Question john. [ Inaudible Question ]. John. They are devastated. The democrats lost so big today, their party is in shambles right now. Theyve got the squad leading their party. They are a mess. Where even you take a look at scribe and so many of the people that were the most outspoken and they say this was a devastating day for the democrats and you know it john and everybody else knows it. This was a devastating day for the democrats. [ Inaudible Question ]. A very dumb and very unfair question. Because if you look at his correction, he took that totally out of play. He made his decision based on the facts, not based on some
rule. So you shouldnt even ask that question because you know it is a phony. [ Inaudible Question ]. Go ahead. [ Inaudible Question ]. The democrats had nothing. And now they have less than nothing. And i think theyre going to lose the 2020 election very big including congressional seats because of the path that they chose. Now who knows where it goes. From what i hear, theyre giving up. But what i say, i know them too well. Theyll never give up. Theyll go back into the room and try to figure something out. This whole thing has been honestly it has been collusion. It has been collusion with the media, it has been collusion with other countries, this has been a disaster for the democrats. And i think were going to win bigger than ever. Now im im going to West Virginia, one of the great
states, a state that is doing if you look at percentage up, i think it is number one or number two in the country and nobody would have believed that. West virginia is doing great. So im going to West Virginia. We did have a big case today. We won the asylum case in washington. Which frankly you should be asking about that because that is the real deal. I cant believe how nice you are today. Go ahead, give me a question. My question, mr. President is that you know [ inaudible ]. No, because we did nothing wrong. The answer is very simple. Nothing was done wrong. This is all a big hoax. And if you look at it today, nothing was done wrong. Now, i believe what youre going to find, youre going to find a lot of things that were done very wrong. But that is going on now. That is something you havent been writing about and that has to do with the other sides. That has to do with a thing
called investigative the investigators. Lets see what happens. That is very interesting. [ Inaudible Question ]. Do you think Robert Mueller did a good job where are you at . Look, i think Robert Mueller did a horrible job. Both today and with respect to the investigation. But in all fairness to Robert Mueller, he had nothing to work with. You could be a builder, but if they dont give you the right materials you wont build a very good building. Robert mueller had no material, he had nothing to work with. So obviously he did very poorly today. I dont think there is anybody even among the fakers, i dont think there is anybody that would say he did well. I looked at your people, theyre saying it was devastating for the democrats, and even i will tell you, the two most nauseous and nauseating networks whose ratings have both gone way
down, even they said this is a really bad day for the democrats. So Robert Mueller did a poor job. But in all fairness to him, he had nothing to work with. David . Do you regret not talking to mueller now that youve seen [ Inaudible Question ] look, i saw what he did to people. How he rein he reuned peoples lives because he didnt remember things and they took people and destroyed their lives and went bankrupt because they couldnt afford the legal fees and they were good people, many, many people. So when you ask me that question, all they have to do is see how nice this weather is, if i made a mistake and said i was talking to the media and it was a little bit rainy, a little bit overcast, they would say well we have to do he lied. Let me tell you. Ive seen what they do to people. Ive seen how theyve destroyed people like General Flynn and so many others, what theyve done
to people, no, i did the right thing. [ Inaudible Question ]. Well, mueller had no material. Sure, mueller had no material to work with. And he did a horrible job. Obviously his presentation was way off. But thats okay. It didnt matter. He had no material. There was nothing done wrong. In fact, things were done right. There was nothing done wrong. And certainly look, i read the papers and i read the press and i read the internet and if you see what is going on the internet, if you listen to the internet, this was one of the worst performances in the history of our country. So you know that. You know that very well. But i dont think anybody could have done a good performance. He had no material. It was a fake set of facts that the democrats used to and
others to try and do really an illegal overthrow. But well find out about it. Mr. President [ Inaudible Question ] well the asylum is say it . [ Inaudible Question ]. So the asylum is a very big ruling. It was a tremendous ruling today. We a we appreciate it. We respect the very much. And the numbers are way down at the border which is a good thing. Apprehensions are way down because mexico has now 22,000 soldiers and they mean business because they know what happens. The alternative is not good for them. It is also good for mexico what theyre doing because the cartels have been running all of the border for years and years. And mexico is saying and the president is saying we have to clean it up. So theyve got 21,000 soldiers, theyll probably put up more. But this ruling today on asylum is a tremendous ruling. [ inaudible ] about guatemala. They gave us their word and we were going to sign an agreement and all of a sudden they backed up and said it was their Supreme Court, i dont believe that. But they used the Supreme Court as the reason they didnt want to do it. So well either do tariffs, or well do something. Were looking at something very severe with respect to guatemala. Ive already cut all payments. I did that a year ago. I cut all payments going to honduras, el salvador and guatemala. We used to send them 500 million for nothing. For nothing. They didnt do anything except set up caravans. So guatemala, were going to take care of and it wont even be tough. Were looking at a couple of different things. One of the things very heavy is, as you know, mexico put 6,000 people on that border. [ Inaudible Question ]. What do you say about Robert Mueller [ inaudible ]. Let me just tell you something, i know youre always you always have a question. [ inaudible ]. You mean my white house aides lied. What about his aides. What about muellers aides . And your answers were generally untruthful. What do you think about it. He didnt say that at all. Youre untruthful when you ask that question. When you ask that question, youre untruthful. And you know who else is untruthful . You know who else is untruthful . His aides. And wiseman was untruthful and he got caught just like he did with Author Anderson where he lost in the Supreme Court 90. His aides were very untruthful and they put mueller impeding the investigation not at all and they put mulener a very bad position. His aides put him in a bad
position and if you were ever truthful you would be able to write the truth. You have called so there he is. The president wrapping up an extended question and answer session with reporters on the south lawn of the white house. Just as hes getting ready to board marine one to take him to joint base andrews. Hes flying off to West Virginia later tonight for a political fundraiser. Im wolf blitzer. Welcome to the situation room. Were following lots of Breaking News from the white house, the president declaring total victory going on a tirade about the russia investigation and the report of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The former Special Counsel, i should say. The president said democrats have hurt themselves badly today. He said that will play out dramatically in the 2020 vote. Comments follow seven hours of testimony by mueller before two congressional committees earlier in the day. Mueller defended his investigation into russias attack of the 2016 president ial election and allegations that
President Trump obstructed justice. That he flatly contradicted President Trump telling congress his report did not, repeat, did not exonerate the president and also declaring that his investigation was no witch hunt and russias election interference was no hoax. Our correspondents and analysts are standing by for full reaction to all of the dramatic developments of the day. On edge before the hearings, President Trump as you just saw has undergone a dramatic change of mood. Lets go to our White House Correspondent kaitlan collins. You could see how the president is gloating right now. He thinks this is a huge victory for him and the republicans. Reporter and white house officials said to expect this as they were getting ready for the president to leave the white house because they said he would go over and claim victory in front of reporters and that is what you see the president do there as he spoke with us for about 30 minutes on the south lawn just now. But, wolf, i have to point out a few things the president said. He seemed to misunderstand the correction that Robert Mueller made during the second hearing where he had an exchange with
ted lieu earlier in the day who said was it correct that if not but for the olc opinion that a sitting president could not be indicted, would they have indicted him. And mueller said that was correct. He later came back to say that is not what he meant to say, that he was saying they did not make an assessment on whether or not the president committed a crime due in part to that assessment to that olc guideline. The president seemed to misunderstand that when reporters were asking if there is a concern he could be indicted for crimes once hes out of office. The president repeatedly going after reporters saying those were unfair and fake questions even though he just seemed to misunderstand what that correction was. Secondly, the president spoke with reporters on how he did not sit down with Robert Mueller. Something that Robert Mueller actually shed some light on today about why they didnt pursue that subpoena with the president because he thought it would drag out the investigation and you saw the president telling reporters he thinks he made the right decision in not sitting down with the former Special Counsel. But overall, wolf, the president s overarching theme to
reporters when asked about things that Robert Mueller said including his report did not exonerate the president , the president now is claiming that Robert Mueller never had the right to exonerate him even though, wolf, you know time and time again the president has claimed this is a report that is exonerated him. All of this is part of the president s change in tone from just this morning where he was calling people early in the hours before dawn essentially talking about this being agitated that Robert Mueller was going to be on capitol hill. But after seeing Robert Muellers performance during that first hearing in front of the house Judiciary Committee, aides started to see a change in the president s mood. Where he shifted from being irritated with the Special Counsel, to triumphant and feeling that hes gotten some sense of victory out of all of this. Special did. That was the impression that we all did from the president , very, very pleased. Stand by. I want to bring in our cnn legal analyst laura coates and Shimon Prokupecz and evan perez. First of all, what do you think what we heard from the
president . I think the president said that mueller didnt have anything to work with and i think that is not correct. I think it is clear, as you read this the two volumes of the Mueller Report, there is a lot here and Mueller Today chose essentially not to use all of that. I think i understand that mueller wants to sort of abide by this idea of staying within the four corners of what is the work product, but there is a lot of room there and he chose not to do it. And i think obviously he was an unwilling witness and warned the democrats essentially that he didnt want to be there. And he made that abundantly clear. But on a couple of occasions, especially at the beginning, he made it clear this is not an exoneration of the president. He also in answer to a series of questions said that once the president leaves office it is possible that he could be indicted for some of his conduct. Again those were some of the moments that we were able to get a few things out of mueller. But on The Big Question Of one of the Big Questions going into today was, was this report
essentially a referral to congress, to take this up and handle it in a way that the Justice Department is not allowed to because this is a sitting president. Mueller essentially muddied the waters a lot today. I think he could have been clearer in his answers as to what exactly happened here with what the russians did. And it is not okay. And what perhaps the solution would be for the political branchs of government to do and he did not do that. Shimon, what do you think of muellers performance . I think there were times when he struggled certainly. To me it always seemed like he didnt have a good command of the facts. And this was something that i think i thought a lot about going into this hearing. Will mueller have a good command . Will he know everything that is in this report and in charge of the investigation so we expected him at times to be able to know exactly everything that is in this report. He ran this team. But it looked like many times he was struggling to he didnt understand a lot of questions,
it is granted some of the questions were convoluted and coming at him fast. And the republicans were doing what what you see in a lot of trials, they were just trying to discredit him in any way which way they could. And in an effort to try and essentially impeach him. So, look, the big thing here the president makes a point of this and this is a president who is all about performance, and so hes going to hone in on that and a lot of people are going to hone in on the fact that the performance just wasnt what i think people expected. A shaky performance. That is fair to say. It is. And of course he did not live up to the hype that the democrats said he would be able to. Also, he did not do the heavy lifting that they wanted him to do in the sense of like reading the report for them having the perfect sound bite enunciated and being able to bring color to the otherwise drab 448page report but that failure does not belong to mueller. That is a failure of the strategy of the democrats who thought they could hang their hats on this entirely. Remember, what did he do . He wrote a 448page report with his overall team, did he convey it in the way that would bring color to it . No, he didnt. But that report and all of the information inside of it gave all of the tools that congress would have needed to act in any way they saw fit. They chose to wait for the televised performance and have the movie version be better than the book. It didnt work out for them. They waited three months. They waited three months to do so. And now they have a decision. They have to live with the consequences. This is their bed and theyre lying in it. The president is hyperbolic in the statements about the great failure that it is and saying it was discredited and there are 448 pages of information to work with. Certainly their plan was initially to say here, you heard it, tada and it is everything is great but in reality he said it is not a witch hunt or a hoax and russia is still continuing to interfere with our election and the president may have been compromised in the respect he had some financial thing to gain
with interaction with russia in some way, shape or form, those are meaty sound bites to have. And we Shouldnt Go Away from today without emphasizing how much of a big deal it is. You have a sitting president Whose Campaign knowingly encouraged the help of a hostile foreign power in interference in the election of 2016. And what the reaction so far has been from the political establishment is certainly from one party has been not a big deal. The other side, the democrats have just kind of been focusing on all kinds of other things and in the end nobody is going to do anything about it and so the bottom line is if you are president of the United States, you could get away with anything and do anything you want. The president said that earlier this week. He may be right. Because mueller nobody it appears is going to hold anybody accountable. And shimmon, the president said he did the right thing by refusing to testify to answer questions directly with the Special Counsel and his team
because he said that team is a whole bunch of liars. His lawyers made the right decision and with the president and any good lawyer tells their client dont do it, dont go talk to prosecutors, dont go talk to investigators. It was a smart decision. I think Mueller Today he said, look, i could have subpoenaed him and then he explained much as he did in the report why he didnt go through this and they didnt want to extend the time of the investigation. The other thing to point out is that mueller did give the democrats stuff to work with, right. In terms of the wikileaks stuff, the problematic in terms of the way the president described wikileaks. He said that is problematic is an understatement. The other thing, the questions that the president did answer and the written questions, he did say mueller did say that generally that he did find that the president was not truthful. And i think that was a very significanting moment. There is talk about is mueller going to walk this back now but so far that has not happened and that is a critical point in the
afternoons hearing. Well see if that happens. And this is a legislative body. He clearly said there is s essentially a gap between what we know is wrong and close the gap the legislative body. You are the law. If you dont act, he will remain Above The Law. The ball is in their court. He said it is up to the congress. Stand by. I want to go to capitol hill. Our senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju is joining us. The president just declared total victory. Not necessarily going to have the last word, though, is he . Reporter no, hes not because Speaker Pelosi will address the media . Just a matter of minutes along with adam schiff and jerry nadler, two the chairman who presided over those backtoback hearings. Now shes been Behind Closed Doors talking to members in the aftermath of the mueller hearing and im told from a person in the room that she told that she her members that she respects what they have to do in terms of an Impeachment Inquiry. If they need to support one, essentially, fine, do what is best for your district. Before they get there, moving
forward with an Impeachment Inquiry, they need to have the best possible case in moving forward and that is essentially what shes been saying for some time. That the Court Actions are taking shape, they need to pursue the current investigative route. Well see what she has to say when she talks to the media but Behind Closed Doors shes reiterating what shes been saying for some time but giving a green lights to members if they do want to come out publicly and support an Impeachment Inquiry. Some have started to voice more potential support for an Impeachment Inquiry and one congressman sean maloney who sits on the House Intelligence Committee does not support had not supported opening up an Impeachment Inquiry and told me that it is unavoidable to get to the point of an Impeachment Inquiry and very close and they should move hes moving much closer in getting behind such an idea but not everyone is behind that idea. Another democrat from a moderate district from a Swing District in new jersey, a moderate freshman jeff andrew told me
this is not the time to move federal with impeachment and move on to other issues and in order for the speaker to get behind opening up an impeachment probe, she needs a groundswell of support from freshman and districts that the president carried and people who empowered her to the house majority. If you see those people flip, perhaps she also will flip. But at the moment it appears that more people may call for an Impeachment Inquiry but whether the speak does, though, wolf, is another question. Well stand by with you for nancy pelosi, the speaker to get her reaction. Adam schiff is speaking as well. In the meantime, lets go to a member of the House Intelligence Committee congressman mike quigley of illinos who did some of the questioning today. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. You asked Robert Mueller if he was disturbed by Donald Trumps public encouragement of wikileaks during the 2016 president ial campaign. Let me play that exchange you had with mueller. This just came out, wikileaks, i love wikileaks. Donald trump, october 10th, 2016, this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable, it tells you the inner heart. You gotta read it. Donald trump, october 12th, 2016, this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. Donald trump, october 31, 2016, boy, i love reading those wikileaks. Donald trump, november 4th, 2016, would any of those quotes disturb you, mr. Director . Im not certain i would say how do you react to them . Well, it is probably it is problematic is an understatement. Mueller went on to say, congratulatio congressman he was worried that encouragement could give hope or boost to what is and should be illegal activity. What did you make of that response from the former Special Counsel . It was nice to see him open up. I think he was a little reserved in the rest of this hearing. I think all of this is important to remember, it is also on the
heels of my reminding him that pompeo called wikileaks a hostile intel agency. So we have to remember theyre dangerous and theyre a threat to the American Way Of Life and our security. And here you have the president of the United States praising them and i suppose now calling all of that news fake news. So i welcomed the Special Counsel opening up. I think his years of Law Enforcement reminded him of how dangerous wikileaks is and gave him an opportunity to say what the American Public needed to hear. Mueller was disturbed by that kind of behavior from the Trump Campaign, congressman. But do you think he adequately explained his decision not to prosecute that kind of conduct . I think look, i have all of the respect in the world for the Special Counsel. There is a few things that still trouble me. I thought he bent over backwards not only not indicting the
president of the United States, but refusing to come out in terms of whether or not he obstructed. He clearly could have done that, just as said, in abundance of fairness. He doesnt indict his son because he was ignorant of the law and of course today he talked about this, he refused to subpoena the president of the United States because of time constraints. This is the most important investigation of our lifetime. And whether or not the president of the United States gets to decide whether he responds to a subpoena just because hell act out poorly and fight this out in a court, that was the wrong choice. At times it seemed like mueller wasnt necessarily entirely familiar with sections of the 448page report. Do you believe he had full command of the facts . Look, this is a tough day for him. It is not just seven hours in front of an often hostile audience, but the first half of this was absolutely brutal. He had republican colleagues yelling at him for four and a
half minutes and when he attempted to answer they would interrupt him. They were extraordinarily disrespectful to him. They have absolutely no respect for someone who had coming into this investigation the highest credibility on a bipartisan basis. A war hero and true american. Youre among at least by our count 93 House Democrats who want to begin formal Impeachment Proceedings. But most lawmakers in your own party dont want to go down that path, at least not yet. Do you think muellers testimony today changed enough minds in your party to build momentum toward impeachment . I think it begins organically from the public and obviously we know that only about 3 of the American Public had read the report before today. So the fact that they got seven hours of reinforcement on that will certainly help. It takes a long time to move people, to move that needle. Obviously theyre concerned about the frontliners in the districts who are people that havent decided and we also have
to remember that a lot of this was poison by the fact the first time people heard about this report came from the Attorney General telling people lying to the American Public about what was in the report saying that the president was exonerated. That is a lot to overcome. Never mind that the three years in which the president obstructed the investigation and worked hand and glove with people like chairman nunes to defeat every effort to find out what took place. The president , as you just heard, is taking a victory lap right now. Hes saying this whole thing for the democrats was an embarrassment, a waste of time, the democrats hurt themselves very badly. He went on and on. Do you worry that the testimony today from mueller may have backfired . Look, if all you take from this testimony today was the fact that the russians attacked our democratic process and that process they invited, they incorporated the assistance, they got from the russians into the campaign plan, nobody called
the fbi. In fact, they attacked the fbi. If that helps the president , well then our country has bigger problems. You think muellers reluctant to go beyond the scope of the report underscores the need to bring in witnesses like the former white House Counsel for example don mcgahn . I think it does. I think the bigger part of that look, this is the most important investigation in the report of our lifetime but as important as is what is not in there and the Special Counsel referenced the counterintelligence information. Questions of the possibilities of money laundering. The president of the United States or is the president of the United States compromised . That affects our National Security. So that is why this still has to go forward. The fact that were obstructed all along and the Special Counsel wasnt looking into the financial aspects tells there is still much work to do. Would you like to bring in the fbi director to get questions. What are they doing on the
counterintelligence investigations, where are they and how they are affecting our National Security. So what is your strategy now . Where do you go from here. Look, every day in this investigation is important. But it is like a football game. When someone said that was the most important play of the game, and until the next play. The Investigation Continues because the work really matters. And the issues of counterintelligence should come first. Congressman quigley, thanks so much for joining us. Congressman mike quigley of illinois. Once again standing by to hear from the Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee adam schiff and theyre about to hold a News Conference to make a statement. We just heard from the president. He was gloating. He was very pleased. He said this was a horrible day. A devastating day for the democrats. The democrats he said had nothing and then went on to say they have less than nothing. Lets bring in our Political Legal and National Security experts to assess what is going on. And dana, as we await to hear from the speaker, there is
dramatic reaction unfolding . That is right. As manu was just reporting, the speaker called a very urgent lastminute meeting with members of the caucus and his sources and my sources, the headline that we are hearing from them about her message was basically nothing new. Im going to keep on keeping on. Were going to keep fighting in the courts and keep fighting to get key witnesses who have refused to come before us like don mcgahn who we heard a lot about today and then well see what happens. That is really important because the base people out there who were looking to this day to this testimony as the gamechanger for not just Public Opinion but nancy pelosi and other Democratic Leaders decision to say finally, okay, we are going to begin an Impeachment Inquiry, theyre not going to hear that unless something dramatic changes between now and minutes from now when she takes that
podium, theyre not going to hear that. Shes in the same place that she was. Were not there yet. But she also, as manu said, according to sources, said to the members in the districts who are hearing that groundswell, weve seen 80plus of them say we want Impeachment Proceedings to go ahead, others may add to that because theer because theyre hearing that call. And a lot of democrat were disappointed in muellers performance today. They thought the movie would be better than the book. And theyre not necessarily convinced that it was. Which is why the book is typically always better than the movie. I think mueller himself alluded to what his performance may look like given the fact that he didnt want to be there from the getgo. A lot of what he said in those nine minutes that we heard from him back in may was hopefully, according to him, what we would hear and thats it. You did hear a lot from him today. I think given the number of hours that he was sitting there and with the exception of a few congressmen, it could have been left to nadler and schiff with
regards to the most important and crucial and i think at times when you saw mueller on his game, moments and the exchanges that volleyed back and forth with in particular with schiff and it begs the question and ive been wondering this since we knew the schedule, why it wasnt reversed and why Intel Committee wasnt in the morning and why we didnt have judiciary in the afternoon. Intel was clee was clearly th area where Robert Mueller was most passionate and attacking the elks and he was nervous coming into the Judiciary Panel and had we started the other way around with the arc of a story telling maybe things would have gone different. But hes very different from donald trump. Hes not an attack dog. There were plenty of opportunities where he could have fought back and could have answered in response to some of the attacks that were coming from the republicans, he chose not to. I think donald trump, the president smelled blood and that is why you heard what we did from him. What do you think . I think this is right. You heard adam schiff leading up to this mueller testimony and
hearing that he wanted mueller to bring this to life. And we didnt really see that today. I think mueller was very reluctant obviously to come here and we see today why that was. At times it appeared he didnt know the report as thoroughly as he can and he had his aide there who didnt rely on his aide didnt say anything. He didnt rely on him at all. But that was surprising to a lot of the public who people havent really heard from mueller aside from that statement he gave earlier, all we saw was sort of him on the videos where he looked and sounded like a different person and so i think that is shocking. I do think a lot of democrats, so even base democrats have sort of given up on the idea of mueller as savior in this idea that the general public is going to shift in terms of their feelings about impeachment because of what happened over the last three months. There is all of this wrapped up in mueller in the report and then when it came out there was
sort of a reality that set in among Many Democrats who were among the base. So im going to disagree a little bit here. I agree that Robert Mueller wasnt especially charismatic but what mattered tote was not the performance of Robert Mueller. He would never get up there and put on a big performance. That is just not who he is. The tank the task for the republicans was to attempt to discredit him. They threw him off his game a little bit but they fundamentally didnt achieve that goal. The task on the democrats was to refocus on the substance of the report to make the case to the American People and get the American Peoples attention about what is in the document and i think that if you look at their performance, they did a pretty good job of that. They used slides and pulled out the key moments. Some of those exchanges were really incredibly compelling and so, look, i know it wasnt sort of the gamechanger mueller and him saying i would have indicted him or some piece of information that might have dramatically shifted the conversation, that
said i think today was incredibly consequential and i be i dont buy that the president thinks today was a good day for him and this was a devastating portrait for the white house. And if you look at the totality from the beginning to the end and knew theins a th and outs and the specific jargon absolutely, but in todays twitter age, im not so sure it translated. And the build up. If this just came out two years ago, i think this would have been a bombshell. Weve become numb to this and what was reported by News Organizations over the past two years so none was shocking as one would think. Everybody stand by. I want to go to congressman Hakeem Jeffries of new york. A member of the Judiciary Committee and chairman of the House Democratic caucus. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. So were you disappointed or do you believe Robert Mueller did accomplish what he needed to do today . Well he told a story to the American People based on the
facts that were gathered over a 22month long investigation. We didnt expect to hear from robert red ford, we experted to hear from Robert Mueller. And he is a marine, hes a great american, hes a patriot. Hes a talented Law Enforcement professional. And he laid out a devastating case that compares and contrasts with the lies that have been pedalled by donald trump out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Donald trump said the whole russia thing is a hoax. Bob mueller made clear that russia attacked our democracy in sweeping and systematic fashion. Donald trump said this whole Russian Investigation is a witch hunt. Bob mueller made clear that the Trump Campaign at the highest levels welcomed russian interference with the election that was designed to benefit donald trump. Donald trump said that he was totally and completely
exonerated. Become made clear there was Obstruction Of Justice committed by the president. During your questioning of Mueller Today, congressman, you did lay out your case that President Trump obstructed justice but Mueller Today you he didnt necessarily subscribe to your legal analysis. Were you disappointed that he wouldnt give a clear answer on whether or not he believes the president committed obstruction . It was important for him to acknowledge the three elements of Obstruction Of Justice, that we laid out on Obstructive Act and a connection to a official proceeding and Corrupt Intent were found in terms of the evidence that was laid out in the report. He didnt resist the questioning in that regard. He acknowledged that those elements had effectively been met. He declined to bring the three elements together at the end. But i didnt expect that to be done. The American People will have to decide whether his testimony speaks for itself. Were you disappointed that
mueller wouldnt say whether or not the president would have been indicted if not for that longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cant be charged or indicted . That is affectively what he said. That is how i perceived his testimony. And, again, bob mueller indicated he was going to stick to the script. But much of the script had not been brought to light to the American People. Because the overwhelming majority of the American People had not read the report. Understandably given they are living daytoday, week to week, check to check. And that is why today was an important step forward. But it is just the beginning not the end. Well continue to follow the facts, apply the law and be guided by the constitution. Throughout both hearings, the judiciary and intelligence, mueller declined to answer a whole bunch of questions that lawmakers were asking him. In general, was he transparent enough, congressman, were you satisfied with his testimony . We were satisfied with his testimony to the extent that we
understood he was going to stay within the four corners of the report. And he didnt resist democrats on either Judiciary Committee or the Intelligence Committee when we pointed him specifically to the devastating findings that had been laid out in both volume one and volume two. Where, again, he repeatedly found instances of substantial evidence to suggest that the president engaged in Obstruction Of Justice and he also made clear that Obstruction Of Justice is a serious crime. That undermines the rule of law and very fabric of our legal system in the United States of america. That was important. By our count, at least 93, maybe 94 House Democrats support starting formal Impeachment Proceedings, before todays hearing you were not along the lawmakers. Did muellers testimony today change your mind . Well, it is a Building Block in terms of determining The Ultimate Accountability That Trump Needs To Con Front based
on the fact that we believe in america no one is Above The Law. Certainly not the president of the United States of america. The House Democratic caucus part of my job is to make sure we embrace the perspective of every Single Member within the caucus and were in the process of having conversations about how to move forward right now. So you havent changed your mind, at least not yet, is that right. Not yet. What would it take for you to change your mind . Well, again, were going to gather all of the information necessary and then collect tiffly deci tiff collectively proceed on accountability for this president and the right thing to do to promote the rule of law consistent with the constitution and proceed in a fashion that keeps the country together. Because you just said no one is Above The Law including the president of the United States. So if impeachment is the only remedy for a president who breaks the law, why are you so still so reluctant to join inju to join your colleagues in supporting a impeachment
inquiry. Mueller made clear there are two approaches. One there is the congressional processes as he put it, known as impeachment, to hold the president accountable. He also opened the door to the notion that upon completion of a president s term that the president could then be indicted for crimes that were committed in office. This is a variety of different pathways to explore. We want to make sure that we do what the right thing is for this country. And i know you have to run. One final question to react to what we heard from the president just moments ago when he said this whole thing has been an embarrassment for the democrats, a waste of time for the democrats, the democrats hurt themselves very badly. What do you say to the president . The president hasnt been completely and totally exonerated. Hes a complete and total embarrassment and sooner rather than later this Long National nightmare that is the President Trump presidency will be over. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Back to dana and the team over here. What do you think . Well the fact that he, who has been squarely in the lane of nancy pelosi on impeachment is saying were not there yet, that gives you a very good indicator of what were going to hear from the speaker herself very shortly. He sounds different from jerry nadler for example, who chaired the first hearing today and has been technically on board with the leadership but privately weve been reporting and been told for some time has been more inclined to begin Impeachment Proceedings which would happen in his committee. But the fact that he explicitly said, mmhmm not yet, there is no groundswell yet, that is likely what were going to hear from the house speaker. But she might put maybe a half a toe in further than she has before given the fact that weve moved forward with the calendar and with the process hearing from mueller. Showing our viewers live pictures from where nancy pelosi, the speaker will be
coming in. I think shell be joined by adam schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and maybe jerry nadler, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. They were holding the hearings today. Well see what she has to say. That could be, bianna, very significant. It could. But i agree with dana after hearing from representative Hakeem Jeffries that there is still more digging to do. And they seem confident there is more information that they want to get specifically from some Star Witnesses like mcgahn on the issue of obstruction, they have more questions there. And i think ultimately when it comes to the president s behavior with records to his response to russia attacking the u. S. Election system, it is going to be the next front that they approach because if there is any takeaway from what you heard today, from Robert Mueller, is the russians continue to attack and they will likely attack in 2020 and not only the russians but the russians and nothing to his satisfaction is being done to address that. And the idea that he sort of fears this is the new normal. That someone could get away with taking information from a foreign power or using that information from a foreign power, yeah, agree that Hakeem Jeffries said it is just the beginning, not the end. So for democrats who might be disheartened by what they saw today, here he was rallying the troops basically saying there is more to come. Whether or not that means bringing somebody like don mcgahn who was very much a subject today of questioning for bob mueller because he was so crucial in terms of the allegations around the president obstructing justice. So well see. But i think hes a good soldier and he probably represents twothirds of where democrats are now in terms of Impeachment Inquiry. I think there is one thing incredibly interesting and consequenceal from the republicans today and that is that they were not disputing the factual assertions in muellers report. They were talking about the steele dossier, quibbling over the legal technicalities, but by Enlarge Implicit in the questions was their assumption
that don mcgahn is telling the truth and donald trump is lying. That james comey is telling the truth and donald trump is lying. That the Trump Campaign was aware of the russian efforts to interfere in the election. That they sought to actively encourage, they welcomed help from wikileaks. We saw them quoting the lines of the the democrats quoting the lines of the report back to Robert Mueller. We didnt see any effort by the republicans to suggest that somehow Robert Mueller had gotten this story wrong. And to the extent that part of muellers mandate was to sort of come up with the common set of facts that all americans are going to agree on moving forward, he appears to have actually accomplished that task. Even on some of the most astonishing and consequential things that we see in that document. Which is what adam schiff was trying to focus on and in his closing moments with Robert Mueller saying the standard for this country cannot be so low that just as long as the president doesnt commit a crime makes everything okay. And i think he effectively conveyed that Thought Process as well. The president has often said
he had total exoneration from this investigation. Mueller made it clear today that is not true. Listen to the exchange he had with jerry nadler, the chairman of the committee. Ill read it to you. What about total exoneration . Jerry nadler said. Did you totally exonerate the president. Muellers answer no. That was the first q a exchange of the day. And still i think the most dramatic. In the first break i said they probably could have ended the days hearing right there and gotten what they wanted in terms of hearing from the Special Counsel mouth the substance of what really matters to democrats, aside from the mettling in american elections which is huge but just on the obstruction question that hearing from his mouth what it said in the report and most
importantly the way it contradicted what weve heard from the president over and over again. No, he did not exonerate the president. He, mueller, would not go a step further despite democrats trying many, many times in saying but i do believe that he committed a crime. And one thing we saw democrats attempting to do was walk through all of the statutory elements. Getting Robert Mueller to say, yes, this element was, and yes, that element was met. And mueller said that doesnt mean im agreeing with your characterization and i see where youre trying to lead me and im not playing that game and the message from Robert Mueller was it is your decision, it is this bodys decision whether or not a crime was committed here. My work here is done. I have developed a factual evidence. I have developed evidence on every single criminal element. Ive put it for you in a report and on your desk and i wouldnt do this work any longer. Now it is your turn to decide whether or not you are prepared to confront what is in the document and what it means for
the future of the country. And that is always been the case, right . Since this report was released, they have had all of this information. You had mueller affirm what was in that report over and over again today. But it is going to ultimately be up to democrats, what do they want to do and could they keep slow walking this in the way they have been. Essentially saying were waiting for more facts, we want a more compelling case, they have the case. It is there. Robert mueller laid it out pretty convincingly in his report. And i think that is the reason to be a little bit suspicious of do we know if there is a groundswell or not . By all indications nancy pelosi has been Holding Things off here. Shes trying to keep it at bay. So were seeing more and more it is early more members i think youre right. This just happened. Well see what happens. And the issue is the way this plays politically is that what you just said, Robert Mueller giving the message, okay, congress, this is up to you,
that was the message but never actually said that because that is not his way and had he said that, which is what the democrats were desperate for, for him to say here is my road map and i couldnt indict because constitutionally it is congress that has to deal with the president of the United States, ball is in your court. He never went that far. That is not to say this is a total victory for republicans because what republicans were focusing on was the origins of the investigation. Here comes nancy pelosi. Shes walking in and it looks like jerry nadler. That is jerry nadler. Hes there as well. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Good evening, everyone. Sorry for the delay. It has been a pretty interesting day. A historic one as a matter of fact. A day in which the former Special Counsel affirmed in public what the Mueller Report put forth. It is a crossing of a threshold
in terms of the Public Awareness of what happened and how it conforms to the law, or not. The president likes to have his poster that said the Mueller Report took this many days and cost this many money and this and that and the other, we have a corresponding contradictory chart. Mueller investigation by the numbers. 40 million recovered for the u. S. Government. Remember, he said how much it would cost, less than that. 37 people and entities charged with crimes. 25 ongoing criminal cases referred. Seven convicted including five top Trump Campaign officials. And then he had no collusion, no this or that. Ten instances of obstruction, yes. No exoneration. That is some of what we heard today. I just want to go to another
point. That at the same time as were on this path of the Mueller Investigation to recognize that the Mueller Investigation was prohibited from looking into the president s finances. And that is what our committee of jurisdiction had been doing. As we legislative, for the good of the American People, were t court. And those cases weve won in loafer courts, they, of course, appealed. We feel strongly that the position of article 1 having oversight, and that means we can show the American People what the Obstruction Of Justice was further all about. Im very, very proud of our committees. The Judiciary Committee and its
great chairman, jerry nadler, the Intelligence Committee, great chairman adam schiff. Were going to hear from them. Were also joined by elijah cummings, chair of the government reform and oversight committee, a committee that is winning its court in case as well. Im going to yield with Great Respect to all three of our chairmen and then well take some questions. First i yield to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, mr. Nadler. Thank you, madam speaker. Today the American People heard directly about what the Special Counsel investigation uncovered. As for russias interference in the 2016 election and the president s cooperation with it and Obstruction Of Justice. Mueller made clear that the president is not exonerated. Mueller found Obstruction Of Justice and abuses of power by the president. The report said the president could be indicted for
Obstruction Of Justice after he leaves office. Mueller found that trump would and did benefit from russias help and that the Campaign Welcomed that help. Mueller found instances where all three were met. Trying to cover up for him, for the same purpose, trying to impede or restrict the Special Counsels investigation, trying to tamper with witnesses, tamper with witnesses, cooperate with investigators. All of these were found with great evidence. President trump went through Great Lengths to obstruct the Special Counsels investigation. Anyone else who acted in this w way, if this weey were not the sitting president , would face criminal prosecution, would face indictments. Only the legal counsels offices opinion that you cant indict a sitting president is saving the president from indictment. Because all the elements of these crimes were found with substantial evidence, and the people have now heard this, the president s chant of no obstruction is nonsense, his chant that hes been totally exonerated is a simple lie. First of all, i want to thank Director Mueller for his Lifetime Service to the country, through his days in vietnam and his dedication of service as a prosecutor, as a director of the fbi and through his service as Special Counsel, this nation owes him an enormous debt of gratitude. So Director Mueller, i want to thank you personally for all of your service. Today the director outlined in
powerful words how russia intervened massively in our election, systemically in a sweeping fashion, how during the course of that interference, the Trump Campaign welcomed it, made full use of it, put it into its communications and messaging strategy and then lied about it. Lied about it to cover it up, lied about it to obstruct the investigation into that very attack on our democracy. Part of what i found so powerful about his testimony today was not when he was asked about the law, but when he was asked about the ethics, the morality, the lack of patriotism of his conduct. I think the chilling moment was when he expressed the fear that this has become the near normal. And, of course, i think what is animating that fear of the direct director, what certainly animates it for me, is the fact that even after the nightmare of the last two and a half years, the president of the United States will still not forswear receiving foreign help again, that to this point the president still continues to call this russian attack on our democracy a hoax, something that director Mueller Today directly refuted, that he still calls a witch hunt, something that director Mueller Today directly refuted. And so we go into this next election more vulnerable than we should be. We cant control completely what russia does, although we must do everything we can to harden our election defenses to make sure there are paper trails, to make sure that we deter and disrupt any kind of russian intervention, but we cannot control that completely but we can control what we do. And Director Mueller made it
clear in no Uncertain Terms that its up to us whether we act ethically and patriotically, whether we refuse to be a party to a foreign attack on our democracy, and once again, i thank him for his service. Thank you. Elijah . Thank you very much. I first want to thank Chairman Nadler who heads our Judicial Committee and ofor what they di today in their committees. What they did was paint a picture for america. One of the most chilling things that i have noticed that ive witnessed is when a member former member of our committee, mr. Amash, a republican, went to
a Town Hall Meeting and got a round of applause in a republican district after he had said that he felt that the president should be impeached. But that wasnt the thing that got me. What really got me was when a lady at the end of the Town Hall Meeting said, i didnt know that there was anything negative in the Mueller Report about President Trump. That says a lot. And to her credit, our speaker made it clear that we need to paint a picture for america so that they could fully understand what is going on. This is a critical moment in our countrys history. Dont be fooled. And it is a moment which people will be talking about and reading about three, four
hundred, five hundred years from now. And theyre going to ask the question, what did you do when we had a president who knew the rules and knew that our Founding Fathers had done a great job of creating a constitution and had put in all the guardrails but never anticipate that we would have a president that would just throw away the guardrails. And thats why what happened today is so critical. It was a giant step in making sure that the American People were got a picture of all of this and hopefully will look toward the future and say, were not going to have this. Both mr. Nadler and mr. Schiff said something thats very critical. This isnt normal. And we have gotten were now
getting so used to normal to this kind of conduct by our president , and by the way, our Attorney General and our republican colleagues, that it looks like were just going to accept it. Well, we refuse to accept it. And in my committee we constantly, and i know schiff and nadler have heard this. Oh, you just dont like the president. Its not about liking the president , its about loving democracy. Its about loving our country. Its about making a difference for generations yet unborn. Thats what this is all about. And im begging im begging the American People to Pay Attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children and your childrens children and generations yet
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