Special counsel Robert Mueller’s appearance before Congress Wednesday has been a disappointment and a “disaster,” according to members of the press, politicos, and the anti-Trump #Resistance.
For some in the #Resistance, the Mueller hearings are a “disaster” because they have provided no silver bullet. It appears some of them hoped his testimony would reveal something damning enough to bring down the Trump presidency. This obviously was never going to happen, but you try telling that to the same people who believe sincerely that Trump conspired directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election with memes.
“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,” election truther and #Resistance elder Laurence Tribe said of the first hearing.
Author Dave Cullen added elsewhere, “Mueller is actually king [sic] of an obnoxious witness. Wouldn’t even read a line from his own report? WTF. Disaster.”
Then there are the political commentators, like former Obama administration capo David Axelrod, who claimed the first half of Mueller’s testimony was uncomfortable to watch.
“This is very, very painful,” Axelrod said, adding “Not a commentary on the content. The report is damning. That was reenforced [sic] today. He has been an exemplary public servant, as people are both sides attested, but he clearly was struggling today and that was painful.”
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace said elsewhere that Mueller’s uninspiring performance is the fault of his aides.
“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,” she said. “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.”
FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver had an even more unflattering read on the situation, writing in response to Tribe that, “Mueller signaled very explicitly ahead of time that he didn’t want to testify and that if he did, he’d just stick quite narrowly to the report. So if Dems think the hearing went poorly, they should be blaming leadership and others who called for the hearing, not Mueller.”
Silver added, “Also to folks who are like ‘WHY IS THE MEDIA FOCUSING ON OPTICS INSTEAD OF SUBSTANCE?!?!?’ the whole reason the Democrats held this hearing was because they thought it would make for good optics; Mueller made clear ahead of time that the substance was all in the report itself.”
Lastly, there are the journalists, many of whom believe Mueller’s testimony was dull, unremarkable, confusing, and “bad optics” for the Democrats. In other words, the exact opposite of how their newsrooms promoted the supposedly “high-stakes” hearings.
“On substance, Democrats got what they wanted: that Mueller didn’t charge Pres. Trump because of the OLC guidance, that he could be indicted after he leaves office, among other things,” explained NBC News’ Chuck Todd. “But on optics, this was a disaster,” for House Democrats he added, explaining that they failed to get a “dramatic moment that would capture the imagination.”
His colleague, MSNBC’s Ari Melber, conceded as well that at least the first Mueller hearing “did not land” the way Democrats clearly hoped that it would.
ABC News’ Dan Abrams said similarly that the first hearing was a “bit of a bust” for the opposition party.
However, as I wrote earlier today, none of what we saw Wednesday should have come as a surprise to anyone, and certainly not a disappointing one. The Justice Department instructed Mueller specifically to limit his testimony to just the findings of his 400-plus-page report. Further, as Silver noted, Mueller said repeatedly that he did not want to testify and that if he did, he would speak only of what is in the publicly available report. We all knew well in advance of Wednesday’s hearings that Mueller would discuss only what the public already knew.
Those who are disappointed that his testimony has yielded nothing new, damning, or of great significance have only themselves to blame. Wishful thinking will let you down every time.
