not? if republicans are essentially saying, we'll never do that, i think there are a lot of democrats who are going to find it hospitable to go out and say, look, we want to leave it open, let the rule of law play out, open to whatever mueller's conclusions are and leave it open for us to take over the house of representatives. >> eli, have you been surprised the number of republicans, some big-name republicans, who have gotten on this let's kneecap mueller campaign and the fbi while we're at it? >> acquiescence to trump's behavior, going further in this case than trump has in trashing mueller, really is more interesting than behavior that we've seen from donald trump and see from him day in and day out. just months ago you go back and when this first possibility of firing mueller was approached, republicans on the hill said, oh, no, republicans on the hill would never go for that. bob mueller is a republican, he's a veteran, he's respected. he was the head of the fbi. this is a guy who's beyond reproach. they were all saying this at the time. >> yep.