his third trip to answer questions about russia s interference in the 2016 election. this time he appeared before the senate intelligence committee. he spent about 9 hours in all answering questions but did not say anything as he exited. for more we are joined here tonight by attorney jill wine banks an msnbc analyst and michael crowley, a senior correspondent for politico. welcome to you both. michael, to you first. how seriously should people take this smear campaign against robert mueller? well, extremely seriously. if anything it s been building over time to what feels like is approaching a crescendo. and it actually predates these reports about the text messages between a couple of fbi officials. so although that has provided kind of rocket fuel for this idea that mueller and his team
republican party going into 2018 if he had won. listen, the reason trump and a lot of republicans i think are breathing a sigh of relief tonight and not as worried as i think they should be, is they they don t see roy moore as an example of what they want 2018. the house is insulated some. they re vulnerable members through gerrymandering. in the senate democrats have to defend 29 seats. what republican insiders are overlooking are two very important things. we will see more bad candidates come forward. steve bannon has already met with michael grim in new york who left office to serve time in federal prison and now wants to run for congress again. we re seeing a senate candidate in arizona who is speaking with little eloquence, if we re being generous. but here s the other thing we re overlooking and this is the most important thing we saw last night. the energy on the left is
overlooking are two very important things. we will see more bad candidates come forward. steve bannon has already met with michael grim in new york who left office to serve time in federal priz squn now wants to run for congress again. we re seeing a senate candidate in arizona who is speaking with little eloquence, if we re being generous. but here s the other thing we re overlooking and this is the most important thing we saw last night. the energy on the left is incredible right now. we saw it in virginia. we saw it in new jersey. the energy on the left to get out and vote, listen, you can t make voters get out and turn out to vote if they don t want to. the left is looking to vote right now. they are eager to get to 2018 and vote. the right is exhausted, and they are burdened by a president with 32% approval ratings. all right, jeremy, let s talk about mr. bannon. equally bracing to hear peter king, long island republican say the guy looks like a drunk on stage. someone else last
of life as they re painted with a broad brush as having opinions. they re jobs are another thing entirely. michael, ty cobb has said in the past few days interviews with people in the white house have come to an end. could that be true? could it lead to call backs? it could. ty cobb, he is kind of a character out of movie to begin with. and it is compounded by the fact he is making public statements that have people across washington scratching their heads. not only journalists but also lawyers who are watching the trump legal strategy from afar. to your specific question i think if you parse his language i believe what cobb has said is mueller has spoken to all the white house officials whom he had put in requests to speak with. but that does not mean mueller will not have further requests. so it really means he had asked
they are out to get the facts. and they will make their decisions based on them. so far they ve come out with facts that support the criminal indictment of four members of trump s team. and we ll have to see whether they get it closer to the family or the president. but it will be based on fact. that is great point to make. it s insulting, in fact, to professionals in so many walks of life as they re painted with a broad brush as having opinions. they re jobs are another thing entirely. michael, ty cobb has said in the past few days interviews with people in the white house have come to an end. could that be true? could it lead to call backs? it could. ty cobb, he is kind of a character out of movie to begin with. and it is compounded by the fact he is making public statements that have people across washington scratching their heads. not only journalists but also lawyers who are watching the trump legal strategy from afar. to your specific question i think if you parse his languag