What Went Down In Robert Mueller’s Testimony

Anyone else surprised that there hasn’t been more talk about impeachment today? Specifically, Democrats trying to get Mueller to say that Trump may have committed impeachable offenses? He didn’t engage when he was asked — finally — by a Republican on the committee.

Given that we knew Mueller wasn’t going to be very forthcoming, this has gone reasonably well for Democrats. But it would have been more effective if they had gotten Mueller to read from the report himself — that was a loss for them. I don’t think Republicans haven’t been particularly effective, meanwhile, at undermining Mueller’s credibility. So maybe the big winner here is really Mueller. Even though he came across as shaky and halting at times, he’s coming out of this hearing with his reputation intact.

My takeaway is that this has largely been a waste of everyone’s time in part because Mueller isn’t going to go beyond what his report says. Maybe he loosens up or gets more expansive when speaking to the House Intelligence Committee about Russian interference.