WHY are we spending money on Social Security? That is supposed to be self sustaining. OH! That’s right… DEMOCRATS decided to give it away to EVERYONE. Medicare, too, has been decimated by abuse and, of course, Obama stealing $500 billion out of it to make Obamacare look better.
It seems that without a super majority of Republicans in the Senate, there is no chance of ever passing a budget that does not add a trillion to the debt at a whack. Either that or face another shut-down. It does not seem that bipartisanship can EVER return because Democrats demand everything totally on THEIR terms.
Do you have a solution for how the government would pay for the health care most of your candidates are proposing? Our current budget is about $4.5 trillion a year and the plans come to about $4 trillion a year. How do you propose to almost DOUBLE the budget, and that is JUST for health care, not all the rest of the pipe dream promised. Taxing the “wealthy” of everything they have would not even cover it. Raising taxes to the levels your politicians propose would drag the economy back into the doldrums it was in under Obama. Explain how you think spending over twice as much money as we currently do could possibly work?
Well, I suppose Gabbarb is out. She criticized Kamala. Kamala is a “woman of color” and criticizing a “woman of color” is, according to Democrats, RACIST.
Gabbard is a racist. Awwww…. sorry.
The worst possible personal outcome for the vast majority of Donald Trump’s loyal followers would be for the republican right to finally be allowed to do everything they wish. You’d very quickly discover where you really stand within the amoral dollars-are-power-and-money-is-God hierarchy of predatory capitalism.
@Greg: That might be absolutely true, but as long as Democrats obstruct anything and everything Republicans try to do, we won’t know. However, we know what Democrats would do with absolute power. We have 10 trillion bits of evidence.
@Deplorable Me: They haven’t gotten to the race card yet (it’s a comin’), but in the meantime she is a Russian puppet. Here are some examples of what has been hurled at her by the lefties on the internet.
Welcome to the party Rich Wheeler! How does it feel to have your candidate slandered and accused of this “Russian puppet” bullshit? Where’s their evidence? Think we should start another $30 million plus investigation, perhaps this time with a bunch of Harris donors doing the investigating?
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/panicking-leftists-claim-gabbards-used-russians-destroyed-kamala-debate/
It looks like the seeds were planted before the debates.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/russia-s-propaganda-machine-discovers-2020-democratic-candidate-tulsi-gabbard-n964261
@another vet:
EVIDENCE?!? What’s that?
@Greg: who cares about insulting a war veteran he just waived all student debt for all veterans. Get a clue.