Democrats demanded Special Counsel Robert Mueller testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee and today they got their wish. It was a complete disaster and Democrats outside of the hearing room are openly admitting it.
This is very, very painful.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 24, 2019
Dems are basically reading Mueller quotes from his report and asking, “is that correct”? You have had this report for five months! You already knew it was correct! You already knew he was a criminal. And you have done NOTHING! I’m soooooo frustrated and disappointed.
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) July 24, 2019
Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster. Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it. The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 24, 2019
The media is also piling on, even questioning Mueller's health.
We are only 30 mins into this thing but I don't think that this is going the way Democrats were hoping it would..
— amy walter (@amyewalter) July 24, 2019
.@noahweiland of NYT: "I haven’t seen a performance quite like this from Mueller. In 12 years as F.B.I. director, he gave plenty of clipped responses. But more often than not he was more rhetorically agile than anyone on the committees that were questioning him....
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) July 24, 2019
NYT colleagues reax to Mueller:@adamgoldmanNYT:
— Trip Gabriel (@tripgabriel) July 24, 2019
So far, this hearing is not revealing new ground...By tomorrow it could be forgotten in this frenetic news cycle.@maggieNYT:
Adam, I think you’re being generous with “by tomorrow.”
Bob Mueller is struggling. It strikes me as a health issue. We need only look at footage of his earlier congressional appearances to see the dramatic difference in his demeanor and communicative abilities.
— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 24, 2019
Mueller stumbles badly on whether “collusion” is a synonym for “conspiracy” in Russian election interference. He says no, only to have his report quoted back to him saying the words are synonymous. He then says he’ll go with what the report says.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) July 24, 2019
Fox News’ @BretBaier on Mueller hearing: “Halting and slow and painful.” pic.twitter.com/4zKIyxhSVt
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 24, 2019
We still have three more hours of testimony to go.