Late Show host Stephen Colbert badgered Fox News anchor Chris Wallace for declaring former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony “a disaster” when the latter appeared on his show Wednesday night.
Mueller testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee earlier in the day about his two-year-long investigation that determined no one from the Trump campaign knowingly conspired with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.
During Mueller’s first testimony, Wallace said, “I think this has been a disaster for the Democrats, and I think it has been a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller.” The president later tweeted the quote from Wallace, which drew the ire of Colbert.
“This has been a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller.” Chris Wallace @FoxNews
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2019
“At 10:11, this morning [Trump] tweeted this statement that you had made,” Colbert began. “Now, you said that at 10:07 this morning, an hour and a half into a six-hour series of hearings. So is Fox News’ motto, ‘We report and decide before the thing’s over?’”
“There was a break in the hearing, and we were asked for our reaction,” Wallace answered. “And let me simply say nothing in your monologue disproved that description.”
“In what way was it a disaster? I don’t understand,” Colbert followed up. “It seemed like a well-organized and choreographed recitation of the moral, ethical, and criminal failings of the president of the United States.”
The host continued to push his belief that Mueller’s performance does not take away from the report itself. Meanwhile, Wallace argued that the special counsel’s testimony did not add to the report.
“The whole reason that the Democrats … wanted to have this hearing is, they kept saying, the quote was, ‘People aren’t going to read the book, they’ll watch the movie,’” Wallace said. “The movie was a snore.”
He went on to say that Mueller’s testimony raised questions about his overall involvement the investigation.
