clinton by feeding information to christopher steele for the infamous dossier. he grilled robert mueller about his decision not to exonerate the president on obstruction of justice. he said that he didn't have the authority to either exonerate or not exonerate. wasn't within his mandate to do that and was pretty tough on the special counsel in that hearing, something that cheered on the president as he watched on television. >> jeremy bash, i've used this term before and i don't mean it as a pejorative, but dan coats was what we used to call a chamber of commerce republican in the state of indiana. could you make a case that he grew in this job and slowly realized his status as human guardrail, and what do you make of the next nominee and the potential effect on the intelligence community? >> brian, there are three things that really concern me about this personnel move. number one is, dan coats responsibly, nobly, honorably led the intelligence community.