little bit. what seems more likely to you? i think there s little doubt the president will be watching robert mueller s testimony. as you pointed out, he repeated some of the falsehoods we ve heard him put out there in the public before that the report found no collusion even though what the report actually said was there was not sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the trump campaign and the russians. the president also claimed that there was no obstruction when the report detailed at least ten instances in which the president potentially obstructed justice. and what s important about that is so far the public s perception has largely been shaped by that initial letter from attorney general william barr which was highly misleading. most have not read this report. frankly a lot of members of congress have not read it. this will really mark an opportunity for robert mueller to correct the record. and for the first and only time publicly detail what he and h
david, what does it say to you that the president is simultaneously arguing that the mueller findings should stand, no collusion he says, no obstruction. but at the same time he s actively publicly trying to discredit as much as possible the personal counsel? right. the more confusion around the testimony and the report, the better for the president from the president s perspective. march 24th, attorney general barr came out with the synopsis saying no conspiracy, no criminal charges. president trump had praise for special counsel mueller and for the report. now that he knows mueller is going to come up and testify, and there s a potential for him to say things that maybe make it look worse for the president, even if there s no criminal charges, now he wants to go back to demonize the special counsel. i do think people sort of see this happening. but at the same time the confusion works in his favor. the president first said he wasn t even going to watch any of the hearings on be
the possible photos of some of the people that they think are cia personnel. we re not going to show any of that, obviously. so there s a lot of concern the u.s. trying, the pentagon, the intelligence community trying to get this de-escalated, get it under control. the president outright today accusing iran of lying causing some anxiety about what may come next. all right. thank you. barbara starr at the pentagon. let s get more on all of this. mazie hirono of hawaii is joining us. senator, thanks so much for joining us. i want to get to iran in a moment, but first let s discuss robert mueller s testimony on wednesday. we know he was reluctant to testify to begin with. what are you hoping to hear from him on wednesday? does he need, for example, to go beyond what s in the written mueller report? well, it would be good if he did, but even the portions in the written report would be enough for him to emphasize.
to potentially shift the narrative, potentially get some more folks on board with impeachment. and certainly looking for a moment that resonates with the american public. they know that many americans have not read the mueller report, so they certainly want to bring that to light and they will likely focus on the areas that they believe that the president obstructed justice. here s the chairman of the house judiciary committee. i think there is very substantial well, the report purports the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and we have to let mueller present those facts to the american people and see where we go from there. no president can be above the law. democrats and republicans, meantime, on these committees, they have both been preparing by holding mock hearings, rereading portions, and potentially the extensive entire mueller report. we know democrats tomorrow preparing a two-hour mock
what are you learning? yeah. some new details coming out thenk from my colleague jessica schneider. she reports that robert mueller has, indeed, prepared an opening statement. and that opening statement according to mueller s spokesman has not been seen by anyone at the department of justice nor has it needed to be cleared ahead of time. that s significant as the big question mark is what will his opening statement be going into that important hearing on wednesday. now, mueller has been preparing with a small group of his staff that work with him in the special counsel s office. and a spokesman says his testimony will be in line with the public statement that he made way back in late may. and that certainly he s expected to stick to what is in his report, but is spokesman also at the same time emphasizing that mueller here comes to the table fully prepared and he is ready on wednesday. now, democrats meantime are getting ready as well. they are really looking and hoping for a big b