Several MSNBC pundits said that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Wednesday testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee did not go as Democrats had hoped.
Mueller was testifying regarding his two-year long investigation concluding that the president’s campaign did not conspire with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The second half of the 448-page report detailed multiple instances in which the president engaged in behavior that could be considered obstruction of justice.
While the former special counsel did not make a determination on obstruction, citing a long-standing Department of Justice guideline that says a sitting president cannot be indicted, Democrats on the committee hoped that Mueller’s testimony would make the case that Trump would have been indicted had he not been president.
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd argued that the Democrats “got what they wanted” in regards to substance, but added that, “on optics, this was a disaster.”
[Related: Mueller unfamiliar with key parts of own report]
WATCH: Did Democrats get a dramatic moment from Robert Mueller’s testimony this morning? #MuellerHearings
“On substance, Democrats got what they wanted,” says @chucktodd
“On optics, this was a disaster.” pic.twitter.com/57GzwADE4f— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 24, 2019
Similarly, MSNBC national security analyst Jeremy Bash said, “With all reverence for Bob Mueller and his lifetime of career service — and I think the attacks on him were ridiculous and silly — I have to say that far from breathing life into the report, he kind of sucked the life out of the report. I thought he was boring. I thought in some cases he was sort of evasive. He didn’t want to explain or expand on his rationale. He seemed lost at times.”
Following Bash’s remarks, MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace offered a similar evaluation of Mueller’s testimony. She was more critical of the people who work for the former special counsel.
“Well, as a former staffer, let me lay the blame squarely at the feet of the staffers. If this — unless this was the first time anyone sitting behind Robert Mueller has ever seen him act like this, they shoulder all that blame right now,” Wallace stated. “But having been a staffer, it is on you to not set your principle up for failure. And these people worked alongside him. They worked under him. They briefed him. They were acutely aware of whatever his capabilities and deficiencies were.”
Further, MSNBC anchor Ari Melber was in the room for Mueller’s testimony, and his analysis was similar to Todd, Bash, and Wallace.
“Bob Mueller’s testimony today was not assertive, let alone aggressive,” he said. “Bob Mueller’s grasp and presentation of the underlying facts, which he’s cleared to discuss because they’re in the report, was not very detailed. It didn’t build in the way that some had hoped.”
“Bob Mueller’s testimony today was not assertive, let alone aggressive. Bob Mueller’s grasp and presentation of the underlying facts … was not very detailed. It didn’t build in the way some had hoped.” – @AriMelber pic.twitter.com/ygmv2PURyR
— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) July 24, 2019
