Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07252019 20240714

Coming up, your calls and reaction on Robert Muellers testimony before the house judiciary and house Intelligence Committees yesterday. Washington journal is next. Did you actually totally exonerate the president . No. Your report states a did not exonerate the president. It does. Your investigation actually found multiple asked by the president capable of exerting undue influence over Law Enforcement investigations, including the obstruction and russian investigations. Correct. Can you give me an example other than donald trump where an investigated person was not exonerated because innocence was not conclusively determined . I cannot. I will tell you why, it doesnt exist. Host good morning. We will begin today with your reaction to Robert Muellers testimony yesterday. The former special counsel sitting and fielding questions for nearly seven hours with lawmakers questioning, what stood out to you . Emocrats, 202 7488000 republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Join us on cspanwj or you can post your comments on facebook, facebook. Com cspan. Reaction fromith lawmakers after the conclusion of those hearings yesterday. Guest specifically those that serve on the judiciary and Intelligence Committee that questioned rob Robert Mueller. Some of those members all tweeted about their reactions from yesterdays event. Mary scanlon, democrat of pennsylvania, serving as the vice chair, on her tweet saying that director mueller confirmed it today, trump knew about the sweeping and systematic attacks on election, trump knew about wikileaks dumps of email stolen by russia and lied to investigators about it. From this 14 additional criminal cases and 11 criminal referrals to other Law Enforcement officers. The evidence is massive. Why not charge President Trump . Mueller wasnt allowed to. Eric swalwell saying this if you are so innocent, why not lift the doj ban on indicting a sitting president . If you didnt do anything wrong, you shouldnt have anything to worry about, right . Republicans giving comments, the republicans in the texan russiaee agreeing that interfered with the elections and will only continue to do so as director mueller said, it wasnt a single attempt, they are doing it as we sit here and we must Work Together to secure our future elections from adversaries. Andy biggs adding this when he came to the conclusion that the president wasnt the focus of the charge, it may have been known to the team and should have been quickly released to americans much earlier and when it comes to the hiring of the team, Kelly Armstrong of north dakota added its not enough or him to be able to about for his team. Federal recusal law exists for a reason, the interest of justice demands that no perceived bias exists. I cannot imagine a judge i have appeared in front of that would be comfortable with these circumstances. Brandon and, florida, democratic collar. Barney, how much of the hearings did you get to watch . About half of it. All i got to say is, the Republican Party need to be ashamed of they selves. I remember two years ago when Mitch Mcconnell took all the republicans over there to meet with Vladimir Putin. You recall that . Host what about the hearings . You said a few things about the hearings. What are they . This is why the Republican Party is in this mess. This is ridiculous. The mans guilty, Everybody Knows it. He didnt even try to stop the influence on the election this year. What does that tell us . Connecticut, republican line, cindy, what stood out to you from the hearing yesterday . Out to me wastood that Robert Mueller had no awareness of the meeting before and after the trump tower meeting. He kind of perjured himself a couple of times yesterday. Is thatets me the most the American People were robbed of things getting done because of this. Im talking about republicans, too. Was hated by a lot of republicans, too. He wasnt part of the crowd. But when i think of the foreign , leaders thought he was going to be thrown out. Thatu know, a lot of stuff couldve gotten done it was good for america didnt get done. If donald trump is a criminal, than see some proof other him being frustrated with being falsely accused and saying things out of frustration that he shouldnt have done. He is not a politician, i will give you that, but the man is trying to do whats right for the country and i think we are to move on. Thanks a lot. Ok, cindy there, republican from connecticut. Lets listen to judiciary chair jerry nadler. This is how he began the questioning yesterday with Robert Mueller. [video clip] the president repeatedly claimed that your report found that there was no obstruction and it completely and totally exonerated him. That is not which a report said, is it . Correct, thats not what the report said. Reading from page two of volume two of your report on the we had you wrote if confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice,. E would so state based on the applicable standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Does that say there was no obstruction . No. In fact you are unable to include that the president didnt commit of structured of justice, correct . At the outset we determined the when it came to president s culpability, we forward only after taking into account the olc opinion indicated that a president , a sitting president , cannot be indicted. Conclude reported not that he did not commit obstruction of justice, correct . That is correct. What about total exoneration . Did you actually totally exonerated president . No. In fact your report especially states that it does not exonerate the president. It does. You are investigation found multiple asked by the president capable of exerting undue influence over Law Enforcement investigations, including the russian interference and obstruction investigations. Is that correct . Correct. Director, can you explain and find terms what the finding means so that the American People can understand it . The finding indicates that not thent was himident was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed. It was later on when texas republican John Radcliffe who served under the george w. Bush administration followed up on that word, exonerate. [video clip] he said that they follow Justice Department policies and principles. Which doj policy in principle puts force the Legal Standard that at investigated person is not exonerated if their innocence from criminal conduct is not conclusively determined . Can you repeat the last part of that question . Which policy or principal sets forth a Legal Standard that and investigated is and is not exonerated if their innocence from criminal conduct is not conclusively determined . Where does that language come from . Where is the doj policy that says that . Me make it easier go ahead. Can you give me an example other than donald trump or the Justice Department determined and investigated person was not exonerated and their innocence not conclusively determined . A uniquet, but this is situation. Time is short, lets leave it as you cant. I will tell you why, it doesnt exist. The special counsels job, nowhere does it say you were to conclusively determine his innocence or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him. Its not in your appointment order, its not in the special counsel regulations, its not in the olc regulations, the manual, or principal of federal prosecution. Nowhere do those words appear together because respectfully, respectfully, director, it was not the job of the special counsel conclusively determine his in it innocence or exonerate him because the bedrock principle of our Justice System is a presumption of innocence. It exists for everyone, everyone is entitled to it, including sitting president s. Calls. Ack to your your reaction to the Robert Mueller testimony yesterday . With donald trump for a long time, but yesterday was really embarrassing for the republicans. I mean im pulling for trump, but it was embarrassing. They did,wo things either they over talk to him, asked them questions in new he couldnt answer, it was really embarrassing and when the , ifcrats really got into it you got past mueller shuffling his words and all the facts, they proved that he obstructed justice and he did tamper with witnesses. The trump was lying and saying that he was not dealing with russia and that he was in the process of setting up a hotel in moscow with the russians. All of the people around him that was indicted. , thats theworse is smaller end of was going to happen. They were so busy trying to over talk everything without listening, he would say thats being investigated by someone else. Know thereink they are a lot of other investigations going on into more of these serious crimes of Money Laundering and International Tax evasion and a lot of other serious things. Donald trump better get reelected because if he doesnt, hes going to get indicted. The monarchy launder Money Laundering, i think they might get him on racketeering or rico, when has didnt doing some serious stuff that was going on for decades. The other day it showed how he was doing monitoring laundering through his family business, Money Laundering for his father so that he could do a lot of tax evasion and on top of that, dealing with the russians, the Money Laundering they were doing buying a property and stuff. This guy is into some serious stuff thats going on. When you get through the fluff that was going on and look at what the republicans had, they had no fax to go on. All they did was over talk the man. Lets hear from mickey in milwaukee. Democratic caller, good morning. Taking myank you for call. Yesterday was a sad day for the United States. A man who gave up his life to , coming up tontry be the special counsel for the United States, so embarrassed yesterday. Theseunez, all of , theyd, line numbers asked about these lawyers that donated to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Donald trump donated to that campaign, the senatorial campaign. Donald trump does not deserve to be president of the United States. He has sullied the office. He is a corrupt man. Mother did not want to be the one to take the president done down. Thats congresss job. Donald trump should be impeached and removed from office. Yesterday was a sad day. Host you call for impeachment. We will show you in a bit but nancy pelosi had to say after the mother hearings concluded yesterday and also the next steps. Jerry nadler talks about that, chair of the Judiciary Committee. More on the has behindthescenes. Times new york characterized the hearing as mr. Mueller struggling to respond to the onslaught of questions. Again and again he asked members to repeat themselves and really had to be reminded to speak into his microphone. Yes,ve oneword answers, no, true, correct, a total of 176 times over the span of both hearings. If you watch them carefully, when you saw him testify, you suck to bring gentleman behind him. A profile of those to bring gentleman, they say the james quarrel, the man with the bright white mustache was sitting beside him and that one point both of the committees wanted to question him, but this didnt end up occurring. Hes a partner at the same law firm that mueller left in order to take the job as special counsel and was once assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special prosecution force. The other gentleman sitting beside him is andrew goldstein, a public corruption prosecutor and an attorney from the Southern District of new york and was one of 17 attorneys on muellers special counsel team. Aaron sen. Lee , who mr. Mueller had set alongside him during the course of questioning at the protest the republicans, there is a profile of him in the New York Times this morning and it says that in part he left his 1. 4 Million Dollar per year job as one of the first hires in the russia investigation and two of the other prosecutors on his at the samee firm time as deputy special counsel misters happily was less a prosecutor than a steward of kinds of the investigation who had day to day oversight of the investigations conducted by the office according to a spokesman for mr. Mueller on the calendars of one of the teams prosecutors misters appellees initials appeared 111 times next to many Team Leader Meeting suggesting that he may have led them. Jay, omaha, arkansas, what did you make of those hearings yesterday . How much did you watch . I watched all of it iller i watched all of it, was totally ashamed of my republican friends. Im a 60yearold white man, im a cowboy. Im ashamed of my republican friends for putting party before country. I feel that trump did collude with the russians and the only reason they cant prove it is because he wont testify or keeps blocking all the subpoenas. Totally ashamed. And im ashamed of what we are doing at our border to these babies. Host can i ask you about colluding with the russians . What evidence do you point to that shows or did you hear yesterday in lawmaker questioning that you believe proves that he colluded with russians . During the campaign he had over 200 meetings with the russians. Now tell me, what were they discussing . And then after he becomes president he meets with Vladimir Putin and they go into their office all by themselves . What did they discuss . We will never find out. If he was truthful, he would stand up. Im ashamed of my republican friends putting party before country. What do you think democrats should do next question mark caller i think that they should start an impeachment worry and they should call mcgahn to testify and he should not be able to not testify. Theres a lot of the others that they have subpoenaed that need to come before congress. Speaker pelosi was asked about impeachment, the next steps, and jerry nadler talk about it as well. Take a listen. [video clip] what you saw today, did it change whether or not you thought the house of representatives should launch impeachment proceedings . Has alwayscision been that the decision we make in that regard would have to be as possible strong a hand and we have outstanding matters in the courts. Its about the congress, the constitution and the courts and we are fighting the president on in the courts. [indiscernible] could i just follow up . Some of your members told us over the course of today that they were expecting imminent action of some kind from house leadership. And dont know why they thought that. They came to me and said that and i said i dont know. Lawsuit, we have a number of losses. You want to speak to that, jerry . The very next step, tomorrow or friday, is to go to court ask her, to enforce, to ask for the grand jury material and enforce the subpoena against mr. Mcgahn. Thats particularly important because the excuses, i wont call them reasons, but the excuses the white house gives for mcgahn not testifying are as all thecuses other end of the first that, we will break the logjam. Host pedro has more on the investigations. This when dealing with kellyanne conway, fox news sangha have postponed a vote on whether to postpone whether or not to hold her in contempt of congress as talks continue with the Trump Administration, im postponing the work as we try to reach an accommodation, the vote was supposed to take place today and recommend that the house find conway be in contempt of refusal tor her comply with the subpoena issued by the committee, stemming from her failure to appear july 15 to testify after a government watchdog found that she had to , violated the hatch act despite committee subpoena. Host david, millersville. Caller good morning. I was impressed by radcliffe from texas and jordan from ohio. Radcliffe got to the crux of this the, both of them did, but one of them is first time in my life i heard about someone investigating to find a crime, they didnt find a crime and they charged obstruction or they heard obstruction. Usually you have a crime and the new investigate, you indict. They asked him numerous times, did anyone impede on your investigation . No. Did you have everything you needed . Yes. Did you fired question mark no. And then radcliffe went all the way down and said it was jordan, actually, who said that the whole thing started with the talking to someone who talked to a diplomat who talked to the fbi and said who is the original person . They said we cant talk about it. Well they lie to you again. How come you didnt indict them . Well, we didnt. You indict everyone else. While im not going to talk more about that. What was this whole thing about . The whole winner here is russia. They have so so much discord, they almost got a sitting president indicted if he could have been indicted. I wish that one of the senators would have looked into the camera and said listen up, america, dont believe everything you see on facebook. On believe everything you see on twitter. There are foreign powers here trying to influence our election through social media that is open sourced. I found the whole thing embarrassing. I wish they would go back and costs,out lowering drug getting an infrastructure bill passed. Pass a budget for crying out loud. What is this all about . They caught up tied up the entire media, all of their assets, all of their Communication Assets to the American People, they dont talk about anything except for drama. Its quite embarrassing for the country after its all said and done. David, Stephen Denis tweeting at this, fbi director chris wray and Robert Mueller warned this week that russia is continuing to interfere and plans to do so again in 2020 and that more action is needed to deter them. David, let me ask you, when you will you start focusing more if you are not already on the 2020 election . If you start seeing things on your social media website or listening to the news, will you be concerned or skeptical of the information that you are getting . Caller we must be more vigilant because we should understand whats at play here and it has been. Obama was the first to show in 2008 in positive ways how social media can impact the minds of voters. He did it before and i think it was all poisoned. The principle is out there. All you have to do is give some information and now you can reach so many people. Its a dream come true for counterintelligence or misinformation. Host ok. Thats david from millersville. Independent caller. Here is what the president had to say after nearly seven hours of testimony by Robert Mueller, he spoke to reporters after he left the white house for a fundraiser in West Virginia yesterday. [video clip] i have been going through this for three years, for three years. Its all nonsense. This was a very big day for our country. This was a very big day for the Republican Party and you can say it was a great day for me, but i dont even like to say that its great. I will tell you what, i very those incredible warriors that you saw today on television. Republicans that defended and defended something very powerful, very important. They were really defending our country, more than anything else they were defending our country. But they were warriors and they have been warriors for a long time. And everybody knew it was a hoax, especially the democrats. I wish i could be a fly on the wall in those rooms where the democrats would go in and talk in the before and after meetings and they would be laughing and they would be smiling and they would say can you believe we are getting away with this . But in the end they didnt get away with it. Jeffrey, beltsville, maryland, your takeaway question like your take away from the hearings yesterday . Caller how you doing . My take away was on these local channels, 9, 7, and four. What i see about this president here is that all we knew was corruption and all of these people coming out now and they excepts theow trump russian help to interfere with the 2016 election. I have always said it was true and i have seen it for real it was true and by trying to say this,rump is not doing democrats, they put a bill on the floor to try to help this country, but they got vetoed by Mitch Mcconnell or this president. Democrats not doing the work . They are doing the work. Every time democrats try to get a subpoena to get someone to talk about the epa, about the housing and the education and everything else, its a mess to try to get things done. Americans need to see whats going on. Off. To turn i got sick of this mans lies every day. He lies every day and is not fair to the americans, we got to sit down and listen to this. But he is the president. I have to say, wake up, america, wake up, Trump Supporters. This man is playing you. Thats why he has a rally. You notice after all of these things he has a rally because he trying to brainwash the people listening to him, like jim jones did. This president is a great liar, hes good at that. Greta, you do a good job and i have had a chance to talk to you today. You do a good job, god bless you. Host thank you. Keith, republican line, good morning. Would say that mueller embarrassed himself, he looked bumbling, clueless, out of touch, aging. Hes strictly a bigger head figurehead. The villains are the democratic hacks that used alert work graham inn, lindsey the senate needs to fight fire with fire. I want to see subpoenas for the masterminds on the investigation. Never heardto have of fusion gps and a being at a ,oss for the word collusion alternative conspiracy question mark totally saying Christopher Steele is not in my purview . In terms of the congresspeople the woman from arizona, her name escapes me. A young congressman from pennsylvania, it was just an embarrassment. This yesterday was the equivalent of the scene in the wizard of oz, where toto pulls the court and reveals the wizard mark mueller to be a fraudster and a hoax to. This is just ridiculous. We have got a lot of rain washed zombies out there that need to get the truth pumped into them. Lindsey graham, i know youre holding your fire because of the with durham, but we need to start matching fire with fire, subpoenas galore in the house. The senate needs to get the subpoenas going, too. Host allen, independent, cedar hill. Good morning. Caller how you doing, greta . Host how much of the hearings did you watch . Caller i watched both of them. Opened think republicans butt onge can of whup the mother report. Mueller report. Jordan should be very proud. And theres one more about the exoneration thing. I havent seen the show yet, but it was mr. Representative turner , exoneration laid out real clear. Preaching that he wasnt exonerated, he was exonerated it was a great day for President Trump yesterday. Marcia, good morning. What did you think of yesterdays hearing . After i feel that watching the mueller hearings, and payetter work attention to our next election to make sure that trump is not reelected. We have many problems in our country to work on. We need a candidate for president who will unite us, not divide us as a country. And thank you so much, greta, for being on cspan. Ok, all right. Pager has more on reaction from yesterdays hearings. An epic this service was done to the American People at the launch of the Mueller Investigation, the country has been burdened by a prolonged distraction for three years and the payoff is inconclusive and now a discredited report that the author cannot undergird whatsoever with his own words. Now there are more questions to answer. Who oversaw the investigators . By all appearances yesterday, muellers own colleagues could easily have run roughshod over him or manipulated him adequately to the satisfaction of their whims. If you go to the chronicle this morning, the try damming testimony is the title. Mueller confirmed what top intelligence officials have warned. They do it while they sit here, much more needs to be done to protect against this intrusion, all directly contradicting some of the president s favorite falsehoods about the investigation and its subjects. Jackie spears of san mateo asked about one of the frequent claims of attacks on the election and he replied that it was absolutely not a hope a hoax. After questioning from adam schiff, he added that the probe was not a witch hunt. The guardian, in the United Kingdom had this, saying that his report made it clear, the scale of the russian attack on u. S. Democracy and how the trump 20 26 campaign embraced foreign adversary help and covered things up. A warning toit as not let it happen again. But that he fears its the new normal when being asked if future campaigns could accept this kind of interference. Back to our calls, delia, miami, good morning, what did you think . Caller i thought it was obvious, mueller was just the name, but he had nothing to do with the report. He was run completely by the democrats that were hired. What is coming next is the horowitz report and the other report to being due under bar. What is going to come out is what we knew all along, that this was a setup from the beginning. They clear hillary. They wanted to put down trump. Trump won. They were trying to get him out of office. All of this, what we have gone through is a setup. All of those people who are calling putting down trump, whats going to come out is the deep state. The people behind it. All the way to obama that were in cahoots in order to get them out. All right, after three hours in 40 minutes before the House Judiciary Committee, taking questions from 41 lawmakers there was a half hour break for the former special counsel and then he sat before the house Intelligence Committee. And then the committees led by adam schiff, democrat of california. Heres how he opened up the hearing. [video clip] collect your report tells another story as well. The story of the 2016 election is also a story about this loyalty to country, about greed, and about lies. Your investigation determined that the Trump Campaign, including donald trump himself, new that a foreign power was intervening in our election and welcomed it. It was built into their strategy and they used it. This loyalty to country this loyalty todis nottry, a campaign that did and foreign assistance invited, encouraged, made full use of it. That this loyalty may not have. N criminal constrained by uncooperative witnesses, destructed documents, encrypted communications, your team was not able to establish each of the elements of the crime of criminal crime of conspiracy be on a reasonable doubt. Not approval crime in any event. But i think maybe something worse . Crime is the violation of the law but by congress. This violates the oath of citizenship, our devotion to a core principle on which our nation was founded in that we, the people and not some foreign power that wishes us ill, we decide who governs us. This is also a story about money about greed, corruption, the leadership of a campaign willing to compromise the nations interest not only to win, but to make money at this aim time. About a Campaign Chairman indebted to prorussian interest to try to use his position to make his death and millions. About a National Security advisor using his position to make money from still other foreign interests and a candidate trying to make more money than all of them but together. A real estate project that to him was worth a fortune. Hundreds of billions of dollars and the realization of a lifelong ambition, a trump tower in the heart of moscow. His wholee who viewed campaign as the greatest infomercial in history. We will be getting your reaction to the Robert Mueller testimony, but this morning were going to dana in california, independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning, thank you for your hard work and the hard work at the staff of the staff. I saw most of this broadcast through New York Times live chat and on the radio. Ben cline really, it tension. I thought he was so disrespectful. I could not believe it. Robert mueller has had Exemplary Service of dedication to our country in every way. Some of the lawmakers were just working so hard to undermine his credibility. I dont believe that the American People are stupid at all. I have seen comments on blogs, some skeptical people. I think at the American People know when something is fishy and i wish that lawmakers from both sides would acknowledge the shadiness of kind of all of this. Also, regarding what pedro said earlier around the narrative from the New York Times that Robert Mueller seems sort of out , they werent only commenting on that until more conservative pundits said that he seemed out of focus. I believe that is when the New York Times picked up the story because in the live chat from the reporters yesterday they werent commenting on that at all. I also wish the democrats would be honest and would say whether they are going to move forward with impeachment or not. This i dont know kind of business . I dont find a very satisfactory at all. I wish that they would make a decision or just kind of say what they are going to do. But kind of leading the leaving the American People in the lurch is not for the best. Thank you very much. Host you heard earlier from the speaker, she said that they are in the courts and fighting the president there with subpoenas to try to get more evidence. She has said that they are not going to go forward with impeachment unless they have a case to make. Right now it doesnt sound like she thinks they have a case to make. Mean, thats i fine, but i mean thats great that you are making that analysis, but we shouldnt be hearing that from you, we should be hearing that from her. Host i think of paraphrasing her. That is what she has said in imerous news conferences think that what we need is action and if impeachment isnt the way to go, unequivocally she with say what it is democrats in favor of impeachment at this time. Pedro . This analysis, clear, making the case for instruction obstruction, she was perhaps the most just the facts. It was cheap and unimaginative, unpredictable correctable. Host going back to calls, matt, it up you. Caller thank you philadelphia. Caller thank you for taking my call. My the us frustration as a democrat was the way that mueller would basically say im not thinking of the ted lieu line. Basically, ted lieu walked mueller up and basically said yes, President Trump committed obstruction of justice. Would he be indicted if it not for the loc . Mueller came back later on and contradicted that statement and then later on he would contradict that. To me mueller was all over the place. Host matt, when did he contradict it again . Do you remember . Caller i dont remember exactly, but i remember first he said to ted lieu that if it were not for the olc, we would indict. Then he came back after a break and walk that bet that back. And then later on he said im not sure what time it was. It was so confusing. The question i had is if it werent for the olc opinion, would you indict President Trump or not . We never got that question answered. Thats what the whole hearing was about. To thatts listen moment, that exchange between Robert Mueller and congressman lou. [video clip] i was like to ask you again the reason you did not indict donald trump was the opinion that you cannot indict a sitting president , correct . That is correct. The fact that your orders by the president were not carried out, thats not it defense to obstruct justice. The statute itself is quite broad. It says that though you endeavor or attempt to obstruct justice, that would also constitute a crime . Quite some not going to get into that at this juncture. Ok, thank you. Based on the evidence we have heard today i believe that reasonable persons would conclude that at least three crimes of such injustice by the president the third. We are going to hear about two additional crimes, the witness tame brands of michael and paul manafort. Michael thing and paull cohen manafort. That was the exchange after three hours and 40 minutes and they took a break and the Intelligence Committee had their turn. The former special counsel began his testimony by clarifying his remarks. [video clip] i want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by mr. Lou, you didnt charge the president kaz of the olc host i talked to matt in philadelphia, right . [video clip] we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. Alicia, daleville, alabama, alicia, what stood out from yesterdays hearing . Caller good morning. What i got from the hearing yesterday, why would the democrats subject mueller, an elderly man, to such a charade just to keep their lies and accusations going so that they can impeach a president who has been doing a great job and has the numbers to prove it. The democrats should be so ashamed of themselves. Actions speak louder than words. This white house charade has turned into a circus clown. Whole world to see. Its ridiculous. The way that they have gone about doing their jobs . , oak grove, missouri, how much of the hearings did you watch . Honestlyly sleep only watched about half of the first one and portions of the second one and the reason for standas i just couldnt seeing a bunch of moralist republicans attack a man who. Pent his life for this country you know, i think the part that i saw, that should have proved that donaldtching trump and the republicans are full of beans. If bob mueller was out to get trump the way that republicans and donald trump say that he was . He had plenty of opportunities yesterday. He turned them down. I feel totally embarrassed that our country that this is happening. Saying that trump and the republicans are doing such a good job . Look at the debt ceiling going up again. That is because we got a tax and ther the Rich Companies are country couldnt afford to try just to get donald trump reelected. Trump, that donald showed the report donald trump had over 100 unexplained russian contacts. Just think that if the republicans had a bit of morals left in them, they would look to that and admitted. I think that probably democrats should reregister as republicans. Lets get donald trump out of office, that way we will primary him out. Right, mike. The Top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee began his aboutoning with asking collusion versus conspiracy. [video clip] not a specific offense or a term of art in federal criminal law. Conspiracy is. In the colloquial context, known public context, collusion and conspiracy are essentially synonymous terms, correct . No. If no, you wrote that as defined in legal dictionaries, collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as set forth in a general federal conspiracy statute. You said this at your may 29 press conference and here today, choose your words carefully, are you testifying Something Different than what your report states . What im asking is if you can give me the citation i can look at the citation and evaluate whether it is. I justjust clarify stated your report back to you and you said that collusion and conspiracy were not synonymous terms. Your answer was no. In page 180, volume one of your definedit says that as in legal dictionaries, collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as the rhyme is set forth in general conspiracy statutes. You said you chose your words carefully. Are you contradicting your report right now . Not when i read it. You change or answer then . Language,look at the am reading your report, sir. Its a yes or no answer. This is from your report. Correct. I leave it with the report. We can put to bed collusion and conspiracy. That wass host yesterdays questioning of Robert Mueller. 2020 has more on the reaction to yesterdays hearing. Here is some of the statements from the democratic candidates. Joe biden, russia undermined our democracy, we need a president who will push back against Vladimir Putin and take steps to ensure the security of our elections. Host nate, lansing, whats your take away from the hearings . Its been the same as since the beginning. The Trump Campaign without a campaign person call nfpa agent. Giving upul manafort polling data for michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin and minnesota. I guess the russians just needed some material to read . You also have barack obama going to Mitch Mcconnell and telling Mitch Mcconnell that russia was doing that. You will never have Mitch Mcconnell and donald trump or the trump Mitch Mcconnell saying toldlisten, the fbi has us, the Intelligence Committee has told us that russia is trying to interfere. Donald trump welcomed the help. America has to wake up. We cannot let the republicans wrapped themselves around the flag and try to determine who is american and who belongs here, but when it comes time for russian help, then they are oh, its ok,h, turn a blind eye. Independence, democrats, listen, you cant go to fifth avenue in shoot somebody. We have common sense. We are not going to let Donald Trumps republicans get away with it. Host diana, connecticut, republican line. Yes, good morning, i have to turn you off i think. Ok. Proud of thery republicans. I am a republican and i know that the people of their criticize republicans well im sorry because i criticize the democrats a lot. I really dont like them and i feel bad for the democrats always said to people that it doesnt matter whether something is true or false. All the democrats have to do is make a statement and these people believe anything that is said. Yesterday. Proven it was proven that he did not collude and it was proven right clearly. The president russia attempted to infiltrate our election. That was a fact. We said that all along. They attempted to do this with facebook and all this other stuff. Proof that trump went and aided them and help them to do this was not true. Through the stations this morning. Every single mainstream station that hates trump had negative reports about the investigation, that it was a failure. Even the latenight comedians made fun of it. That it did not prove anything. I looked ats, as the democrats, they listen, they here, they hear everything that is said and the democrats on the committee knew this. I was very proud of the democrats for fixating on the steele dossier. Was the dossier pfizer warrant was obtained illegally. Not been done, there would not have been any, anything else. In other words the whole thing was based on false information obama. S by clinton and my question is, my comment also is that these people that focus about russia coming in, russia coming in, im more concerned about the Illegal Immigrants being allowed to vote. Me, thats worse on our country than anything. Host long will, louisiana, independent line, good morning. Ville, louisiana, independent line, good morning. Republicanller is a and mueller has helped the country so far doing a lot of things. Us on 9 11. Ng he was helping us during the raid that Osama Bin Laden was doing. Now all of a sudden the republicans think that because he has checked this man who is a , mueller isnt any good. I would take the word over i would take the word of mueller over trump anytime. Country. Rved this the man is 74 years old. They tell us he doesnt know what hes talking about . There thatgentleman do the footwork for him and the republicans dont even want them to testify to help them out. The world sees this as a weak , defending this president. Caller my comment as i watched both seconds yesterday and what i got out of it why mueller couldnt convince donald trump or wouldnt admit to what was going on with donald trump host were listening donald trump host were listening, we heard you. Caller what i was trying to say was why there wasnt any convictions because there are still cases going on with his name on them. If they get rid of Mitch Mcconnell, without the Electoral College vote, they will they will host youre getting confused, listen to the phone, talk through the phone and mute the television. Thats for you and others were calling in this morning. Patty, bismarck, north dakota, republican. See this whole i thing here is that the corrupt democrats, the ones who want socialism are just using this as get trump out two of office because he is not following their agenda, to bring the country to socialism and. Otton is him communism this socalled socialist Progressive Party is just to bring down our country and it will be right next to russia and they will be sitting and laughing, too. Hey are like a great wolf they try to make everything look like it is good for a good cause, but actually their agenda behind it is correctness corruptness. Missouri, good morning. Caller i agree with the last few colors callers. I think mueller seemed very confused. He contradicted himself. He didnt seem to know what was in support. I dont think he wrote the report, frankly. Thats what caused his confusion. I think the republicans and the democrats were like a bunch of children in a playground. Children in a playpen. I am ann people independent and i see both sides and i think that the American People want the country to get down to business. They are all making fools of themselves. I was very disappointed in the hearing about the behavior of almost everybody. The democrats are just moving toward impeachment and the republicans want to get behind this dossier. They are fighting two different battles on the same problem. I dont know what is going to happen but it is going to hurt the American People. Host carla in missouri, a selfdescribed political junkie. It is 8 00 on the east coast and we are spending todays washington journal getting your reaction to the nearly seven hours of testimony by Robert Mueller yesterday. Look at the front pages, the usa today, their headline, few answers. He says trump is not exonerated, russia is meddling as we sit here and the inquiry was not a witchhunt. From the front page of the wall street journal, mueller sticks to his report, rejects the witchhunt rebuke and from New York Times, this morning, mueller defends inquiry and says russia isnt done. Focus ofith the laser the past, rejecting the witchhunt claim and warning of new meddling. Then you also have in the national newspaper, the washington times, the way they framed it, mueller repudiates trump exoneration. New questions about his credibility. The Washington Post this morning with their headline, warnings, not surprises from mueller. Thes take a look at questioning of Robert Mueller. Zoe asked him about the trump president ial campaign and russian interference. [video clip] did your investigation find that the russian government perceived it would benefit from one of the candidates winning . Yes. Which candidate would that be . It would be trump. Correct. The Trump Campaign was not exactly reluctant to take russian help. You wrote it expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through russian efforts. Isnt that correct . That is correct. Was the investigations determination what was the determination guarding the frequency with which the Trump Campaign made contact with the russian government . I would have to refer you to the report on that. We went through and counted 126 contacts between russians or their agents and Trump Campaign officials or their associates. With that sound about right . I cant say. I understand the statistic and i believe it. Hearing,m yesterdays the Judiciary Committee later on, a republican from florida would ask Robert Mueller about the steele dossier. [video clip] Christopher Steeles reporting, his reference in your report, he reported to the fbi that Senior Russian Foreign Ministry figures along with other russians told him that evidence oftensive conspiracy between the Trump Campaign team and the kremlin. Here is my question. Did russians really tell that to Christopher Steele or did he make it up . Let me back up a second and say as i said earlier, with regard to the steele dossier that is beyond my purview. It is exactly your purview director mueller. Only one of two things is possible. Made this whole thing up and there were no russians telling him of this criminal conspiracy you didnt find or russians lied to steale. If russians were lining were lying to steale to undermine our duly elected president , that would be in your purview because you stated in your opening was that your role was to thoroughly investigate russian interference but you are not interested if russians were interfering through Christopher Steele and if he was lying, you should have charged him with lying but you say nothing about this in your report. Meanwhile director you are quite loquacious on other topics. You write 3500 words about the june 9 meeting between the twin between the Trump Campaign and the russian lawyer. You wrote on page 103 of your report that the president s legal team suggested that the meeting might have been a set up by individuals working with the firm that produced the steele reporting. I am going to ask you an easy question. On the week of june 9, who did the russian lawyer meet with more frequently, the Trump Campaign or glen simpson who was functionally acting as an operative of the Democratic National committee . But i think is missing is the fact that this is under investigation elsewhere in the Justice Department and if i can finish, and consequently it is not within my purview. The department of justice and the fbi should be responsive to questions on this issue. Host the moments from yesterday, house to dish eerie committee hearing, the backandforth between lawmakers and Robert Mueller. Your calls and your reaction to what you heard coming up. Other news this morning. Guest that hearing took place with other things happening including a vote on the budget, the 26 page budget bill is expected to get a house vote today and would increase Discretionary Spending limits by nearly 324 billion dollars over two years compared to the current strict caps imposed strict caps imposed under the 2011 law and the president tweeted support for the package on tuesday but many republicans and some democrats have been grumbling about the final product and the lack of offsets upsetting conservatives. The increase in spending would be paid for and the savings would not kick in for about eight years. You can find more of that in rollcall. The federal trade commission facebook, fining saying they approved a 5 billion settlement over the companys privacy practices. It is the largest ever imposed by ftc the ftc against a tech company. The 5 billion fine against facebook represents approximately 9 of the 2018 revenue. The 20 year settlement includes provisions. Rico with therto announcement that its governor is stepping down. The miami herald reporting that the governors post will remain filled either remainder of his fouryear term by the secretary of justice under the puerto rican constitution. The secretary of state is first in line who succeeds a governor but the position has been vacant since the person who occupied it under the governor, one of the dozen participants in the private telegram chat resigned. Looking at the u. K. With its new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson saying he has been speaking to members of parliament. According to the bbc, he said his government would throw itself into brexit negotiations with energy. He said michael dove would make plans for a no deal parks at a top priority no deal brexit a top priority. Mr. Johnson said he would quote, much prefer to leave the eu with a deal and added he would work flat out to make that happen. He told members of parliament to withdraw an agreement negotiated by theresa may. Host back to our conversation with our viewers. John in new jersey, democratic caller. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. I read the Mueller Report and i could not wait to read it. Practically every page, there is not only eyebrow raising but john dropping information jawdropping information. Chew gum, be able to walk and talk at the same time. We are in trouble. Host what from yesterday stood out to you . Caller the fact that we are not focusing on russia. The russians have infiltrated us and this is serious business. Host what do you think about the role of wikileaks . You read the report. Caller that is a sticky the free pressse has to remain that, a free press but what went down with wikileaks, i need a martini to talk about that. There are a couple more things i wanted to mention. M sorry Wayne Barrett past he died before trump took office. Read these books. Get off the video games, kickback from the sports shows. You can watch your sports but when did america get to the point where we dont read . You cant take somebodys word for something when the information is in the books. Madeleine albright has a piece out, fascism, a warning. Read it. Dark money, what are we doing . Weve got to wake up or we are going to lose it. We are going to lose it and it breaks my heart. We are better than this. We are not just republicans and democrats and independents, we are americans. I am concerned about the border, too but we dont lock up babies and you dont sit there with a smug face and then do nothing about it. Host john in new jersey. Our next caller from alabama, republican. Good morning to you. Alabama . Caller hello, i did not hear you. Wast of all, the guy reading that about facebook and all that. We call that a to face a twofacebook. My call about yesterday is we all have a past. We all do. Some of us dont want our past to be told. To put all that behind us and focus on the now and the future. Yes we need to address russia. It needs to be stopped. It needs to be watched, taking care of, but i dont care what donald trump has done in the past. I dont care what he has done. You shouldnt care what i have done in the past. We all have one. America needs to go forward. Andtched yesterday everybody was saying the republicans were mean to mr. Mueller. No. There were certain people on both sides that were a little untactful,ful, so so to speak, hateful in a way. It was both sides, not just the republican side. Both sides had language that wasnt ok. The young guy that was with bob mueller, i believe with my own thoughts, the reason they wanted him to be sworn in, they wanted him to speak for mr. Mueller because i believe mr. Mueller has some kind of an issue going on because i watched him i watched his face. Waynt want to say it this but it looked like he was in la la land. He seemed puzzled about everything and i did not understand that. Either way, America Needs to go forward. Each party,tact in let donald trump do his job. He has helped us whether you believe it or not. I would like to tell a really quick story that happened to me. Host im going to leave it there so we can get more voices. Paul in florida, independent. Caller Robert Mueller did the American People a horrible, horrible disservice in the twilight of his career by not appearing alert and by not conducting an objective investigation. Was said well i cant prove 100 he is innocent so you guys figure it out. Million andng 43 an enormous quantity of attorneys and investigators and resources, that is the best he could do . He should have said there is nothing there, otherwise i would have found a way to prove it. I would have done it right. It is better for 100 guilty people to go free then to impugn the integrity of an innocent person. That is what depressed me the most. He could have made this a lesson in the way proving a case works in the way it doesnt work. The fact that there was smoke everywhere because trump had all kinds of realtor and banker connections in russia that would bankroll his real estate deals in new york city has nothing to himith a connection of allegedly getting the russians to win the election for him. I think it was a horrible copout for the democrats when they did their election autopsy to throw their hands up in the air and say the russians were so good at what they did that we lost the election. That is the serious sad part. Foxbusiness cost, reports that according to biannual reports replete release for the special counsels office, mother and his team spent 12. 3 million in direct spending between his appointment on may 17 20 17 at september 30, 2018. The office also said it incurred indirect Justice Department spending described as neither legally required for disclosure nor reported in filings by previous special counsels. The office said indirect expenses did not amount to additional taxpayer expenditures. Have been devoted to other cases such as personnel at the fbi there had been no special counsel investigation. If the final statement remains on par with previous costs, total spending for the investigation is expected to reach 34 million in both direct and indirect spending. Caller discussed russias involvement and talked to us about wikileaks. It was democrat mike quigley who asked Robert Mueller about wikileaks [video clip] wikileaks. [video clip] pompeo assessed wikileaks as Hostile Intelligence Service. Given your Law Enforcement experience and your knowledge of what wikileaks did here and what they do generally, would you assess that to be accurate or something similar . How would you assess what wikileaks does . Absolutely. They are currently under indictment. Would it be fair to describe them you would agree with director pompeo if that is what he was when he made that remark that they are a Hostile Intelligence Service . Correct. If we could put up slide six. This just came out, wikileaks, i love wikileaks, donald trump, october 2016. This wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart, youve got to read it, donald trump, october 12, 2016. This wikileaks is like a treasure trove, october donald trump, october 16, 2016. I love reading wikileaks, donald trump, 2016. Quotes disturb you . I am not certain i would say how do you react . Problematic is an understatement in terms of what givinglays, in terms of what ise or boost to and should be illegal activities. Volume one, page 59, donald trump jr. Direct had direct indications with wikileaks during the campaign. On october 3, 2016, wikileaks sent a direct message to trump junior asking you guys to disseminate trump junior responded to that quote, they had already done so. This behavior at the very least is disturbing . It is certainly subject to investigation. Ascould it be described aiding comfort to a Hostile Intelligence Service . I would not categorize it with any specific. With any specificity. About with us to talk who was sitting next to the special counsel and behind him. Guest behind him you will notice a gentleman with a mustache. He is a partner at wilmer hale, the same law firm that mother left in order to take the job as the special counsel. He was also the assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special prosecution force according to pull affect. He was also on molars investigation team. Other he was also on muellers investigation team. Was seating beat seated behind him, an attorney with its with the Southern District of new york and was one of 17 attorneys on muellers special counsel team. He was a corruption prosecutor and also a former High School Teacher and a reporter for time magazine. You heard a caller mention him a couple calls ago. He graduated from the university of virginias law school and was part of a special unit of f of fbi agents which investigated the u. S. Embassy bombings in kenya and tanzania. He was behind the capture of one of the United States top most wanted terrorists and became central to the fbi reorganization after the september 11 attacks before climbing the ranks of mr. Aides. s small circle of up of the names that came during the hearing yesterday, a malteseud professor with ties to the investigation who was frequently referenced in rightwing media reports. Jim jordan described him as the guy who started all and continued to question mueller about whether he interviewed mifsud. Mueller would not dive into any details. He reportedly had ties to highlevel kremlin officials and in april 2016 he reportedly told George Papadopoulos who served 12 days in prison for making false aim is to the fbi, the russians had thousands of emails at had quote, dirt on Hillary Clinton. Host cindy in florida, democrat. What stood out to you from yesterday . Caller thank you for taking my call. I thought mr. Mueller did an excellent job. I think that he told right up front that everything in the report was the way it should be understood and when he answered those questions calmly and matter of fact, to me he was being as astute as possible and he was not trying to get riled up because a lot of those questions would get you nervous and riled up. I think he did a great job. Host what should happen next . Caller i am hoping that the American People will take a hard ,ook at what has been uncovered the russian interference in our democracy and the fact that our it,ident had an idea about no doubt. You cant tell me that President Trump he controls everything in his world, you cant tell me he did not know about these meetings. You cant tell me that he did not know about manafort meeting with the russians. He knows everything. Hoping that the American People will take to heart that we need to get rid of this president , whether it be by impeachment, which i doubt will happen, but i think for history sake, we need to show that we did something to stop what is happening in our democracy. Approve anwont impeachment. That will go down on their backs. I dont know what has happened to the Republican Party but it i haveing very dark and family members who are republicans and i am hearing from them that they will not be voting for trump. They are not certain who they will vote for but it wont be mr. Trump. He has brought a dark page in our history and we need to figure out how to get rid of this stain he has caused. Host michael in north carolina, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to give a shout out to to bill barr because he is the only person who tried to save the legacy of bob mueller. Everything that happened to bob mueller yesterday he deserved but bill barr is the only person that actually gave bob mueller a chance not to appear before this council because he knew the conditions of bob mueller and it was a shame that they let it happen. Ones whorats are the through bob mueller under the bus. Democrats have been trying into a our republicans banana republic, stating that trump is guilty before innocent. He has to prove his innocence. That is just wrong. It is a shame that the democrats dont understand that. I am sure a lot of that will , billut in the ig report barrs investigations of the democrats, but they have done in the past to make this a corrupt government. Host ok. When you watched yesterday, which lawmakers stood out to you the most . Caller excuse me . Host which lawmakers did you think had the best questions . Caller i think there were a number. Nunes, there were a few. All i wanted to get past. Host heard it, thank you, we will move on. Paul in florida, independent. Caller good morning. I watched the whole thing yesterday and i just think full disclosure, i voted trump and will believe vote for him again. Is, i see this phony outrage by the democrats. They are so outraged by this vicious attack equivalent to pearl harbor. It cracks me up. I always find it comical when democrats talk about the constitution, the rule of law and democracy because they dont believe in any of them. They do not believe in the constitution or the rule of law. They do not believe in democracy at all. , i dont fear trump. Nadler, sanders, pelosi, the squad. Trump is to me, proamerican. He is trying to help the United States. He is trying to help the American People. We had a president before him that i saw as an antiamerican understandnd i dont why trump doesnt have a 70 Approval Rating. He is obnoxious in a lot of ways but he is proamerican. As the whole investigation . To heically came down almost obstructed justice. He almost obstructed justice, he almost did these things but he did not quite go there. He did not mean began to fire mueller anyway, he could have fired him himself. He did not need began to do it. It was in his right to fire whoever he wants. He did not say he was going to stop the investigation. He just said fire mueller because he was conflicted and i thought mueller seemed what ited to me because saw was he was very enthusiastic when he answered the democrats. He would say oh yes, yes, he would agree with them and then when the republicans would ask him something, he would be confused and act like he did not know what they were talking about. The whole thing about collusion and conspiracy being the same thing. Those are my opinions on this. Thanks for my time. Host beverly in pennsylvania, democrat. Your takeaways from yesterday. Mueller had a mr. Hard time speaking has a hard time speaking in public and that was part of his problem in the beginning but once he got his composure he did a very great job. Host he has appeared before congress, over 80 times in his career. This was not new for him. Caller i understand that. He has worked a long time. He is an older gentleman. It is still hard for anyone to go and as he went on, like i said he got his composure and i thought he did a very good job. It takes me back to high school when kids were cruel and they would point the finger and that is how i felt for him. It is like he is having a hard time, that is awful. Mr. Going to recite what mccain said, the truth shall prevail. When people point the finger and accuse, 99 of the time, the accuser is the abuser and that is where i will leave it. Host we will go to phoenix, arizona. A republican. Caller good morning. Yesterday, heler looked really incompetent and unfamiliar with the report. The democrats said they wanted us to see the movie and the movie was just reading the book on screen more or less. , whatr also was saying page were you reading for reading from and the republicans should have just said you wrote it, you tell us. They kept wasting time by asking them to refer to the page they were asking about. As far as evidence, this situation is just like anyone who would be innocent when they are accused of something. If somebody said you robbed a store and they said we dont have enough evidence for it, but yet we cant say that you didnt do it and it is like, you need to either bring charges against me or you need to say that i am innocent until proven guilty. I wish people would see that that is what this is all about as far as the portion on obstruction. Go ahead. Host i was going to say, finish your thought real quick. Shciff schiff is talking about morality because there was no breaking of the law. He had a situation where he was directed by someone who claimed to be russian with information and they had this whole thing online where he was talking to people, getting dirt supposedly on trump. He has egg on his face and he should not be talking about this situation. There are moral laws but you cant talk about that. If they bring criminal laws against trump, fine but otherwise drop it. Host pedro with more reaction from around the country. Guest playing out on the newspapers across the country. The trenton times out of new jersey pulling a quote for its headline. Did you actually totally exonerate the president . No. Taking a look at the grand forks herald, mueller sticks to script in hearing along with a picture of bob mueller. The Boston Herald discombobulated is the way they choose to play it out. The metro newspaper, stalemate is the headline they choose to use. Looking at some other papers, the miami herald this morning, the headline is the russians are not done meddling. Mothers testimony offers few revelations is how they characterize that. And then the record, no exoneration is the headline and then taking a look at some of the other papers, mueller dismisses trumps claims of probe exoneration and this is the National Post out of canada, mueller speaks but says little. Let us some of the renderings from the newspapers when it comes to media reports. The president sending out several tweets last night about media reporting on the Mueller Investigation but this morning sending out a tweet taking a look at the economy. He says this, President Trumps Approval Rating on the economy is at 52 , a four point jump according to a fox poll. Shouldnt this be 100 . Best stock market, economy and unemployment numbers ever, most people working within the u. S. Ever, low interest rates, very lowinflation, country doing great. Host we continue until 10 00 eastern time, getting your reaction to Robert Muellers testimony. Another moment from yesterday, texas republican will heard chose to spend his five minutes focusing on russias interference and the future. [video clip] in your investigation, do you think this was a single attempt by the russians to get involved in our election or did you find evidence to suggest he will do this again . It was not a single attempt. They are doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign. In maryland, independent. What did you learn . Caller thank you so much for letting me talk. Mueller had the report come out. It took him two years after the start of the investigation. He did not make a case for collusion or obstruction in this investigation began to prove a point and has been trotted out to a price of 30 million plus. We need to end this now because these lawmakers who were elected to make laws have to go back and start making those laws in the best interest of American People. There are issues that need to be resolved. By focusing on this subject and trying to run the timeout, guess what, at the end of that for years, there will be another election and they can prove whatever point they are trying to prove by casting a ballot and that may be against trump or for trump or whatever and i dont give a rats if it is trump or somebody else in 2020 but this investigation has sucked up a lot of my tax dollars, wasted time and they have not made laws in the best interest of all americans. This investigation, this nonsense has got to stop. Thank you so much for letting me talk. Host bernice who is a democrat in georgia. Your turn. Me. Er excuse the curious about republicans about how they can be brainwashed by the things going on with trump. Trump could say anything and they would believe him. It is amazing how the things that trump says applies to himself. Democrats and they automatically fall in line. The most important point i wanted to make was all of this could be a distraction by trump because the thing is that russia will do again what they did in 2016. Would notdecided we change anything because some of his states are all set for the possibility that russia will meddle in our election. They are protected. Some states are not protected. 10 states in the union are not protected with paper trail ballots. We need that. We do not trust the secretary of state of some of the states to be honest. This is just a distraction. He canas a gift, the way distract from the real issues going on. His attack to those congresswomen telling them they should go back to their own countries, all of this is a distraction. We all know what trump is about. I cant believe that the people are saying that the economy is good. How any people benefited from the tax cut . Tax cuts were promised, how many people benefited from the tax cuts . Host one thing the president was saying before Robert Mueller testify was that there was a conflict of interest because Robert Mueller had applied for the fbi director job at the beginning of his administration. Republicana florida questioned the former special counsel about his becoming the fbi director. [video clip] mr. Mueller, did you interview for the fbi director job one day before you were appointed a special counsel . My understanding, i was not applying for the job, i was asked to give my input on what it would take to do the job which triggered the interview. So you dont recall on may 16, 2017 that you interviewed with the president regarding the fbi director job . I interviewed with the president and it was about the job not about me applying for the job. So your statement here today is that you did not interview to apply for the fbi director job . That is correct. Did you tell the press the Vice President that the fbi director position was the one job you would come back for . I dont call i dont recall that. Host douglas in florida, republican. How much of the hearing did you get to watch . Caller quite a bit of it. Mueller, he is inept. He just didnt do the job. He did not go back and look at everything. We know that, that is a fact. I dont understand the democrats. These are not myths, these are facts. I keep hearing about Social Security and medicare being welfare, it is not. Host we are going to stick to the topic. Steve in florida, independent. Caller how are you doing . I just wanted to say that these whole investigations and hearings are just a needless waste of time. The democrats did not give him a chance from day one to do anything and they have not helped him, they dont stand for him. It is disrespectful to the president of the United States and disrespectful to the American People. They dont stand for him, they dont clap for him. No thing nothing. Host were you able to watch yesterdays hearing . Caller i watched part of it. It was a waste of time. It was just ridiculous. A bunch of dumb questions and nothing ever happens. Host if you are others want to go back and watch those hearings, if you go to our website, cspan. Org, you will find the judiciary hearing there as well as video of the house intelligence hearing and what you will find is when you click video, youer in the will see gold stars that appear at the bottom of the video player. That is to indicate moments of interest from those hearings. If you dont have time to watch the entire three hours and 40 minutes from the house to dishy airy and the two plus hours from the house intel, that is a way house judiciary and the two plus hours from the house intel, that is a way to watch it. Jonathan in maryland, democrat. Caller thanks for taking my call. Host good morning. Caller mueller highlighted 10 cases of obstruction of justice. He could not find enough evidence of collusion because a lot of evidence was destroyed, deleted information and so much other stuff. But also there was so much contact with the russians, overwhelming contact with the russians. I dont see how there was no collusion. The surprised because if republicans had the same situation that the democrats have, they would have nailed the democrats of the cross right now. I dont see how the democrats are not making a Strong Enough case. Host for impeachment . Caller to the American People to make them understand the gravity of the situation of having a criminal in the white house right now. Host what should democrats do . Caller they have to make their case forcefully and efficiently and nonstop. This is a panic button. All the emergency buttons should be going off right now. They are so calm and relaxed. This is an emergency. Others, listennd to what the speaker of the house , nancy pelosi and the chair of the Judiciary Committee said when they were asked about what is next. [video clip] what did you thought what are your thoughts today . Does this change if you should launch impeachment proceedings . My position has been every decision we make in that regard to would have to be done with our strongest possible hand and we still have some outstanding matters in the court. Its about the congress, the constitution and we are fighting the president on all fronts. Good i just follow up . Some of your members told us over the course of today that they were expecting imminent action of some kind. I dont know why they thought that. They came to me and i said i dont know why. The lawsuit we have a number of lawsuits. Step, eitherext tomorrow or friday is we are going into court to ask for the grand jury material and to enforce the subpoena against mr. Mcgann. That is important because the excuses that the white house gives for mcgann not testifying are the same excuses for all the other past witnesses and if we break that, we break the larger. Host pedro, what do you have . Guest cnn follows up with the story saying in a closeddoor meeting wednesday evening, one House Democrat asking for clarity on the process removing for moving forward with a small inquiry according to the attendees. Jerry nadler indicated one possibility was to have the six congressional committees investigating trump to formally draft articles of impeachment against the president. One of the sources cautioned that it was an idea he floated but not one that is currently underway. Nadler was asked about the process of beginning impeachment , indicating that impeachment proceedings could begin without a vote of the full house according to two sources. The quad the legislators known as the squad on tweets this morning talking about yesterdays events. Alexandria casio cortez saying the rule of law means everything everyone should be treated the same in the eyes of the law and that means the rich and powerful should be accountable for crimes the same as anyone else. That includes the president. He broke the law and to maintain the rule of law he must be impeached. Ayanna pressley saying my response to director mothers testimony is a neon light that says impeach trump. Key, the this is mother report did not exonerate the president and found five clear instances of the president obstructing justice. Rashida taleo, for folks who need a reminder, it is time to impeach, with or without the special counsels testimony today. Host rob in california, republican. What did you think of the hearing . Caller good morning. This is an either or. Either trump was set up and underwas an inside coup the Obama Administration to take this president down or trump wrote the law. Muellers report is not about exoneration, its about finding the facts to prove that he broke the law. That was never accomplished. That is the facts. That is why the democrats are running into a brick wall this morning. There was no collusion, no obstruction. You cant impeach a president for breaking a law that wasnt broken. Play the clip from devin nunes when he talked about this mifsud that was involved with the secret agencies and that he came in and talked to the senate one time a couple years ago and nobody is putting a spotlight on that. Mueller, you could tell he was biased. Every time they asked him a question about mifsud and how the investigation began and how would started, mueller act stupid, he would act dumb on the deal, i cant hear you, i cant comment but he could comment about wikileaks. Wikileaks is under investigation. They are trying to indict wikileaks but he could not mention one thing about mifsud, the roots of the investigation. This was a coup to take the president down under the Obama Administration and nobody will admit it. Host what about his argument where he said i cant discuss it, not because of indictments but because ag barr has not started this investigation, looking at what you are talking about, the beginning and the origin of this investigation . Caller but they are so intertwined. You cant come to a conclusion in a report without the fact findings of the Building Blocks of the beginning. Dider one, the fbi never receive the hard drives from the dnc. That is the first building block. How does the fbi say that they know for a fact if and when the hard drives were hit at the dnc if you dont have the proof sitting down there at the Fbi Department . Thing, last statement, i invite any liberal democrat or independent to call your station and tell them that they change their mind because of russian influence. I watched your show for three years and i have not heard one person and say i change my mind and voted trump because of this. Host ok. Caller that would be i would love to see someone do that. I would love to see them call in and explain how the russians actually change their mind because i believe it was about globalism and nationalism. It was about getting america working again and america first. The globalists hate this administration. They hate this president. I believe this president has done everything he said he was going to do. He is a big businessman. Im sure he had affiliations with russia, germany, scotland. This man was all over the world developing and that is a fact. Dont tell us if there was something, it would have shown up in the last 36 months. I thank you for your courtesy of being so respectful and giving me time on your station. I think it was a little biased yesterday. Aboutr could not talk anything on the basis of the starting of this report but you need to play devin nunes. That was very interesting. Host if our viewers want to watch that themselves, go to our website, cspan. Org. Those moments have a yellow star , both jim jordan asking about this person you were talking about and also devin nunes. You can see those on the video player. Rob in california, lets go independent. Xas, caller good morning. I recorded and watched the entire program and my First Response is mr. Mueller cannot hear well and my second response would be i believe people are going to believe what they want to hear. There were things that the man it wasot discuss and obvious he was trying to be mindful of the words he used because of ongoing cases and when you have that many people throwing that many questions that you, i would challenge anyone that spoke against him confused org he was that he did not want to answer, they were things he could not that peoplell say dont go to jail for no reason and i am a firm believer, you are known. For the company you keep you are known for the company you keep. Host demings asked mueller a series of questions about line during the investigation. [video clip] a couple of my colleagues want to ask you about lies but lets talk about lies. ,ccording to your report witnesses lied to your office and to congress. Those lies materially impaired the investigation of russia and interference russian interference. Other than the individuals who pled guilty to crimes based online to you or your team, did other witnesses lie to you . There is a spectrum of whoesses in terms of those are not telling the full truth and those who are outright liars. Outright liars. It is fair to say that there were limits on what evidence was available to your investigation of both Russian Election interference and obstruction of justice. That is true and is usually the case. Lies by Trump Campaign officials and Administration Officials impeded your investigation. I would agree with that. Host joseph in florida, democrat caller. Your reaction to the mueller testimony. Caller good morning. I watched most of the hearing one thing that got my attention was there was a question asked more or less, did the russian interference actually change anyones vote . The answer to that question was, i cant answer it because it is still under investigation. That makes you wonder. What investigation is that . What are they trying to find out and how can they prove anything along those lines . Think about the fact that the election was actually won by only 80,000 votes in two or three swing states and the testimony yesterday revealed that the russian interference through facebook, et cetera reached more than 126 million americans. Do the math. 80,000 over 126 million. I think it comes to Something Like if you changed one vote out of every 140,000 people you reached, that was the difference. Remember, the russians focused on swing states. This is why i am a big advocate of a National Popular Vote Movement that is making great progress. It is endorsed by the New York Times and and many people. It is not a biased partisan thing. We need a National Popular vote. The rules would protect us to some degree from this type of interference that the russians performed. Thank you. Host pedro with more reaction. Guest the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, doug collins has an oped in the New York Times today about yesterdays event saying that to these efforts, judiciary democrats have added two empty chair hearings, authorized dozens of subpoenas, submitted more than 80 document requests. House republicans have been busy introducing bills with bipartisan support like defending the integrity of voting systems act and the defending elections against trolls from enemy regimes act. Instead of considering the safeguards against election interference, emigrants have pursued empty investigations. If they want to convince america their vendetta against the white house is more noble than solving the border crisis, wednesdays hearing was their last chance but it was a hail mary for those that dont have a prayer. When it comes to tweets from democratic members of congress, congressman al green saying yesterdays testimony was evidence of analysis paralysis. We waited two years for the mother report and three months for mr. Mother to testify. Ha momentno a because weve had the report and watched or discussed the president s impeachable actions him sea add nausea ad nauseum. Trump affiliates tried to cover it up, yes. Did russia try to influence the election . Yes should be we should we be worried that they are going to do it again . Yes. Host bill in florida, democrat. What was your reaction to the hearings . Caller thank you for taking my call. I called on the independent line. Things. Of the main thing i think a lot of people are missing is that we are under attack by a foreign entity and our democracy is under attack. Well, they want to have russia influence the vote. It is a known fact that they put out misinformation on facebook. How many people did they influence to not go to the polls and vote . How many people they influence to not vote for either trump or clinton or vote for the third person on the ballot . It is clear to me that Hillary Clinton probably lost the election because there were some states she did not even visit. Thats on her. We are under attack. It concerns me that people can hear that the Trump Campaign had 126 times where they met with russians and they are defending that. The person me that who is sitting in the oval office, president of the United States can answer questions, mostly untruthful and some not at all and people are defending that. Matter it is kind of like in some communities, you have people that are doing illegal stuff, but the money is coming in so folks are happy with it. Where is our moral compass . Host michael in florida, democrat. What was your take away . Caller hello. That caller earlier from california asked for an example of someone whose mind has been changed by the russians and then went on eloquently to list exactly the shift in perspective that have been caused by that. It is a National Psychosis caused by the russian that was proven by mueller when he was grilled by the congresswoman to try and get him he literally said that word is the word i cant say. It is it shows that we are all affected. We are like fish in a water bowl and we are refusing to acknowledge the water around us and it affects both republicans and democrats. We have been shifted to the point where we cannot recognize the difference. We understand why he is refusing to say that word. He does not wanted to be used but it is like going into a murder trial and everyone by law cannot use the word murder while trying to prosecute the case. It is silly. It is not a philosophical discernment. We asked him to read the last words of his report which basically were would have been the best 15 second sound bite which would have been no one is above the law. He refused to say that sentence. That is insanity and psychosis that we are all suffering from. That is the result of the russian interference and that is only by understanding can we overcome it, by understanding it, one is able to watch her own show and you can see the microbursts of psychosis like when people call in and they have a miss understanding of the scale like the woman who was concerned about the cost. The cost . Seriously . That is an example of a microburst of psychosis. The sum. So it is basically how we react when we are traumatized and one out of three of us is traumatized as children and this is the effect on us and we need to destigmatize the stigmatize that. There were supposed to be a balance. That is the beauty of the constitution. That is why this country has become the leader of the world and we will regain it once we deal with this manifestation of once we understand, we will be able to deal with the big issues like climate change, the we dont have to solutions are there, we can live forever, we have proven it. The full abundance is there once our minds are ready to grasp it. Host we heard your point and are approaching the top of the the east0 a. M. On coast and we have another hour with conversations about your reaction to Robert Muellers testimony yesterday. Another moment from the House Judiciary Committee and how. Epublicans used their time here is Kelly Armstrong asking Robert Mueller about the team he put in place to investigate. Testified onok july 12, 2018 he was fired because you were concerned about preserving the appearance of independence. Do you agree . Say that again. He was fired because you were worried about preserving the appearance of independence within the special counsels investigation . Do you agree . The statement was by whom . Peter struck peter strzok. Did you fire him because you were worried about the appearance of independence . No, he was transferred because of instances involving texts. Do you agree your office did not only have an operation with independence but an appearance of independence . Absolutely. Part of that was making certain Andrew Weissman one of your top attorneys . Did he have a role in selecting other members . Not a major role. Clintonsnded hillary Election Night party, did you know that before or after he joined the team . I dont know. Andrew weissman wrote that i regardingd and in awe her disobeying a direct order from the president , did he disclose that you . I will not talk about that. Is that not a conflict of interest . I will not talk about that. Hillary clinton personally mails originating for her time and secretary of state . Yes. Did you know that before she came on . No. The guy next you represented a clinton aide who destroyed whatever mobile devices, you must beware that six of your lawyers donated 12,000 correctly to Hillary Clinton. I am not talking about the 49,000 they donated to other democrats, just the opponent to the target of investigation. Can i speak to the hiring practices . Yes. We wanted to hire those who could do the job. I have been in this business almost 25 years and in those 25 years i have not had a case once asked about political affiliation. It is not done. I care about the capability of the individual to do the job and do it quickly and seriously and with integrity. Reaction to what you heard yesterday from Robert Mueller and the lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee and Intelligence Committee. Mike and staten island, new york, a republican. Caller thank you for having me on the show. My problem is that a few minutes ago you showed the papers from the country saying he is not exonerated. Wherember a full segment he said that that word is not a legal term but a play on words. Going back to the caller talking about how it is masses. And the mine washing mass hysteria. Washing of the mainstream media, if you can get anything anybody to believe what they want, most of these papers are showing he is not exonerated. Can. Nnot exonerate, no one or guilty,r innocent not exonerated. People are going to pick what they want to hear and what they want to see at what they want people to see from six hours of testimony. Cnn, who is choosing the important topics . It will be whatever choosing them decides. Ohio linda, youngstown, come independent ohio, independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. I watched the whole from beginning to end yesterday, and i still believe that people will read into it what they want to read into it. But the one thing i took away that both sides could agree on was that russia did interfere in our elections and that they will do it again. And the fact that trump encouraged it the first time and said he will gladly accept their help again. While that was going on yesterday, the republicans blocked two bills to tighten down to protect our elections. Was smith from mississippi one of the leaders on that and it makes you wonder, when those parties will agree that that is a problem and then to block legislation like that does not make sense. Host talking about the senate. What was happening in the senate. Caller right. It kind of does not match what their talking points are. They understand there is a problem and agree that we will block it anyway, even when you have a president in office that encouraged the interference the first time and has recently said gladly, i will take it again. Host susie, lincoln, nebraska, democrat. Caller how are you doing . Host good morning. Caller i wanted to correct a comment made from texas earlier about the dnc not giving the fbi their hard drive. Image,d give a copy, and of the hard drive to the fbi, nobody dismantles their hardware for a forensic analysis. The fbi seizes it because they know you are committing a crime. I also want to comment on republicans, they were splitting hairs on words and attacking political affiliation of the team members, they were screaming, they were angry, a long time ago a lawyer advised me that if you want to impress a judge with your innocence be calm, cool, collected, Robert Mueller was that but the republicans were not. With more on Election Security and a budget deal. , democrats hill tried to get consent to pass two bills that would require campaigns to alert the fbi and the federal Election Committee about foreign offers of assistance at a bill to let the Senate Sergeant at arms offer voluntary cyber assistance for personal devices in the accounts of senators and staff. Cindy hydesmith from mississippi blocked each of the bills without reason for objection. A spokesman did not immediately respond to the request for comment. Under the senate rules, one senator can ask for consent to pass a bill but anyone senator is also able to object. If you go to upi, an analysis of the budget bill set to be voted on today, the agreement would provide budgets of 1. 4 trillion for the next two years, quitting 730 billion in defense many of 632 billion in nondefense spending for fiscal 2020, as part of it congress will not introduce any policy riders on future spending bills and allow the Trump Administration to reprogram funds for a wall on the u. S. Mexico border. Growthcal group club for on talking about this effort sent out a press release yesterday calling for a strong opposition of the bipartisan budget act of 2019 urging all members to vote no, saying it jeopardizes americas future of fiscal footing and pushes the u. S. Economy closer to a fiscal crisis. For his part, the president sent out a tweet reading, House Republicans should support twoyear budget agreement which greatly helps our military and veterans, i am totally with you. Host mark in pennsylvania, republican. What did you think of the hearing . Caller good morning. I almost fell asleep it was so bad. The lack of transparency in our government is appalling. What i did take away was something i had not thought about previously, when Robert Mueller said he did not know when he knew about whether the Trump Campaign colluded or not with the russians i believe that was total fabrication because they had a press conference prior to helsinki, Rod Rosenstein said there was no american involved with these indictments of these russians, predominantly the whole case for mr. Mueller. He knew prior to helsinki, also prior to the midterm election, he kept his investigation going to the midterms. If anybody impacted the election , it was mr. Mueller because he should have shut it down when the he realized there was no collusion between any american citizens. We hear constantly about 126 contacts with russians, there was not one russian contact that relate any information to the trumps about any dirt on Hillary Clinton. There was accusations and allegations but no one time did they get any dirt. Out of the 126 contacts there was zero that resulted in any transfer of information. I was shocked with this, how many times did mr. Mueller asked if the question versus the democrats . I know it was a lot. I could not believe how many times he asked. Host i have not seen anybody count it up a we can look for it. Caller did seem so strange because he answer the democrat questions clearly and when it came to the republicans, he asked several times. This is no disrespect to mr. Mueller, both my parents had both at latents stage alzheimers disease and dementia and he definitely has the sides of early stages. I am not saying that to be mean because only one drug helps with it and you have to be put on it, for everybody us with parents, you have to put it on before its too late because if you do not begin midges already done and it does not reverse the damage, just opposite. He is clearly suffering from that. You could see his lack of coherency with questions and my mom used to do the same thing, could you repeat the question, that is a good question, she would do the exact same thing and she was two years bedridden and did not know who i was. Host mark and pennsylvania, republican. Some of our callers have wrought up the question by the ranking republican, the Top Republican on the house Intelligence Committee, devin nunes of Robert Mueller. Take a listen to the questions he posed against the former special counsel. Heardumor he supposedly about a conversation between George Papadopoulos and joseph mehsud, james comey has publicly d a russian agent but your report does not refer to him as a russian agent. He has extensive contacts with western governments and the fbi, for example a recent photo of him standing next to Boris Johnson, the new Prime Minister of britain. What we are trying to figure out, mr. Mueller, is, if our nato allies or Boris Johnson have been compromised . We are james comey says mifsud a russian agent and you do not, do you stand by your report . I stand by the report and not so necessarily with that which is not in the report. I want to return to mr. Downer, he denies George Papadopoulos midget anything about Hillary Clintons emails denies takingage that the papadopoulos. He denies papadopoulos mentioned anything about the hillary d deniesemails and mifsu mentioning that the papadopoulos in the first place. How does the fbi to continually ask papadopoulos about clintons emails for the rest of 2016 . Strangely, your memo on papadopoulos blames him for hindering the fbi ability to potentially detain or arrest mifsud, but he waltzed in and out of the United States in december 2016, the u. S. Media could find him and the Italian Press could find them and he is a suppose it russian agent at the epicenter of the reported collusion conspiracy, the guy who knows about Hillary Clinton gmails and that the russians have them. At the fbi failed to question him for a half a year after officially opening the investigation. According to body one, page 193 of your report, once mifsud was questioned, he made false statements to the fbi. You declined to charge him. Is that correct . You did not indict mr. Mifsud . I will not speak to the series of happenings as you articulate them. The time has expired. You did not indict mr. Mifsud . True. Host the exchange between the Top Republican on house intelligence, devin nunes, and Robert Mueller. Your reaction to what you heard from the judiciary and intelligence hearings yesterday on washington journal. Call in, we want to hear what you have to say. Norman in amherst, massachusetts, independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. I appreciate it. I listened to both hearings. I am a leftist and i do not think the American People, they are dangerously naive and repeating the on russian interference and it is based on opinions come accusations, and indictments which are not evidence. Overturned the election in ukraine and 85 billion in the first month to overturn it, that is an offense come a facebook meme is not russian interference. By pushing this mccarthyism about, it is practically war language against the russians which puts upward pressure on the price of oil. The u. S. Keeps saber rattling iran,t russia, venezuela, in a country with oil, just like they did before with libya and iraq. What was exposed about hillary , theon on these emails proper way to approach it is not to say, the people who leaked it are bad it is to look at the crimes that were exposed, accepting money at the Clinton Foundation for people she was working with in the state department. Even down to smaller things like putting restrictions on gays in her office. These things are important. The exposing what happened is a lot more important to the American People than going after the person who caused the leak. Host democratic caller in florida, you are next, al. Caller thank you for taking my call. I watched the hearings yesterday and i have been a democrat but i do not know how much longer. It was unbelievable. Shape,eller was in bad he could not hear, he could not remember. The only person who learned anything was Robert Mueller when people were telling him what was in his report. I was speaking with a spanish friend of mine and he comey the word of the day is believing. Bedonald trump will not leaving the white house in 2020. Host mike, republican, did you watch both hearings . Caller yes, i watched part of the hearings yesterday and all the answers seem to change and for theig question is, employees of 330 Million People in the United States, exactly where did Robert Muellers retirement deposited . This is nonsense. We have a country that needs help and we are spending more time doing absolutely nothing because the democrats in the afraidre looking are of losing the back pocket money they are getting from the lobbyists for years. Everybody should take a close look at it, these are the employees of the voters, not kings and princes, lets get this item straight and get some people back to respect, we do not have that now as far as the house is concerned. Host pedro with more on the hearing. The natural interest taking a look at the breakdown of the times that former special counsel had to ask members of congress to redirect questions, the first since it says former special asked lawmakers 48 times to repeat questions in the testimony regarding his investigation into potential russia interference in the 2016 president ial election. Politico has other breakdowns, the number of times he directed lawmakers back to his report, 34, the number of times he says questions were out of his purview, 10, and the number of times he said he cant or will not get into substance of the question, 99. Host stone bill, north carolina, independent, annette. Caller i watched both hearings. I would like to say that everybody is missing the whole point. We need to get back to the fact we need to govern. Our congressmen need to take heed to the fact that someone, whether the russians or the chinese, who ever it is, is trying to mess with our elections. For all we know it may be our own congressman. We have to take heed to the fact that they are gerrymandering our borders, they are messing with the fact that they are taking away our right to early voting, they are making it harder to vote, the American People need to wake up and Pay Attention to what is going on in this country. If our congressmen cannot work for the people, we need to vote them out, whether it is the president or your own representative of your state. Pay attention, people, wake up. We are making the decisions. You need to vote. You need to Pay Attention to what your legal representative is doing for you while they are in office, decide if it is what you want them to do, and if it is not, vote them out. Host kansas city, missouri late, democratic caller, marlon, your takeaways from the hearing yesterday. Caller i had a few different points. First of all, you said the president was not exonerated, it is not a hoax, it is not a witchhunt. But the president comes right back out and says it is a witchhunt. Is the president delusional . His ing credit to basically his counsel, he is degrading our legal system. If somebody subpoenas me and i did not do it, i would go to jail. Legal ignore what the parameters are. This guy also, i would like to find out where the first lady came from and how she got here. What thes listen to president had to say before he departed the white house for a fundraiser in West Virginia yesterday. His reaction to the mueller testimony. People see what has gone on in our country with this whole thing, i have been going through it for three years, all nonsense. This was a very big day for our country. This was a very good day for the Republican Party. You can say it was a great day for me but i do not like to say that. Those much appreciate incredible warriors you watched today on television, republicans, that defended something and defended something very powerful, very important. Because they were really defending our country. Or than anything else they were defending our country. They will warriors and have been warriors for a long time. Everyone knew it was a hoax, especially the democrats. I wish we could be a fly on the wall in the rooms where the democrats would talk before and after meetings and they would be say,ing and smiling and can you believe we are getting away with this . They did not get away with it in the end. Host harmon, alabama, republican. Good morning to you. Caller good morning to you. You saw a great man taken down yesterday, a patriot, the Democratic Party allowed it to be done, they used him. The only thing mueller had to do as special counsel was use his name, he let the democratic donald trump haters run the show and it was biased from the start, we all know that. I am not saying there are things that have been better, there are, but we know in the end, donald trump will win, the truth will come out, the Democratic Party better wake up because they are point right into the republican stands and i am so proud because it will be donald trump in 2020. Go back, i cant wait until the ig report comes out and the democrats will be running for the hills and you have democrats who are going to throw the election. Host before you go, what were some things in your works went wrong, or from the Mueller Report that concerns you . Caller you go back to the start of the Mueller Reports. Remember,we need to people that were charged were not charged from the trump president ial committee. They were charged with different things. But you had the man that started this, he never charged. Hader onet the trump the special hater on the special counsel run it, he just applied his name to it and the Democratic Party made him look, to me, the last thing he will have from the government ec looked pitiful. He looked pitiful i hate to say that because he had a good record but the Democratic Party used him. Host harmon, this is how adam schiff looks at the investigation and the report. Your report tells another story as well. Election of the 2016 is also a story about disloyalty to country, about agreed, and about lies about greed, and about lies, you it you determine the campaign and donald trump himself knew a foreign power was intervening in our election and welcomed it, built russian meddling into the strategy, and used it. Disloyalty to country, strong words but how else would we describe a president ial campaign which did not inform the authorities of a foreign offer andirt from their opponent it out publicly shown it or turn it away but invited it, encouraged it, and made full use of it appeared that disloyalty may not have been criminal, strained by uncooperative witnesses, destruction of documents, your team did not establish each of the elements for the crime of conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. Not a provable crime in any event. But i think maybe something worse, a crime is the violation of law written by congress but disloyalty to country violates the very oath of citizenship, our devotion to a core principle on which our nation was founded , and notthe people some foreign power that wishes us ill, we decide who governs us. This is also a story about money , about greed and corruption, the leadership of a campaign willing to compromise the nations interest not only to win but to make money at the same time. Chairmanampaign indebted to prorussian interest to try to use his position to clear his debts and make millions. About a National Security adviser using his position to make money from still other foreign interests, and about a candidate trying to make more money than all of them put together, the real estate project that to him was worth a fortune, hundreds of millions of dollars and the realization of a lifelong ambition, a trump tower in the heart of moscow. A candidate who in fact viewed his whole campaign as the greatest infomercial in history. Host back to our peers, do you agree or our viewers, and you agree or disagree on how adam schiff reacted . Host dominic come independent. Dominic, a defendant independent. Caller he was not answering the questions that the republicans were asking. Are they crazy not to get william barr to testify . He did not look that good, mueller. Like the gotham alabama was saying, like the guy from alabama was saying, look like dementia. I think donald trump could declare victory. Host richard in florida, democrat, what do you think . Caller i am a very strong candidate democrat, active duty, 60 disabled veteran, serviceconnected, my strength and my connected is towards National Security. This committee was supposed to be looking 5050, National Security and trump, the focus was on trump and the National Security, russian intervention was not focused on and i am disappointed that Robert Mueller only had been attending six of all of those hearings and investigations over two years. He admitted he only had been available for six of them. I feel like his name was on this report when it was others who are the ones who had put all of the information into the report. That is my observation. Host more calls coming up, 30 minutes left to take more of your phone calls so keep dialing in. Pedro with others. Other news. Usa today reporting bernie offe off bernie mad is asking the president to have his 150 or sentence reduced, filing a petition for clemency with the Justice Department, but not clear from the limited information on the website where the petition was filed with a anding status, and 29 2009 he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of financial crimes including fraud, Money Laundering, perjury, theft, serving incentives in a federal prison in north carolina. The president has rarely parted or granted clemency to those who apply through the Department Office of pardon attorney. Jeffrey epstein saying he was found injured in the floor of his cell in the metropolitan Correction Center in new york on wednesday. According to a Law Enforcement source telling cbs news that it was not clear whether his injuries were selfinflicted but that Jeffrey Epstein was put on suicide watch as a precautionary measure. His injuries were not thought to be lifethreatening and authorities are still investing what led to the injuries. He was back at the Correctional Center later on thursday after treatment for his injuries. International news, north korea firing two missiles, saying they reuters saying they launch them from an east coast kilometers,ying 430 going, somenother analysts say the north appeared to have tested in may but military Officials Say the missiles appeared to be a new design. Host emily in san francisco, up early, republican, were you able to watch yesterday . Caller yes i was. I thought it was ridiculous. Because how many times can you indict a person . Double jeopardy, triple jeopardy. Everyone has found there is no collusion with donald trump, and yet, what happens . We had the same thing. I was ready to complement the democrats when they voted anyway host not to impeach . Caller exactly, not to impeach have beenent, they accused of being taxandspend, corrupt, and other things, but they are not stupid. Now i hear they are still going to do this. It is a coup detat. Oliver stone at president clinton on president putin on recently and he said it was a coup detat. From has all the papers democratic candidacy at he has everything and he knows what is going on. He said he never was involved with President Trump. Thinkk we should begin to , when countries like italy, australia, and other countries were involved in this coup terrible. Is just i think the democrats better wise up and cut this out because theyre are not doing anything for our country and we are in dire need of settling migration know, coverage. There is a lot we have to do and i hope to god they get Nancy Pelosi Nancy pelosi can talk them out of in teaching the president so in teaching be president so we can do something and in teaching the president so we can get things done here at. Host independent. What is proud is doing to this country, we need to focus more on the good aspect and not the bad aspects of donald trump. Host we will move on to denise in michigan. A democratic caller. Hello, denise. What did you take away from the hearings yesterday . Caller i would like to just remind everyone that just because don mcgahn did not follow through with Donald Trumps orders to get rid of mueller does not mean donald trump is not guilty of ob struction. Attempting is the same guilt as following through. Something like that seems to be doing lost with everyone. Host larry in colorado, republican. Caller good morning, greta. Host morning. Caller i am wondering why i watch all the news channels the last three years and when donald trump says something they do not like, they show his quote all day. When they tell us the russians messed with us in our election, i do not see a quote, i do not see a video, i do not see a picture, i have not seen evidence one that anybody messed with our election. They have given us the question, does god exist . Host did you read volume one of the Mueller Report . Caller dont need to. The nonlegal report dossier was illegal, it is all a legal, they are making up this story that russia did anything. You cannot prove it because there is no video, no nothing, you cannot disprove it because there is no video, no nothing, like trying to prove there is a god. Host a court case against 13 russians and three russian companies. Caller 13 russians that nobody knows and nobody will see, they are just as much of an illusion, they tell us they exist but that does not mean anything. They told us there was weapons of mass destruction and there was not. What they say does not mean much. Ue, syracuse, new york, independent. Caller yes, what bothers me most about these hearings is that the procedure is that hypocrisy going on. If the democrats feel really strongly there is a severe attack on our democracy, basically they should just proceed, they should proceed with impeachment hearings. If it is a matter of principle, they should proceed with impeachment hearings. The fact they probably know that, even if they succeeded in impeaching him in the house, the senate would not convict him. In other words, the procedure would not succeed in removing donald trump from office. If it is a matter of principle, they should proceed with it in any case. What bothers me more than anything is the idea of collusion. The United States has been interfering in elections all over the planet for decades now. The real illusion, which version, collusion, the collusion between both parties in keeping third parties out of president ial debates. A real threat to democracy and i would love to cc been explored that concept. If we are really worried about saving democracy, we need to have all voices and both parties have colluded in keeping significant and qualified parties out of the debate. If the democrats are really sincere about this, they should proceed with impeachment. The fact they are not proceeding with impeachment means this is not a matter of principle but a matter of politics. It may come back to bite them. Host pedro with more viewer reaction online. This is frank conroy of facebook saying republicans think they won, they just kept the worst president in history from getting any worse and did not solve the problem and probably will lose more house seats in tossup areas in 2020 along with the white house. Over,ays the show is enjoy being our president for the next 5. 5 years. ,ohn smith almost seem nervous as he went to the iceberg. But we know that outcome. Michael mckee on facebook saying that, it is clear that republicans do not care that russia interfered in the election i do not care it is happening again and that the president will clearly welcome it again by his own admission. Host victor, casper, wyoming, democrat. Caller good morning. I have been watching this for some time. Your show this morning and the whole donald trump mess from the beginning. I noticed the republicans, particularly some of your callers, are cherry picking and saying no collusion. They knew the russians were helping them and they welcomed it, they just did not coordinate with them. That is the only difference. The other thing is, one lady said after all the money was spent, nothing came of it. Failing to see all of the indictments, all of the people charged, all the people in trouble for their role in this. Comment, youto a are defined by the people you keep around you. The man is as dirty as they come and it bothers me the republicans are ok with it because they did not like obama and everything donald trump does is antiobama. It is not patriotic. I am really saddened i the whole thing. Theyught bush was so bad would not get the white house back for a couple of cycles and i can only hope and pray that the democrats unite around whoever is nominated the way the republicans did. Thank you. Host big torilla, texas, republican the torilla, texas, republican they victoria, texas, republican, olen. It was a dance on the root on the democratic side, it socialist, communist side, a distraction to take away from the thousands and thousands of people coming across this border every month. I live here in texas. I can tell you for stories. True. It is a flame job. They have framed trump before he came into office. It is a distraction because california, i am not worried about the russians, california has more illegals voting, it is a proven fact. Made arican news Network Documentary on it, but most people cannot get it on American News. Us,e people are costing according to the clock, the costing , it is billion asry 1, 152 of yesterday. 152 billion. This is for security, food mps, medicaid, medical host where did you get that number . Caller from the money clock on one American News network. Host tim, crescent city, illinois, independent. Caller i would like to see the part where Robert Mueller admitted there was also prorussian hillary rhetoric in facebook because he did say that but democrats seem to have a lot trump. As all pro host did you read the report, volume one or volume two . Caller i did not but heard plenty about it. Host georgia in houston, texas, democrat. Caller my comment is about , even on msnbc, pundits he wasthe democrats new in that kind of shape and they should be ashamed for making them testify. That was one of the worst comments. A lot of them. Here is a man who is not over the hill, he cannot hear very well, but neither can those senators and congress people. He had a shot fired over his head before he went in there from the president and attorney general telling him he better stay in that box. What . E, who knows he is supposed to answer questions under those circumstances, which is impossible to do. Rambling off of those questions as fast as they could. It was hard for him. They would not allow him to look , give page, where it was him a few seconds to find it so he could testify. You had to be careful to stay in the four corners. Host you mentioned barr, Robert Mueller was asked about byliam barrs letter written martha roby, i want to show you that moment from the hearing. March 27, 2019 you read a letter to the attorney general complaining about the immediate coverage of your report, you wrote the summary letter the department sent to congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of march 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and suspect of this office is working conclusion and there is now public confusion about critical aspects to the result of our investigation, who wrote that letter . I cannot get into who wrote it. But you signed it . The letter stands for itself. Why did you write a formal letter since you had already called the attorney general to express those concerns . I cannot get into that. Did you authorize the letters released to the media or was it leaked . I have no knowledge on either. U. N. Nearly two years without a leak, why was this leaked . You went nearly two years without a leak, why was this leaked . I cannot get into it. Was a to change the narrative about the conclusion of your report and was anything in William Barrs letter printable conclusion and accurate inaccurate . You may answer the question. Was anything in the attorney general that are referred to as the principal conclusions letter dated march 24 inaccurate . I will not get into it. Host ray, virginia, republican, good morning. What stood out to you in the hearings yesterday . Caller i thought Robert Mueller stumbled with a lot of words and the man behind him with the mustache kept on talking into coat, into his sleeve and you could tell mueller had something in his dear he was listening to ear he was listening to an hard to reply to questions when you are listening to somebody talking to you in your ear. , some of the things he said and stumbled over, you could tell it is hard to listen to people and what people are telling you and him trying to say what he is supposed to say. Hearing. Good it was a really good hearing. It is a shame it had to happen. Host georgia, independent, sandra . Caller yes, i would like to point out to many people, i do not understand why people do not see that the president is throwing the rule of law out the window. The Mueller Report verifies, i do not understand all of the side issues that are coming out about the report, the bottom line is very clear, and it breaks my heart that people are not seeing what is happening. Do they understand what happens if we do not have a rule of law . Host what should democrats in the house do . They control that body. All, theirst of democrats are trying to send bills to the senate and the senate refuses to even look at them or bring them up. Over toe things going try to deal with some of these issues. They are just not even looking at them. Until we get past drawing a line in the sand between the house of representatives and the senate, they will not get anything done. Host pedro . One of the people you look looking at the hearing was michael cohen, provided to cnn a statement from the federal Corrections Institute in orange county, new york, Robert Mueller had the world stage to answer questions regarding obstruction of justice and witness tampering, sadly his reluctance continues to leave the debate opened and those responsible free from prosecution for the moment, the American People deserve more. He is serving a threeyear sentence at the facility as in august of 2018 he pleaded guilty to tax evasion, false they miss to a bank, and Campaign Finance violations. Againstgations raised me in the steele dossier were lies, todays hearings confirmed our elected officials want more information for clarification they know where to find me. Host ohio, democratic caller. Dorothy,es, my name is the judicial and intelligence meeting with Robert Mueller yesterday. Trump found out is this, coordinated with a foreign adversary. What he did to win the presidency is appalling. We, as a country, no matter republican or democrat, we should not have a foreign adversary interfering in our elections. The lady from illinois was correct, mueller was placed in a box. They sent a letter telling to him saying what he could and could not say because of ongoing investigations. What we did find out is that how this president accepted help from a foreign adversary and used it to win the presidency. Not only that, he did a lot of other things. Stars, he lied, he got on the news and said he does not have a problem with mueller and it was a long drawn out episode where he would not go. His own lawyers said he would lie if he was committed to testifying. We have to come together as a nation, do we want a democracy or do we want something from a third world country interfering and telling us what to do, who devote for who to vote for . This is a travesty. For all the people who have discounted mueller, he has served this country with integrity and he deserves more respect than he got yesterday. Host robert in texas, a republican, what is your opinion about yesterday . Caller it was a sad thing to see mr. Mueller, he should have been retired a long time ago. A great day to be in the usa. How can you have any collusion who hasan individual been under the definition of entrapment . That is all a have to say. Host steve, defendant, alabama. Independent, alabama. What do you have to say . Caller the democrats are not doing themselves any favors, they completely, i believe this backfired on them, they insisted that Robert Mueller testify and it would be the movie version of the book. I watched the testimony and it was just, almost sad to watch this man, they should have asked him, did he write the report himself . Because he seemed to not have any clue as to what was in the report. It backfired on the democrats and i wish they would push for impeachment because that also will backfire in 2020 because everything does far as backfired on them. Mueller did him no favors whatsoever. Balance,eller, no because hillary and the dnc colluded with the russians with the dossier and whatnot. You will not hear that mentions on most of the major networks. I just believe that it made the democrats it did not accomplish the intended result. I hope they do pursue impeachment because that is one way to make sure trump will be reelected. Host linda in florida, democratic caller. Were you able to watch both hearings . Aller i was, greta i wanted to say that, i heard another caller say that we are ready dark point in the United States where truth does not hold out. Even if people want to degrade mueller, bring him down without timers and other things outsiders disease and other things, we heard a legislator say, this met the three elements , and President Trump, he was not in the white house if he was not in the white house come he could be charged with obstruction of justice, the three elements were met and you have people calling and continually saying the dossier was a lie. He does not lie. We suffer from cognitive dissidents and on both sides we want to hear what we want to hear but what we need to hear is the truth, our nation is at a dark point in bringing out file things in our nation vile things in our nation. Some callers are willing to speak and hear the truth. We do not want to hear the truth. They will say he does not lie. He does tell some mistruths. We can call it what it is and speak to fax. Facts. People speaking about the dossier, 10 years back with obama and they want to go back clinton. Lets stay on course to what we are saying here. If nancy pelosi does not go towards impeachment, a lot of democrats may fall by the wayside. Even with an inquiry, whatever you want to call it, something needs to be done because we are losing our nation, we do not need russia to do it because they are letting us do it it on our own. Host new jersey, republican, we have a few minutes left, elbert. Caller if the Democrat Party really cared about the american republic, all the money it costs , they should have shut this down long ago. They did not have enough evidence to go through with this, the time they wasted. The people suffer in the bottom line, the taxpayers. I think it was no evidence to keep going all this amount of time. Attorneys to have that little bit of evidence. I cant believe all this time that is all they have been talking about. Host independent, abington, virginia, good morning, ivan. Caller i did watch it yesterday , and when washington journal showed the clip of wiberg mueller Robert Mueller, they finished with him being questioned about who was involved in the investigation and they stopped short before the representative finished with how would people feel if mostly donald Trump Supporters on the Investigative Committee for all of this . Meanwhile, it was heavily involved with people that helped hillary who had even helped with the emails and her phone. Cspand to say that, stopped short on that part on the clip today but they should have let it finish. Operative who met with trump, he met with the dnc beforehand, met with trump and the day after met with d c again. D c again. That was not mentioned again. Host betty in fort worth, texas, democrat, we have to make it quick as the house is coming in any minute. Caller just want to say that i believe mueller put on a good show for the republicans. He stumbled with them but the answer those questions from the democrats. Wasally believe that he very well prepared. And he decided not to answer those questions that were not relevant to the report. Host i have to leave it there. House is about to come in for the legislative morning, live coverage here on cspan. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the spker pro tempor the house wl be in orde the chair lay before the hoe a cmucation from the eaker. The clerk t speers roo. Washiton, d. C. July 25, 2019. I hereby point the horab hen cuellar to act as speaker proempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of t house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursut to t order of the house of january 3, 2019, e chair wi now recognize membersrom lis submitted by t majoritand minority leads for morning ho debate. 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