poll, we'll be showing later on today. 50% of republicans believe that robert mueller ran a fair investigation. it's going to be a little harder for the president to vilify robert mueller and have credibility when actually the majority of his own party who usually follows him wherever he goes believed that this guy ran a fair investigation against donald trump. >> yeah, there's no doubt about that, joe, but you more than anyone would know that this is an opportunity for individual members of congress to get their face on tv, to try for one of those viral moments that everyone seeks in politics and so i expect today the democrats will come away a bit d disappointed in bob mueller's straight down the line testimony, and republicans will overreach in going after mr. mueller. >> and joe, let's go back to the beginning of this. march 22nd is when the report came out. two days later, attorney general barr put out his four page summary, which misrepresented the report itself. bob mueller sent a letter to the attorney general stating as much, and when bob mueller came out and made his 8,

have been overnight developments involving a last-minute request by robert mueller. what are you learning now? >> reporter: yeah. sensitive negotiations having going up until the last minute of this high profile high stakes hearing in the aftermath of robert mueller making a request to have his top deputy testify -- to sit along side him and actually be sworn in. republicans objected to that request but it was allowed for him to sit next to robert mooul per. he's not expected to speak at the judiciary committee but the intelligence committee will actually swear him in so he can answer questions potentially about personnel matters. republicans have a lot of questions about that. we'll see how he answers. adam schiff told us last night that he actually believes that zebly won't overshadow. the justice department is trying to limit mueller's testimony to essentially the boundary os of the mueller report. he said there's nothing that binds you to that report. he sent this letter to mueller telling him he's free to testify. at the same time, there deliberations have been intensive beh

for the new yorker and new york times magazine. last year you worked on a profile of robert mueller for gq. when he breaks his silence again tomorrow and testifies before the house judiciary committee and then the house intel committee what are you expecting from him? >> from what we've seen it sounds like it's going to be a lot of reiterating of what we have already written the report. one thing that's very interesting to me is there is so much ambiguity and legal hairsplitting in the language of the report he may inadvertently have to deviate from it a little bit just to put it in plain english and a way that people can understand particularly about the decisions about whether to prosecute and whether to charge. it's all very technical when you read it in text. a back-and-forth exchange he might have to put a finer point on things. i think we will see him avoiding strenuously having to do that and go beyond the four corners of the document. host: the gq profile that you wrote before the mueller report came out. have brought the report here on the desk with us. in the story you write t

. "new day" continues right now. >>> it's finally here. robert mueller testifies today. >> the president and the attorney general have systemically lied to the person people. >> this whole narrative that was out there that they keep talking about was not there. >> i've heard all i need to hear from mueller. i read his report. i accept the findings. i don't think it's going to change the public opinion. >> the republicans are going to try to be disruptive of this. this is important. they want to be prepared. >>> welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is a special edition of "new day." live from washington for an event more than two years in the making. we want to show you the scene right now in the hallway outside the hearing room. >> this is the mueller hearing. >> no, it's the political version of the who right now. because they are lined up waiting for history. there are people there holding seats. some of them have been there all night. there are people sleeping outside to get a seat inside this room for this moment in history. why? well,

robert mueller. this special counsel's office could not have been convened and could not have sustained itself to the completion of the final report under anyone other than somebody like robert mueller with the reputation for integrity and a rigor that he accomplished and his decades in public service. it maybe had to be robert mueller who was the name special counsel. it's clear from his performance he didn't do all this work himself. the report felt like the work of his staff and not his. he was taking it for granted that whatever the member of congress was reading to him must be in the report. you didn't necessarily have in mind that he 4 the whole thing in his head. all the more reason for us to hear from the members of his team who did the work when the details of the work and the decision making behind it is important in terms of what we don't understand as a country. >> the best version of a hearing is a minimum of four of these staff people two from volume and when the questions asked, they could decide which is the best 1 to answer it. who has the best information. th

write that the quiet of robert mueller is part of the uniform. what do you mean by that? >> yes. i was kind of writing about mueller the man. it's very hard to get close to him. he had an inner circle of people and none of them would talk to me either. the spokesperson for his office wouldn't talk to me. i had to go a few rings out to people that had kind of glancing encounters with him. i think as everyone anxiously awaited the release of the report there was a kind of mystique that formed around him that he personally embodied the truth about this great controversy over what happened in the last election and that he personally was going to be capable of getting to the bottom of it and with president trump noisily remarking on every development and then mueller doing exactly the opposite i think it kind of -- a kind of fascination formed around this vacuum. host: do you think that mystique was broken with the release of the report or the less than 10 minute news conference he had after the report came out? >> no. i think the people who are waiting, who think that he holds the answ

intelligence committee adam schiff has sent a letter to robert mueller contradicting the letter that the justice department said to -- sent to robert mueller last night. the justice department letter to robert mueller insisted that he comply with very strict restrictions on his testimony that would mean, in effect, he could not say anything that does not appear in print in the mueller report already. chairman schiff's letter to robert mueller tonight says, "the doj letter attempts unduly to sir come scribe your testimony and represents yet another attempt by the trump administration to obstruct the legitimate investigations of the committee and accordingly i fully expect that the doj letter will have no bearing on your testimony before the committee tomorrow." robert mueller is going to have help in his testimony to congress tomorrow. also the breaking news tonight, attorney aaron zebley will be sworn in as a witness along with robert mueller at the house intelligence committee hearing. aaron zebley will also accompany robert mueller to the house judiciary committee hearing but will at t

c-span, former special counsel robert mueller testifies before the house judiciary committee about the investigation into whether president trump obstructed the probe into russian interference in the 2016 campaign. we will show you as much as possible until the house gavels and for general speeches at 10:00 a.m.. at noon the house is expected to consider several bills under suspension of the rules including one authorizing state programs for fiscal year 2020 and another making tax changes for married same-sex couples. the centage returns to take up several executive and judicial nominations including the head of the federal aviation administration. you can watch that on c-span two. on c-span three, live coverage of former special counsel's testimonyller's before the house judiciary committee. at noon he will testify before the house intelligence committee. next, your calls and comments on robert mueller testify before the house judiciary committee and house intelligence committee later today. washington journal is next. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our repo

it and with president trump noisily remarking on every development, and robert mueller doing exactly the opposite, i think a kind of fascination for around any noise or indication from his side. host: to you think that mystique was broken with the release of the report, or the less than 10 minute news conference that he had came out? , the: no, i think it people who are waiting for, thinking he holds the answers, they have kept pushing the delivery of those answers forward. now it is the hearing tomorrow. i think there is a gap between robert mueller, the pop-culture figure, the fbi guy who is going to solve this for us finally, and robert mueller, the man. , i think we'll see those entities converge and walk away with a more realistic picture of who this person is, which should help us read the report with clear eyes. host: we will find out starting live at 8:30 eastern on c-span as well as when we will carry those hearing from beginning to end. is a place you can go to watch it. if you want to talk about robert mueller, his life and his qualities as a prosecutor, as an at t

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 don't give you the right materials you won't build a very good building. robert mueller had no material, he had nothing to work with. so obviously he did very poorly today. i don't think there is anybody even among the fakers, i don't think there is anybody that would say he did well. i looked at your people, they're 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 you've seen -- [ inaudible question ] >> look, i saw what he did to people. how he rein -- he reuned people's lives because he didn't remember th

tomorrow wasn't going to be robert mueller's testimony in congress, there's already a lot going on, right? i mean, today, for example, just tonight we just got a new secretary of defense. another lobbyist. so now there's a lobbyist for coal companies running the epa, a lobbyist for oil companies running the interior department, a guy who ran the lobbying efforts for big pharmaceutical firms running health and human services and now a lobbyist for raytheon, one of the biggest defense contractors on earth, running the defense department. perhaps you are noticing a theme here. the president literally gave in his big re-election kickoff rally, literally gave this speech about how he was destroying the unholy alliance of lobbyists and special interests who were bleeding our country dry. we've now got lobbyists running each of their respective agencies in the cabinet. including the pentagon. today also, our closest overseas ally, the united kingdom, went through its own iteration of our 2016 presidential election when the tragicomic bumbling trump-like pro-brexit character boris johnson

the judiciary committee is going to go first with robert mueller. they are scheduled to gavel in their hearing at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. you'll probably want to be watching ahead of that. we are expecting that robert mueller will give an opening statement to both the judiciary committee and then a different opening statement when he testifies before the intelligence committee in the afternoon. neither of the committees is apparently being given a hds up about those opening statements ahead of time, nor is the justice department and we in the press certainly haven't seen anything in advance. so right off the bat there will be surprises. again, recapping the news we learned this hour, we expect that mueller's dupe, aaron zebley, his chief of staff when he was fbi director and apparently running the day-to-day operations at the special counsel's office, he'll be seated beside mueller during his morning testimony with judiciary, although he won't be sworn in and testifying himself. and then in the afternoon we expect zebley to be sworn in separately and testifying and answering ques

greater when robert mueller enters the room. host: that is the judiciary committee starting at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow. we will aerate live here on c-span and on c-span -- air it's live here on c-span3 and on c-span's radio app. new, the action turns to the house intelligence committee. explain what they will be looking at and why. guest: there will be a short break and the intel committee will convene in the same room. they will be focused on volume one of the report, which analyzes russian attempts to interfere in the election and trump campaign parts contact figures,ia, primary and i expect lawmakers to drill on those contacts, and democrats , why they believe them to raise national security risks or implications, and why they see the contacts as nefarious. mueller did not charge anyone associated with the campaign with conspiring with russia to interfere in the election, but the democrats say many of those contacts or troubling. the trump campaign sought russia -- they welcomed the wikileaks releases of hillary clinton's emails, so i expect them to drill down on that. host: why will they

, according to robert mueller. it is wrong, it is unethical. coming from a person who said repeatedly today that he was blocked from justice department policy from bringing an indictment against the president, even if he had wanted to, you know, maybe that rings a little hollow for him to say, yeah, that might have been a crime. maybe it is, you know, just interesting, just dismaying to hear the actions of the president of the united states described as unpatriotic and unethical and wrong, like, maybe that's just a bummer, you know, maybe that's a terrible thing to hear about your country and its leader. except special counsel mueller made clear today under close questioning that there is more to it than that. >> the need to act in an ethical manner is not just a moral one, but when people act unethically it also exposes them to compromise, particularly in dealing with foreign powers. is that true? >> true. >> because when someone acts unethically in connection with a foreign partner, that foreign partner can later expose their wrongdoing and extort them. >> true. >> and that conduct,

roundtable discussion on the robert mueller hearing that will be taking center stage on capitol hill tomorrow. joining us for this discussion this morning is morgan chalfant, national security reporter for the hill. andrew desiderio congressional reporter for a p olitico. explain what the judiciary committee is going to be covering and why. it will focus on volume two that focuses on the idea that the president was seeking to obstruct the robert mueller investigation. have of democrats so far said essentially that the evidence is clear that the president at least sought to of shut the investigation. but the decision was made not to charge the president with a crime, in part because of the office of legal counsel opinion that we have been talking about you cannot indict a sitting president. the only way to hold that isting president accountable outside the criminal justice system. those are the issues the committee will look into. the big issue on everyone mine will be impeachment and whether the house judiciary committee will move through that after the hearing. that remains to be se

something to watch. breaking news about robert mueller's testimony to the house judiciary and intelligence committee and we will get to that in a moment. if you are going to follow the democratic debates and figure out which approach to health care is the best. the biden approach of strengthening the affordable care act or medicare for all, none of those are possible if the democrats don't have 60 votes in the senate. right now they are 13 votes shy of 60 votes in the san jose. they are four votes shy of knocking mitch mcconnell out of the leader's position and installing chuck schumer. this is by far the most election coming up, but the second most important elections are the united states senate elections because if mitch mcconnell continues to control the senate, he might decide not to confirm a single federal judge or justice nominated by president sanders or warren or harris or president biden or whoever the next democratic president turns out to be. if your favorite candidate manages to drive trump out of the pedestrian, but mitch mcconnell controls the senate, trumpism

. cnn is learning new details about what robert mueller is requesting before he testifies. the former special counsel making an 11th hour appeal to the committee. >> this is a last ditch request that was made by a special counsel that caused republicans to raise alarms. he's asking that his deputy be sworn in tomorrow to answer any questions that may come up that perhaps the special counsel cannot fully answer. and instead have zebley answer those questions instead. republicans are saying this should not be agreed to. they're saying this is unprecedented. it would undercut integrity of the committee. democrats have not agreed to this yet, but i am told from a source familiar with the mat te, zebley will be there as a counsel for the hearing tomorrow, will sit next to him. it's not clear if he will be sworn in, that's what the republicans are concerned about. they show how sensitive these negotiations have been. all right democrats have been preparing behind the scenes. some democrats including joaquin castro believes tomorrow's hearing could change the dial and raise the prospects of

of robert mueller under oath. he is set to testify publicly about his investigation into russia's attack on the 2016 election here in the united states and allegations of obstruction by the president. i'm wolf blitzer. >> and i'm jake tapper. it is a doubleheader, of course. he'll before the judiciary committee. democrats there would like mueller to say whether president trump would have been charged if he was not a sitting president. but mule har has made it clear he wants to stick to the 448-page report and not deviate from it in any way. >> the judiciary hearing is expected to last about three hours and then the intelligence comittee will focus in on russia's election influence. >> this could potentially be a do or die moment f. for republican, on the other hand, it could be a chance to close the book. for president trump the stakeerize huge. he has stepped up attacks. let's turn to cnn justice correspondent jessica schneider right now standing by at the justice department. jessica, what's the latest there. >> reporter: well, jake, we just saw robert mueller walk into capitol h

>> i love my job and consider my job to be the single greatest job in the country. that said, a day like today is something special. i hope that members of congress and the leadership in congress recognizes that open hearings before the cameras are really, really important for the country in terms of dealing with even the most controversial issues in terms of airing out stuff that we are fighting about as citizens and partisans and independents and voters and when it matters to the country, having us all have the same information is solid to move forward with a higher level conversation and more constructively debate and enables us to be better citizens. i'm super glad that congress had open hearings and hope they are the first of many and ready to hear from every member of muelleray team and being able to talk about this a real privilege. we will see you again tomorrow. good evening, lawrence. >> i love your job. it's the most important job in the world to me because it makes this job so much easier to follow you. your point is so important about what today's hearings represent and what future hearings could be. hearing from the mueller team as many members of the mueller team as possible is important. there was a team, as you know, working exclusively on volume one and another team working exclusively on volume two. they have such a command of the detail of everything in that investigation and their own reactions to it that would be so invaluable to be hearing. >> essentially today now that we have heard from robert mueller. this special counsel's office could not have been convened and could not have sustained itself to the completion of the final report under anyone other than somebody like robert mueller with the reputation for integrity and a rigor that he accomplished and his decades in public service. it maybe had to be robert mueller who was the name special counsel. it's clear from his performance he didn't do all this work himself. the report felt like the work of his staff and not his. he was taking it for granted that whatever the member of congress was reading to him must be in the report. you didn't necessarily have in mind that he 4 the whole thing in his head. all the more reason for us to hear from the members of his team who did the work when the details of the work and the decision making behind it is important in terms of what we don't understand as a country. >> the best version of a hearing is a minimum of four of these staff people two from volume and when the questions asked, they could decide which is the best 1 to answer it. who has the best information. they can tag team on answers in the interest of creating the best possible well of information that the congress with have. >> exactly. i'm sure the prosecutors and the fbi special agent who is worked with robert mueller are cringing, hearing us talking about this. i'm sure it's the last thing they want to do. if you spent the last 22 months working with robert mueller on this issue of national importance, you do not want robert mueller's testimony to be the last word anybody ever hears from your team. i'm sure you don't want it to revert to your findings and the president calling it names. to the extent that the work doesn't speak for itself and we all know it doesn't and the people who created this work product ask did this investigation do need to understand the implications and what needs to be revealed. the other people will have to do it. their service is not yet over. i'm sure they would love it to be, but they need the country to understand what they have been through. >> one thing i'm glad about is the detail of negotiation that robert mueller went through in scheduling these hearings and demanding a time limit to each one of the hearings. what that seemed to do was force discipline and the content of how they used their minutes. what is clear about it is each side was disciplined in the way they were approaching this. the bottom bast was reduced on the republican side. it was like they were two different hearings. certainly on the democratic side where they were very interested in getting all of the information they possibly could from the report out there on the table. the discipline was something i haven't seen the likes of in a long time. >> not to say that it was and everybody covered themselves in glory. there was speechifying and people reading a carefully drawn sez of questions and when mueller gave them unexpected answers, they didn't know where to pick back up and they were putting the right emphasis on the right syllable. you had a few experience theories from a couple of republican members. they complained that fox news was not cited enough. that was a laugh out loud moment. the chairman of the two committees led in a way that was very instructive and very helpful. both nadler and schiff themselves covered so much ground so expertly and nimbly at the start. at the on set of the hearings. i think it helped and today's hearing was an exercise in public education that is going to make us smarter and make us deal with the issue in a way that is way more substantive. >> we had two members of the committees joining us and we will have a lot of help analyzing. >> something to look forward to. >> thank you, rachel. >> we will need a lot of help to cover today's hearings. we'll be joined by members of the committees who were in those hearings and will rely on a strong panel of experts for insights on what happened in the hearings. former watergate prosecutor jill wine banks and mika o yang who used to sit in the chairs right behind the members. she will be sitting with us. instead price is here, the senior director from the obama administration. ron is here and held more important jobs including the senate judiciary committee and the obama white house. we will get their analysis after we review the video. for those of you who couldn't watch all seven hours of hearings, in other words, almost all of you, we will present a both summary of both hearings before our panel of experts contributes on what happened today. before we will be joined by members of the house judiciary and the house intelligence who participated in the hearings. in his opening statement in the first hearing at the judiciary hearing, robert mueller accepted the ground rules suggested to him in a justice department letter this week. >> the justice department has asserted privileges concerning investigative information and decisions. ongoing matters within the justice department and deliberations within our office. these are justice department privileges that i will respect. >> and with that, robert mueller guaranteed that he would end up refusing to answer dozens and dozens of questions and ended up using the ground rules to refuse to answer over 100 questions, mostly because the answers would have required him to reveal "deliberations within our office," as he put it. that left time to frame yes or no questions that were confined to what has already been revealed in the mueller report. chairman nadler began with taking apart president trump's claim that robert mueller did not find evidence of obstruction of justice and the mueller report totally exonerated the president. >> he did not commit obstruction of justice, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> what about total exoneration. >> no. >> chairman nadler demolished the claim that the president fully cooperated with the investigation. >> did the president refuse to request to be interviewed by you and your team? >> yes. >> is it true you tried for more than a year to secure an interview with the president? >> yes. >> is it true that you and your team advised the lawyer that an interview with the president is vital to our investigation? >> yes. >> is it true that you also stated that it is in the interest of the public to take place? >> yes. >> here still refused to sit for an interview with you or your team? >> true. >> the republicans seemed to suggest that the president could not be guilty of obstruction of justice if he tried to fire robert mueller, but did not succeed in firing robert mueller. >> was your investigation curtailed or stopped or hindered? >> no. >> he identified what the russian objective was in attacking our election process. >> did your investigation find that the russian government perceived it would benefit from one of the candidates winning? >> yes. >> which candidate would that be? >> well, it would be trump. >> no republican in either hearing today was even slightly interested in why the russians wanted donald trump to win the election. they worked as hard as they did to help donald trump win. some republicans could not understand why a prosecutor would be investigating the president for obstruction of justice if the prosecutor was not allowed, according to justice department rules, to indict the president for obstruction of justice. mueller had the answer for them. >> you don't know where the investigation is going to lie and olc opinion itself said you can continue the investigation even though you are not going to indict the president. >> several republicans on the judiciary committee wanted to talk about the fbi investigation of the russian attack on our election that began during the election campaign in 2016. robert mueller was not involved in that investigation that occurred during the presidential campaign and refused to answer all of those questions. no republican was interested in the details of the obstruction of justice evidence that the mueller report outlined against the president. but the democrats were. >> based upon your investigation, how did trump react to your appointment of special counsel? >> again, i will send you the report where that is stated. >> there is a quote from page estate 78 of volume two. when sessions told the president that the special counsel had been appointed, the president slumped back in his chair and said "oh, my god, this is terrible. this is the end of my presidency. i'm f'ed." . >> you said in your report news of the obstruction investigation prompted the president to call mcgahn and seek to have the special counsel removed. director mueller, the most important question i have for you today is why? director mueller, why did the president of the united states want you fired? >> oh. i can't answer that question. >> that shouldn't happen in america. no president should be able to escape investigation by abusing his power. but that's what you testified to in your report. the president ordered you fired. the white house counsel knew it was wrong. the president knew it was knock. the president should not have made those calls to began, but he did it anyway. he did it anyway. >> simply trying to obstruct justice can be a crime? >> yes. >> it could include taking an sbrkz that would delay or interfere with an ongoing investigation. >> that's true. >> your investigation found evidence that president trump took steps to terminate the special counsel, correct? >> correct. >> corrupt intent exist fist the president attempted to obstruct an official to protect his own interest, correct? >> generally correct. >> an unsuccessful attempt to obstruct justice is still a crime, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> the officials and administration officials impeded your investigation. >> i would generally agree with that. >> i would like to ask the reason that you did not indict donald trump is because of olc opinion saying you could not indict a sitting president, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> for reasons known to himself, ken buck decided to emphasize and reemphasize that the president could be indicted after he left office. >> could you charge the president with a crime after he left office? >> yes. >> you believe you could charge the president of the united states with obstruction of justice after he left office? >> yes. >> at the beginning of the second hearing in the intelligence complete, chairman adam schiff said that the hearing would be about disloyalty to country. >> disloyalty to country are strong words, but how else do we describe the campaign of a foreign offer of dirt on the opponent that did not publicly shun it or turn it away, but invited it and encouraged it and made full use of it. that disloyalty may not have been criminal, constrained by uncooperative witnesses and the destruction of documents and enkri79ed communications. your team was not able to establish the crime of conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. not a provable crime in any event. but i think maybe something worse. a crime is the violation of law written by congress, but disloyalty to country violates the very oath of citizenship, our devotion to a core principal on which our nation was founded that we, the people and not some foreign power that wishes us ill, we decide who governs us. >> robert mueller began by going back to one of the questions that he was asked in the previous hearing. >> i want to go back to one thing said this morning by mr. liu who said "you didn't charge the president because of the olc opinion." that's not the correct way to say it. as we say in the report and as i said at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. >> where they concentrated on obstruction of justice, they concentrated on the russian attack on our election. >> director, who did the russian social media campaign ultimately intend to benefit. hillary clinton or donald trump? >> donald trump. >> donald trump, october 31st, 2016, boy, i love reading the wikileaks. do any of those quotes disturb you, mr. director? >> i'm not sure i would say -- >> how do you react? >> it's problematic is an under statement in terms of what it displays in terms of giving some -- i don't know, hope or a boost to what is and should be illegal activity. >> i want to focus on the written responses that the president provided to lie and cover up what happened during the 2016 election. where were the president's answers committed under oath? >> yes. >> what did you determine about the president's credibility? >> that i can't get into. >> shawn patrick maloney asked a question i said i hoped would be asked. >> why didn't you subpoena the president? >> we were almost towards the end of our investigation and had little success in pushing to get the interview of the president. we decided that we did not want to exercise a subpoena power because of necessity of expediting the end of the investigation. >> the president didn't ever claim the fifth amendment? >> i will not talk to that. >> nobody told you couldn't subpoena the president. >> no. >> did you have sufficient evidence of intent to obstruct justs and i is that why you didn't do the entrinterview. >> the last element against how much time are you willing to spend in the courts litigating the interview of the president. the reason we didn't do the interview is because of the length of time it would take to resolve the issues attended to that. >> that was the only time in the hearings when robert mueller did discuss at any length the liberations of his team. we will surely spent the next few years or several years learning more and more about the deliberations of robert mueller and his team. why were they concerned about how long it would take to enforce the subpoena compelling the president's testimony? there was no time limit on the investigation. with the president publicly attacking the mueller investigation as a witch hunt for years, were they concerned they might wake up some day and find themselves all fired by the president of the united states? how did that concern affect their investigation? did they speed up the investigation because they were concerned the president would fire them? when they discovered through don mcgahn's testimony that the president had already ordered the repeated firing of robert mueller, did that change their investigative tactics? no special prosecutor team in history ever faced such public harassment on almost a daily basis by the president himself. and no special prosecuting team has been dealing with a more unstable and reckless president. how did that approach the way? all of those were questions about what robert mueller and the justice department would call "the deliberations of the mueller team." there were no answers to those questions in today's hearings. answers to those questions would lead to other questions that could not be asked today. the real history of the mueller investigation will not be written until we know answers to questions about the deliberations of the mueller team. for example, foermter watergate prosecutors are willing to tell us things they could not tell us in the heat of their investigation of president nixon. we are probably years away from members of the mueller team appearing on programs like this to reveal many important dynamics of the investigation that are not included in the evidentiary findings presented in the mueller report. jill wine banks shares her wisdom with us often. other experts are familiar to you. first, we will be joined by congressman eric swalwell who was one of the few members who was able to question robert mueller in both of today's house hearings. >> 1,000 former prosecutors who served under republican and democratic administrations with 12,000 years of federal service wrote a letter regarding the president's conduct. are you familiar with that letter? >> i read about that letter, yes. >> some of the individual who is signed that letter, the statement of former prosecutors are people you worked with, is that right? >> quite probably yes. >> people you respect? >> quite probably, yes. >> they said all of this conduct trying to control and impede the president by leveraging his authority over others is similar to conduct we have seen charged against other public officials in people in powerful positions. are they wrong? >> they' have a different case. >> do you want to sign that letter, director robert mueller. >> they have a different case. >> thank you very much for joining us after this busy day. you were one of the lucky ones in both hearings. that was from the first hearing. i just want to get your general overall reaction to what you experienced in the hearing rooms today. >> we brought a very prepared team to both hearings that expected the director to stay within the four sides of his report and not to deviate. we were ready to defer him to different pieces. the american people saw russia attacked us and sought to help donald trump. donald trump welcomed it and planned for it. when he became president, he went to great lengths to cover it up. only because of the policies is he shielded in a way that no one else is being shielded from being charged with a crime. >> i want to go to an exchange in the intelligence committee about the number of people who have been caught up in this investigation. let's listen. >> the national security adviser flynn lied about the discussions related to sanctions. >> that is correct. >> michael cohen lied about trump tower moscow? >> yes. >> the senior foreign policy adviser lied to the fbi about communications about russia's possession of dirt on hillary clinton? >> correct. yes. >> the president's campaign chairman lied about meetings he had with someone with ties to russian intelligence? >> that's true. >> in your investigation, it was hampered by trump campaign officials use of encryptions, is that right? >> we believe that to be the case. >> the last question about how the investigation was hampered by the us of encryption brought out at different points, which is there were limits to what robert mueller could find out. there were roadblocks and successful elements of obstruction of justice that prevented the mueller investigation from discovering some evidence. >> he describes in his report that destruction of evidence, lying, tampering, and obstructing created gaps. so the president said there is no collusion and no conspiracy. in america, we don't reward people for burying evidence that investigators can never find it. we have a separate crime. that's obstruction. this president was shielded from obstruction and others were not and they were charged with obstruction. he laid out a road map for how to hold the president accountable. the only way to do that is through the impeachment process. >> i want to go to one of the clarveg questions of the day. robert mueller doesn't answer the question, but you can see the answer is there. that's in the question about the credibility of the president. we will go to that right now. >> could you say that the president was credible? >> i can't answer that question. >> isn't it fair to say that the written answers were not only inadequate and incomplete because he didn't answer many, but he showed he was not always being truthful? >> i would say generally. >> and congressman, to be contrasted with robert mueller, he was willing to say other witnesses were credible. >> that's right. he said that michael cohen and rick gates were credible. that was essentially a careful prosecutor saying that if i could call the president credible, i would call him credible. >> yes, that's one of the things about this particular hearing. with the limits robert mueller accepted from the justice department, his answers had to be interpreted more than they might otherwise. what was your reaction at the beginning of the judiciary hearing where you heard him say he was going to accept the limitations that were suggested to him by the justice department in that letter he received this week. >> that he's a patriot and follows rules. even when he's investigating a president who doesn't. as frustrating as that was, we were going to do all we could to get the information we needed. we did that today. today you saw act one. all the witnesses we need to bring in who were front row witnesses. also you should step back and realize if the president had nothing to hide, he would do two things. he would lift the doj policy who said a sitting president couldn't be involved. bring it. i'm so confident i didn't. second, he would not tell the attorney general or muler to restrict testimony. he would say ask you want. he did neither that goes to consciousness of guilt. >> the most personality testimony was donald trump's own refusal to identify in the obstruction of justice investigation. >> and lawrence, from january 2017 until march 2019 when the investigation ended, donald trump met in person with vladimir putin six times. he exchanged 10 phone calls with him and four letters. he met with robert mueller zero times. again, that goes to who this president prioritizes. a dictator who sought to interfere in elections over the person seeking to protect the country from that attack. >> congressman eric swalwell, thank you very much. it has been a long day for you and i appreciate your work. >> my pleasure. >> when we come back, we will be joined by our panel to consider what would have happened to anyone else who was discovered to have engaged in the obstruction of justice activities described in the mueller report. ustice activities described in the mueller rertpo you try hard, you eat right... mostly. you make time... when you can. but sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just won't go away. coolsculpting takes you further. a non-surgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells, for good. discuss coolsculpting with your doctor. some common side-effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. don't imagine results, see them. coolsculpting, take yourself further. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we all use our phones 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>> they would be indicted. i'm one of the thousand lawyer who is signed the letter. i said probably two years ago i thought there was in plain sight evidence of obstruction of justice and the case could be made. everything we read in the mueller report, everything that we heard since confirms there has been obstruction of justice plain and simple. it's really clear. the evidence of all the elements of the crime have been establish and were he not protected by the office of legal counsel, an opinion that i think is flawed constitutionally and legally, it's incorrect and time for someone to challenge it or someone to change it. it may take a prosecutor indicting the president to take it to the supreme court for a decision. whether you can cover up your own crime and get away with it. >> the state prosecutor can ignore that rule. mika, i was watching the committee thinking of you because you have been on those chairs and the intelligence committee and the staff section. this is the biggest hearing that came through your old committee in a long time. >> yeah, it was clear the numbers were really well prepared and you could tell by the way they pulled their questions together. >> how unusual that is. i have never seen discipline in the house like i saw today. >> the members were running around and playing like second graders in soccer where they are running in the same ball and all asking the same questions. they were really fanning out and covering the waterfront. you could tell they reallywork edding toed and staying on message and focussed on a few key things. trying to demonstrate the places where the mueller report didn't go into. things like the counter intelligence investigation and the financial crimes and showing there is still more work to be done here and we have an ongoing threat and challenge. they were very good at getting the points out. >> when you heard in mueller's opening statement he was indeed going to accept the restrictions that he accepted he accept for the hearing. >> i was not surprised. he is a rule follower and a patriot as the congressman said and plays by the rules. there was a clear sign that the hearing was not the end of what congress needs to do to look into the events of what happened in 2016 and afterwards with the trump campaign and the trump presidency. it was a clear signal that look, if you are going to do your jobs, after i finished testifying, you need to fire up the subpoena and go to court and enforce the subpoenas and get to the truth. robert mueller couldn't tell the full truth today and the truth is important for these committees to find out. >> not one republican was interested in the question of why did the russians want donald trump to be the next president of the united states. >> they were not interested in public. they knew the answer though. that's the reason they didn't ask the question. they knew the answer because in january of 2017, they came out with a high confidence assessment that said the russians were favoring donald trump and favoring hillary clinton for a number of reasons because they understood that trump would do their bidding and trump was their guy and remains their guy in 2019. it was in their interest. there was another underlying factor here. that's the fact that not only was trump against the sanctions that had been enact and not only was he someone that they saw as a patsy on the world stage, but he was quite literally capable of tearing our country apart. of pitting democrats against republicans and of minority groups against others. creating this hostility in this country that really and yes it's about his policies, but about the russians understanding that trump really destabilizes us at home and in turn that destabilizes us and makes us less influential. >> the story of the deliberations, that covers every single discussion that the mueller team had amongst themselves about everything. it covers every thought that crossed robert mueller's mind driving to and from work. what did we lose by not knowing any of that at this stage? >> we lose some, but we have to focus on all the things that did come out today. it was very important because we clearly established that there was no exoneration. there was evidence of obstruction. there was evidence of cooperation with russia and welcoming the russian interference. there was all of these things that are really serious for us to know. the problem is we need the republicans to hear that. as you said, the republicans showed no interest in any fact. they didn't touch any of the facts. they diverted into experience theorys and other things. they were not interested in what was coming out, which is to rebut how they played this report. that's what is important from today. >> i want to go to one of the moments of discovery where we learned something we did not know and this came out from raja krishnamoorthi questioning robert mueller. >> since it was outside the purview of your investigation, your report did not address how flynn's false statements could pose a national security risk because the russians knew the falsity of those statements, right? >> i didn't get into that mainly because there are many elements. fbi are looking at different aspects of that issue? >> currently? >> currently. >> did we all echo that currently? >> i think it was a real concern. we wondered what happened to the counter intelligence investigation chlg we didn't see anything about it in the report itself. we were all wondering and he was referring those things back to the fbi. there was a fear they would get buried. he said it is currently under investigation. >> that was a surprise. >> absolutely. it was startling and perhaps it shouldn't have been. we know that counter intelligence investigations tend to start and tend not to end. they tend not to end even if they do end in criminal charges. in many ways, the afternoon session for me was so powerful because it took us away from this dichotomy between legal and illegal, criminal versus ex k exculpatory and focussed on right and wrong. adam schiff was very good in guiding mr. mueller in that direction. he actually got him to say and i quote, we should hold our elections to a higher standard than mere evidence of criminality. mueller said certainly. >> we will squeeze in a break. joaquin castro at the intelligence hearing committee will join us next. igence hearine will join us next. you should be mad at airports. excuse me, where is gate 87? 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>> i can't speak to that. >> joining us now is joaquin castro, democratic congressman from texas and a member of the house intelligence committee. congressman, when your constituents request you why you asked that question, what will you tell them? >> americans need to know whether their president has been compromise. whether the russians have any leverage over the president of the united states and whether that's affecting his decision making as president of this country. >> in your experience on the intelligence committee, is that what you would expect given the evidence that you read in the mueller report? >> yeah, i think that it is very much an open question. unfortunately we didn't get a resolution to that today, but it's something americans deserve to know. >> where are do you hope the intelligence committee is able to go after this. >> there are still many issues on counter intelligence and figures out how deeply russia had its hooks in our political system and in particular, people in politics. also, we didn't get to talk too much about how we prevent this in the future. what do we do about 2020? mitch mcconnell is blocking any election security act that would help prevent russian or foreign interference in the election of 2020 and beyond. there are those things to answer and for the judiciary, the issue of impeachment. >> there was a meeting of all house democrats after both of the hearings, some members left it saying it sounded as though naps mo nancy pelosi moved closer to the impeachment process. >> i let the speaker speak for herself, but you see a growing number of democrats who are convinced that we should open an impeachment inquiry. it doesn't mean at the beginning you are going to say right away the president should be impeached, but because the evidence, especially on obstruction of justice seems so compelli compelling, more and more democrats believe we should open the inquiry and i think the speaker will be there as well. >> what can you tell us about what you hear from democratic members of the house who do not want to go to an impeachment process? >> it's a mix of arguments and one is a political one. there is a political risk in having happened what happened to the republicans in the mid-1990s when they tried to impeach president clinton. it, essentially backfired on them. there is a great fear in november of 2020 there will be a misfire and democrats will pay a price politically. >> if you had more time with robert mueller today and he was willing to answer any question including the deliberation questions, what else might you have asked him? >> there were so many questions i think we wish we could have gotten answers to. the question about why he didn't subpoena the president, i wish we could follow-up on that. i have an issue with time being the main concern and if they knew the president was going to stall forever, why didn't they issue a subpoena after two months after he wouldn't cooperate for two months. also on -- i wish he answered my question on compromise or leverage that the president may be under. there is just so many questions that are still left unanswer and still work for the intelligence committee to do. >> thank you for joining us at the end of this important day. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back with more with our panel after this. rit ge with our panel after this. hmm. exactly. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice. but, uh... what's up with your... partner? not again. limu that's your reflection. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ ♪ how do you like it, ♪ how do you like it ♪ ♪ more, more, more ♪ how do you like it, how do you like it ♪ all you can eat is back. how do you like that? applebee's. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. >>> here is the closest that robert mueller came to saying the word "impeachment." >> at your may 29th, 2019 press conference you explained that "the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing." that process other than the criminal justice system for accusing a president of wrongdoing, is that impeachment? >> i'm not going to comment on that. >> in your report you also wrote that you did not want to "potentially pre-empt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct." for the non-lawyers in the room, what did you mean by "potentially pre-empt constitutional processes"? >> i'm not going to try to explain that. >> that actually is coming from page 1 of volume 2. in the footnote is the reference to this. what are those constitutional processes? >> i think i heard you mention at least one. >> impeachment, correct? >> i'm not going to comment. >> what kind of game is that? i mean, he basically just did say impeachment. he could have just answered, well, the constitutional process is impeachment. he could have said that right at the beginning. >> look, if people thought mueller the report was dry, mueller the witness made an effort to be dryer. and i think if you were looking for theatrics you didn't get it today. but if you were looking to see the former director of the fbi, a distinguished public servant, say that donald trump asked for help from russia, got help from russia, used help from russia, that's what you heard, and that's the bottom line of what we learned today. >> mieke, what left you most perplexed? >> so many things. i mean, i found it really strange that he was unwilling to even just read back the things that he'd already written. that he could have just simply said things that he had concluded in the report and just told the american people that. because reading the book and watching the movie are very different things. >> ned, the same question. >> you know, i think i was more perplexed, i've been more perplexed by our collective reaction, maybe our collective expectations of mueller. you know, he's gotten some criticism from all corners, left and right, for his reticence, for his taciturn nature, for his hesitation to go into this. look, i don't think we should impose our own expectations on mueller. we should not have anticipated that he would light himself on fire to dramatize a 448-page report that details a sweeping and systematic attack on our election and the efforts of a president to obstruct the investigation. that in some ways should speak for itself. i think it reflects poorly on us and not on mr. mueller that he sort of seems to have let some people down. >> well, i haven't heard that at this table, but i know what you're talking about. >> yeah. >> jill, having the experience you've had working on the watergate special prosecutor team, what would you say to someone who's offered a special prosecutor job in the 21st century after kenneth starr, after all the special prosecutors we've seen? i mean, wouldn't you have said to robert mueller, look, you're not going to be able to be a private person, you're going to have to make a public presentation? >> i think that i would certainly advise that. but i would also advise that you change the regulations. the rules that we operated under and then the rules that ken starr operated under were very different from what he's operating under. he's just another -- >> you were in a much more powerful position. >> we had much more independence and we had the protection of the attorney general as opposed to the president having the protection of the attorney general. and he's supposed to represent, the attorney general, the united states of america, not the united states president. so that's what i would say. and i would say that what i'm frustrated about is that what we need are fact witnesses. we don't need summary witnesses. we need to hear the actual witnesses who were told to do things that are obstruction. it's much more powerful to hear don mcgahn say the president ordered me to do this, to have lewandowski say the president ordered me to do this. that's what americans need to hear. and that might move the needle a little bit in terms of who's supporting impeachment and who's not supporting impeachment. >> ron klain, in the press conference that nancy pelosi did after all of this she sounded warmer toward impeachment than she ever has before. >> yeah, i think we need to distinguish between impeachment and the impeachment process. >> impeachment inquiry is the way she was talking. >> yeah, exactly. and what's mounting is as the white house continues to stonewall, the fact witnesses jill was talking about, the house may have no choice but to take an impeachment process open to get that testimony. they need to get to the bottom of this. if the white house is going to stonewall, the impeachment process i think is almost inevitable. >> mieke, as a house veteran where do you think impeachment is tonight compared to where it was last week? >> i think you see more and more members coming around saying yes to starting this process. and i think ron's right. in order to be able to really put the full weight of the house behind the kinds of requests they're going to make, opening that process puts them in a much stronger position. >> ned, people were watching around the world. people in other governments around the world, foreign intelligence agencies watching this around the world. what's their reaction to what they saw today? >> well, i think the reaction from our adversaries is in some ways going to be emboldenment. our adversaries like russia, china, the iranians, the north koreans, the countries that our intelligence community has identified as pursuing our election as a lucrative intelligence target. they will look at this and say look, only half of congress seems to really care about this. you have a president who's looking the other way and who not that long ago told another network that he would actually use this material if offered again. so i think in some ways far from serving up a red light or a yellow light to countries who would intd fehr in our elections there were elements that those countries would take az green light to go forward with what they intended. >> ned price gets tonight's last word. i know all of you have many more words to say about this. ron klain, mieke eoyang, jill wine-banks and ned price, thank you very much for joining us on this important night. that is tonight's last word. "the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. >>> tonight a long day's journey into something less than the democrats had hoped for for so long. robert mueller in his own words. reluctant, passive, halting? stern warnings, few findings of fault. he did not have all the answers. tonight we'll look at what he did say. it's not a witch hunt, it's not a hoax. we are under attack by the russians. he could not clear the president. and the president, he declared victory. all the loyal republicans behind him. but no answers or apparent anger tonight for the attack under way by the russians. as "the 11th hour" gets under way on a wednesday night.

himself, robert mueller iii, and had an all this means for donald trump and his presidency. the threat russia still poses to our democracy and our next presidential election, and the independence of the american system of justice. all of it as this special edition of "the 11th hour" begins now. >>> greetings once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. as we approach day 900 of this trump administration, we are taking a closer look at the mueller report and what we've learned so far. in just a little bit we'll break down what the report tells us and warns us about russian interference in our elections. the origins of the russia investigation. and what exactly robert mueller has to say on the topic of obstruction of justice. but first, we learned back on march 22nd that robert mueller had wrapped up his investigation. you may recall that sunday, attorney general bill barr released his own summary that said mueller did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it had conspired or coordinated with russia to interfere in our 2016 election. he also sai

robert mueller. joining us now is congresswoman mary gay scanlon. she's newly elected. she's in her first term. an accomplished attorney before entering congress. she's now vice chair of the judiciary committee. congresswoman scanlon, thank you so much for joining us. i know you have a lot of things you'd rather be doing than talking on tv. >> well, thank you for having me. >> so let me ask you about some of the news that we have learned over the course of this hour that we're still trying to make sense of. we've learned just in the past few minutes that in the intelligence committee in the afternoon after robert mueller's testimony to your committee aaron zebley, his deputy, who was variously described as the deputy special counsel or his chief of staff in the special counsel's office. he's going to be sworn in alongside robert mueller in the afternoon session with intel and will also be giving testimony, also be answering questions from members. as far as we understand it, at your committee zebley will be there but he won't be sworn in. he'll be there purely to advise mueller on h

>> this hearing is adjourned. >> president trump offered his first reaction to robert muller's testimony before congress while departing for a fundraiser in west virginia. his remarks are about 20 minutes. >> mr. president, what's your reaction to the testimony? >> mr. president, robert mueller -- >> a very good day today, the republican party. our country. there was no defense of what robert mueller was trying to defend. in all fairness to robert mueller, whether his performance was bad one or good one, i think everybody understands that. i think everybody understands what was going on. there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, in witch hunt that's been going on for a long time. pretty much from the time i came down on the escalator with our first lady. and it's a disgrace what happened. but i think today proved a lot to everybody, in fact some of my biggest opponents wrote things today that i wouldn't have believed they would have written and i appreciate that they did that. this has been a ver bad thing for our country. and despite everything we have been through it's been an incredible two and a half years for our country. the administration, our president, me, we've done a great job. we've got the strongest stock market, the best unemployment numbers, the most number of people ever working in the history of our country right now, almost 160 million. our military has been rebuilt and getting even stronger. we've done a great job. and we have done it under this terrible, phoney cloud, a phoney cloud. that's all it was. and they should be ashamed of themselves, absolutely ashamed. and you know who knew it was a phoney cloud more than anyone else is schiff and nadler and schumer and pelosi. every one of them they all knew it was phoney stuff. and you look at the polls. the polls are showing it maybe more than anybody else or anything else. and i've had my best polls. and i don't say why. but people see what's gone on in our country with this whole thing. i've been going through it for three years, for three years, all nonsense. so this was a very big day for our country. this was a very big day for the republican party. and you could say it was a great day for me. but i don't even like to say that it's great. i'll tell you what. i very much appreciate knows incredible warriors that you watched today on television, republicans, that defended something and defended something very powerful, very important, because they were really defending our country more than anything else. they were defending our country. but they were warriors. and they've been warriors for a long time. and everybody knew it was a hoax, especially the democrats. i wish we could be a fly on the wall in those rooms where the democrats would go and talk before and after meetings. and they'd be laughing and smiling and say can you believe we are getting away with this but in the end they didn't get away with it. yeah. so, there is no such thing. he didn't have the right to exonerate. and you know it's very interesting. people mentioned exoneration that was something he totally folded but are becausee never had the right to exonerate. and it was covered well by congressman turner and put to a conclusion. we were, if you take a look at not only the report, beyond the report, take a look at not what he said but what he was forced to say. and even your networks and your network and your network, every one of the networks they put up their hands. we had a couple of cases with, actually about six cases where they asked our people, our representatives television networks, please don't come in tonight we're not doing much on it. and the reason they're not, because it's over. go ahead. [indiscernible] two questions for you are you concerned you'll be indicted -- >> so wikileaks is a hoax just like everything else. and all of the problems having to do with crime were the biggest hoax of all. a witch hunt. a total witch hunt. when you saw robert mueller's statement, the earlier statement and then he did a recap, he did a correction later on in the afternoon. and you you know what that correction was. and you still asked the question. you know why, because you're fake news. and you're one of the most. let me just tell you the fact that you asked that question you're fake news. because you know what, he totally corrected himself in the afternoon. and you know that just as well as anybody. kaitlyn, kaitlyn. hall]derson --[indiscernible] >> i don't know whose answers weren't. i guess his answers weren't. because if you look the whole report, you take a look at what they did, some of the things that he didn't even know about, some of the things he didn't even know what was going on. but, you know in the end what he did, he actually probably came through for himself. the performance was obviously not very good. he had a lot of problems. but what he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment on waste of time for our country. and you know what, at the democrats thought they could win an election like this. i think they hurt themselves very badly for 2020. >> did your son donald trump junior speak with robert mueller? >> i never, i don't know. frankly whether or not he did, it wouldn't matter to me. because he did nothing wrong. he did nothing wrong. it was always a very unimportant meeting. it was only important to the fake news. go ahead. [indiscernible] >> no, he didn't say that. again, your fake news and you're right at the top of the list also. let me just tell you go back to, it's not what he said. read his correction. read his correction. if you read his correction you'll find out. that's why people don't deal with you, because you're not an honest reporter. >> john. -- r. president [indiscernible] >> john, they are devastated. the democrats lost so big today . their party is in shamables right now. they've 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. >> mr. president president after , you leave office you could be indicted. >> no, no, a very dumb and 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. you shouldn't even ask that question because you know it's a phoney. go ahead. [indiscernible] >> the democrats had nothing. and now they have less than nothing. and i think they're 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 they are giving up. but i just say i know them too well. they will never give up. day will go back and try and figure something out. been,hole thing has honestly it's been collusion, , collusion with the media. it's been collusion with other countries. this has been a disaster for the democrats. and i think we're going to win bigger than ever. now, i'm going to west virginia, one of the great states, a state that's doing, if you look at percentage up, i think it's number one or two in the country. and nobody would have believed that. west virginia is doing great. i'm going to west virginia. we did have a big case today. you know we won the asylum case in washington which frankly you should be asking about that because that's the real deal. i can't believe how nice you are today. go ahead give me a question. [indiscernible] >> no, because we did nothing wrong. the answer is very simple. nothing was done wrong. this was all a big hoax. if you look at it today nothing was done wrong. now, i believe what you are going to find you are going to , find a lot of things that were done very wrong, but that's going on now. that's something you haven't been writing about. and that has to do with the other side. that has to do with the thing called investigate the investigators. let's see what happens. that's going to be very interesting. >> do you think robert mueller [indiscernible] >> 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 know, you can be a builder but if they don't give you the right materials you're not going to build a very good building. rort mueller had no material, nothing to work with. obviously he did very poorly today. i don't think there is anybody even among the fakers. i don't think anybody that would say he did well. i looked at your people. they're saying it was devastating for the democrats. and even i will tell you, the two most nauseating networks whose ratings have gone down , even they said this was 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 [indiscernible] >> look, i saw what he did to people, how he ruined people's lives because they didn't remember a date or something very minor. he ruined people's lives. the democrats took people and destroyed their lives. they went bankrupt because they couldn't afford the legal fees and they were good people, many people. when you ask me that question, all they have to do is see how nice the weather is if i made a mistake and said i was talking to the media and said it was a rainy and overcast they would say he lied. let me tell you i've seen what , they have they've done to people, destroyed people like general flynn and so many others, what they have done to people, no, i did the right thing. >> you said mueller did a horrible job. why is that? >> well, mueller had no material. mueller had no material to work with. and he did a horrible job. obviously his presentation was way off. but that's ok. it didn't matter. he had no material. there was nothing done wrong. in fact, things were done right. there was nothing done wrong. and certainly, i mean, look, i read the papers and i read the press and the internet. and if you see what's 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 don't 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 we're going to find out about it. [indiscernible] big --, the silent is a ruling.m is a big that was a tremendous ruling today. we appreciate it. we respect the courts very much. that helps us very much at the border. the numbers are way down at the border, which is a good thing. apprehensions are way down because mexico now has 22,000 soldiers. and they are, they mean business because they know what happened. the alternative is not good for them. it's also good for mexico what they are 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 got to clean it up. so they've got 21,000 soldiers. they'll probably put up more. but this ruling today on asylum is a tremendous ruling. >> what about guatemala? >> so guatemala gave us their word. we were going to sign a safe third agreement. and then all of a sudden they backed up. they said it was their supreme court. i don't believe that. but they use their supreme court as the reason they didn't want to do it. so we'll either do tariffs or we'll do something. we're looking at something severe with respect to guatemala. i've already cut off payments. i did that a year ago. i cut off payments going to honduras, el salvador and guatemala. we used to send them $500 million for nothing, for nothing they didn't do anything except , send up caravans. guatemala, we will take care of and it won't be even be tough. we're looking at a couple of different things. one of the things very heavy as you know mexico put 6,000 people on that border. >> what do you say when robert uhler says -- robert mueller indiscernible] >> you always have a question. you mean my white house aides lied? what about his aides. what about mueller's aides. >> what do you say to that. >> he didn't say that at all. you are untruthful when you asked that question. when you asked that question you're untruthful. and you know who else is untruthful, you know who else is untruthful, his aides. and wiseman was untruthful. wiseman got caught just like with arthur anderson where he lost to the supreme court 9-0 . his aides were untruthful and mueller they put , mueller in a very bad position. his aides put him in a very bad position. if you were ever truthful you'd be able to write the truth. >> [indiscernible] >> no but i'm very happy. , i haven't called boris but i'm very happy that he won. >> [indiscernible] >> you know what happened with strzok and paige, meaning the two lovers is a disgrace. because they had a lot of text messages, and mueller illegally deleted the text messages. and they didn't get too much into that because he forgot. he didn't really know. he didn't know too much, didn't know anything. but strzok and paige were texting. don't forget they were the ones with just in case we lose we have an insurance policy. this is the same strzok and paige. that was a very, very bad situation. what they did and mueller did he deleted their text messages back and forth, probably thousands of them. that's a serious problem. >> [indiscernible] >> i think it's going to help us because everyone sees now that this has been going on for so long. in all fairness to mueller this has gone on long before mueller. this has gone on from sometime we came down the escalator. and i got great poll numbers. from the beginning i was leading. and this really took place sometime right after we came down the escalator, the first lady and myself. and i will tell you something. i think it's going to have a huge negative impact on 2020 for the democrats. [indiscernible] >> you made a political case instead, put it in a political sack, lit it on fire, rang the doorbell, and ran. >> i don't think you revealed a report as fair and consistent as the report in front of us. >> robert mueller's testimony now on c-span and c-span2, those consecutive. use c-span.org to watch the hearings on demand. the video is searchable with speaker -- by speaker with key points highlighted. >> former special counsel robert mueller testified on capitol hill about the russian investigation and report released by his office. this was the second of two hearings and focused on findings related to russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

orwoman: this is "bbc wld news america." is made possible by... the freeman foundation; by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. or jane: this is "bbc news america." reporting from washington, i am jane o'brien. tonight we are watching two major storie unfold in the u.s. and britain. a political showdown on capitol iahill as spcounsel robert mueller iss urged to clarify hi report on russian interference and the president's condt. >> did you totally exonerate the president? mr. mueller: no. jane in the u.k., it is official, boris johnson becomes prime minister with 99 days to orgo b brexit. prime min. johnson: we will fulfill the repeated promises of parliament to thpeople and come out of the eu on october 31, no ifs or buts. jane: these stories have major implications for the u.s. and the u.k. we will be looking at what comes next in both countries. wa jane: for thoshing on pbs and around the globe, welcome to "world news america." it has been quite a day of news on both sides of the atlantic. in the u.k., boris johnson has become prime minister and is making major changes. but we start in the u.s., where special counsel robert mueller stified before congress. he was pressed on the findings of his report into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, including any actions taken by president trump and his campaign. the bbc's laura trevelyan has been following it on c hill. laura, over to you. laura:ane, robert muelleraid that thi 448-page report was going to be his testimony, and indeed it was. at the last count,n o more than 170 occasions he gave monosyllabic answers to questions from lawmakers. democrats basically just read the most damaging sections of the report into the record and got the special counsel to agree that is what he said. republicans tried to attack the very basis of the probe itself and go at the integrity of robert mueller. house democrats, they are meeting tonight to decide how they are going to spend the day. nick bryant has this report on an eventful day on capitol hill. nick: democrats were hoping usese hearings would not j provide the audiobook version of the mueller report, but a summer blockbuster movie. but the former special counselan did not evento appear on capitol hill and stuck closely to the script and main findings of his 400-page report. mr. mueller: the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired with the russian government in its election interference activities. mr. mueller: but the report did -- nick: but the report did not clear prident trump of obstruction of justice, of interfering with the russian meddling investigation. >> the report did not concd de that he t commit obstruction of justice? is that mr. mueller: that is correct. >> what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? mr. mueller: no. nick: mr. mueller was monosyllabic, but under republican questioning, stated that guidelines prevent sitting president from being investigated, it is possible after they leave office. >> could you charge the president with obstruction of justice after he leaves office? mr. mueller: yes. nick: raising eyebrows from donald trump tonight, whhe claimed that hearings were an epic embarrassment for democrats. pres. trump: this was a very big day for our country, this was a very big day for the republican party can and you could sayit tt s a great day for me but i don't even like to say that. the democrats might n have gotten the box-office dramw the looking for, but from robert mueller, a reminder to donald trump that his legal otoblems have not gone away, that presidential tion from prosecution ends the moment he leaves the white house. nick bryant,bc news, washington. jane: laura, after several hours of hearings, what did we learn the report?t i laura: we learn from robert mueller how concerned he is about the fact that other countries saw what russia did, how they interfered with our democracy, and robert mueller t fears ther countries will try to do the same. he said that russia right now is trying to election.e in our next he also described as the president praising the anti-secrecy group wikileaks. remember, they obtained hillary clinton'sd emails stributed them. that went beyond what we already knew. but otherwise, it was a public airing of everything in the mueller report for many americans who have not read the 448 pes, it is all on the record. jane: what about clarification ng some of his decision-ma democrats particularly wanted to know why he couldn't charge or exonerate president trump over obstruction. laura: there was confusion on that, and robertueer had to clarify it. hee said that because th an opinion from the office of legal counsel, which is in the department of justice, sang you cannot indict a sitting president of that is why he did not charge the president with affection of justice. that seemed to suggest that he would have if you were not president. but in the afternoon robert mueller clarified that and said that he didch not r determination on whether the president obstructed justice. enon that e are not further forward. on the question of whether or not the be prosecuted once you were to leavece office, -- e were to leave office, mueller said he could. as for whether there was a crime, we did not move that much forward. jane: very complicated. thank you for covering it live on capitol hill. for more on the hearings, i spoke a short time ago with constitutional law professor and bbc legal analyst jonathan turley. inthank you for g me. does this help or hurt moves for impeachment? jonathan: i think it hurts it,e quankly. democrats wanted to see if they could move the needle. theolng of the american public has been against impeachment. while there is a majority of democrats, indepennts and republicans are largely againstm achment. that is a majority of voters in the country. mocrats did not get that gotcha moment. they didn't even get the soundbite they wanted. they had six hours and achieved little but reading the report to the special counsel. it was conversation with an answering machine. he kept on saying the same thing, that he is just not going to answer. jane: but he did say that the president could be charged once has left office. who would charge him? jonathan: that is a good question. certainly he could be charged, but he is not going to be charged with conspiracy with the russians. mueller confirmed again that they did not find evidence of conspiracy with the russians. the department of justice has ruled out obstruction of justice charges. that leaves campaign finance violations that is a possibility. michael cohen played guilty to -- pled guilty to this conspiracy of givi to women who allegedly had affairs with president trump.pe the otheon involved in that conspiracy was president trump. so one could understand that, out that is a difficult case bring. i think it was a good day overall for president trump in that they did not get a lot of traction. in many ways it left a lot of people wondering what the democrats are doing. they kept on sayin"no one should be above the law," but it isike a police officer screaming "someone arrest this man." this is the comm tee that is supposed to impeach him, and yet they seem to be pedestrian and saying "why is this happening, why doesn't someone do something?" jane: good day for president trump, perhaps, but what about mr. mueller himself? he came under personal attack from mr. trump earlier in the day. was that a good strategy to try and undermine the special counsel? jonathan: no, this heari was not a good day in terms of trump's legacy. i mean, he looks terrible. just because therecrs not a inal charge likely to be dade doesn't mean that he loo od today. he looked dreadful today. jane: what about jonathan: i have to say, mueller did not look particularlgood today. he looked at times befuddled. he did not seem to have a good handle on the record i don't think he came across as someone that had a lot of control over what was happening. on the other hand, he did maintain his independence. his best moments came when he was defending the democratic system against russi interference and when he was defending his own staff. then you saw a g of the old robert mueller. he was articulate and he was passionate. but a lot of people quite surprised. they have not seen him in a long .me for this length of ti c jane: was ar to you why he decided to answer some questions and not others? jonathan: no. the one thing that i think was astonishing here is that mueller's position on what he could and could not answer was coletely conflicted and so of unintelligible. fact, he would at certain points say "i can't answer that question," and five minutes later answer basically the same question by another me then he would say "i cannot get into decisions i made as a prosecutor," and in the second hearing was going at length about his decision not to subpoena the president. none of it made lot of sense. turley, thank y very much indeed as usual for joining me. wocongren madeleine dean was one of the lawmakers who onques mr. mueller. i spoke to her earlier today with christian fraser ansk started byg her how she thought the hearing went. rep. dean: this was an important day not for democrats, not for republicans, but foriche am people. we had the opportunity to have robert mueller, a man of integrity and credibility, come before our committee and lay out the fact extraordinarily damning wrongdoing uncovered in the report he submitted to the attorney general. christian: congresswoman, we mentioned many times before that robert mueller did not come to a conclusion. he has punted to congress, and it is up to you to mr e a case peachment. if you are going to write an impeachment ca, what would you say are the grounds for that impeachment? rep. dean: well, extraordinary lawlessness, breaking of the rule of law. robert mueller today, one of the impressive things he said was the importance of and the gravity of the charge of obruction of justice. that is not a light criminal charge. he very clearly said that he could not charge a sitting president. you notice he was asked by one of the representatives on the other side of the aisle, could he charge after the president is noidonger president, and he yes. what i wanted is for the american people to see the gravity of the wrongdoing, by russia, by the campaign, and and then once the president understood he was under inveigation, the multiple instances where he ied to obstruct justice, he tried to use others both inside his administration and private citizens to carry out his abuse of power, his attempt at obstruction of jus tce. se are all very serious crimes by this administration. jane: congresswoman madeleine dean on a big day for congress, the long anticipated appearances of special c robert mueller. now to the u.k., where today boris johnson became prime minister. afitr meeting with the queen was off to number 10 downing street, where he committed to leaving the eu by the end of october. already he has made major changes, overhauling his cabinet within a matter of hours. the bbc's political editor lssra kurg reports. laura: even for those who adore him, a year ago boris johnson's journey to the palace would've been the kind of wild story he might have written. he was bloed by protesters on his way. now the politician who as a boy said he wanted to be world king invited to become prime minister by the queen. the moment where everying officially changed, bowing to the monarch. there are some rules he will i llow. prime min. johnsonve just been to see her majesty the queen, who has invited me to form a govnment, and i have accepted. there are pessimistst home and abroad who think that after three years of indecision, that this country has become a prisoner to the old arguments of 2016. so i am standing before you today to tell you the british people that ose critics are wrong. the doubters, the doomsters, the oomsters, they are going to get it wrong again, and we will fulfill the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the eu on october 31, no ifs or buts. i am today building a great team of men and women. i will take personal responsibility for the change i want to see. never mind the backsto the buck stops here. laura: the big judgment, ready and willing if need be to take us out of the eu without a deal. prime min. johnson: it is vital at the same time that we prepars for the remotebility that brussels refuses any further to negotiate. and we are forced to com with no deal not because we want that outcome -- of course not -- but because it is only common sense to prepare. llwe in this government wi work flat out to give this country the leadership it dese and that work begins now. thank you very much. laura: this is the start of a new era and the start of a very different era, with boris johnson and the brexiteers in charge. perhaps they are not so much taking back control as taking over a precarious and fragile situation. for any new administration, there is glory on day one,utls there were howf protest from whitehall throughout the speech. this is a time of strife. mr. johnson is in charge because of the failures of his party and his precessor.r r, time today for one last bow to the commons. -- bout in the commons. farewells and tributes aplenty for theresa may, but it is politics. alys barbs, too. mr. corbyn: i paid tribute to her nse of public duty. i hope, mr. speaker, that she has a marginally more relaxing time on the backbenches and perhaps even helping me to oppose the reckless plans of her successor. laura: she couldn't resist i either ms. may: perhaps i could finish my exchange with him by saying this -- as a party leader who has accepted when her time was up, perhaps the time is now for him to do the same. laura: she will stay on mp, and closed with a tribute to her constituents. re. may: that duty to serve my constituents wilin my greatest motivation. laura: applause then, after years of defeat and disappointment. a former prime minister now, one more last moment at the podium,l where inng a needless general election, she maybe sealed her fate. ms. may: i repeat my warm congratulations to boris onwi ing the conservative leadership election. i wish him and the government he will lead every good fortune in the months and years ahead. and as i leave downing street, my final words are of sincere anks. laura: the real affection was for her truest ally.ma ms finally and most of all, i want to thank my husband, philip, who has been my greatest supporter and my closest w mpanion. laura: it is over r theresa may, yet the nextiv occupant a to face so many of her same problems. a party torn in two, no majority to speak of. boris johnson tonight must know they applaud them all on the way in. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. jane: for more on theuture course for britain, i spoke with amanda sloat of the brs institution. thanks for joining me. a very optimisti boris johnson, but will the can-do attitude be enough to recalibrate negotiations with brussels? amanda: i think it is going to be very difficult for ris to negotiate with brussels. he will face the exact same challenges that theresa may did in tms of an eu with clear r lines and the same parliamentary arithmetic. eu leaders have been very clear this week that they are not prepared to reopen the withdrawal agreeme, and they are not prepared to scrap the eeckstop from northern ireland. it is difficult tohat sort of concessions he thinks he is going to achieve. t ne: but what about the threat of a no-deal bre october 31? that does go a little bit further than theresa may. aamanda: it certainly doe that has been one of the things that boris johon was campaigning on as he sought the leadership of the conservative party. the eu is certainly not wanting to have no-deal brexit, but their attitude seems to be that they a much more prepared for this than britain is. the attitude in brussels seems to be that a no-deal brexit would be so chaotic for t e uk thatuld cause them to come scrambling back to brussels to start discussing political and economic arrangements in tre fuand in that case, the eu has been very clear that the u.k. would need to do with the -- deal with the north ireland border, they would need to meet thnancial commitments, and they would need to address the issue of intizens' rights. the u.k. coulditself in the same place it is now. jane: how likely is a general election before the october 31 deadline? amanda: it certainly is ait possib one of the few things that the british parliament has been able to agree on is the fact that it does not want to have a no-deal brexit. there is the possibility that if boris johnson tries to move foard with a no-deal brexi they could call a vote of no confidence in his leadership and move forward with a general election. it is also possible at some point that boris johnson will want to call a general election. s is worth remembering that he was elected with lan 1% of the support of the people ine britain beca was elected by a very narrow majority of conservative party members. he clearly does not have a solid mandate from the eire country for this approach. jane: he also only has 99 nyys to geting done. how likely is that?ve amanda: it i hard to see that he is going to renegotiate an agreement and get it ratified by the british parliament by october 31. certainly most people in the u.k. andn europe will be enjoying their summer holidays, now starting in late july and moving into august. he is only going to have septber and october to do al of this. even if he is able to renegotiate a deal, there is a question about whether or not he would need to request al technitension to allow the british parliament and also, remember, the europe parliament to have time to implement the necessary legislation to deliver. jane: amanda sloat, thank you very much indeed for joining me. amandathank you. jane: let's have a quick look at the day's other news. facebook says it will pay $5 billion to settle an investigation into its privacy practices. the u.s. federal trade commission said facebook policies violated rules ivainst decepractices. as part of the settlement, the company will create an independent privacy ceamittee and inse oversight of third-party applications. according to russian media, russia's embassy in seoul has denied that an official apology habeen made to south korea after russian military aircraft entered korean airspace. it comes after seoul's presidential office said moscow hepressed deep regret over incident and blamed the intrusion a technical glitch. customs officials in singaporerg have made the t seizure of elephant ivory following a tipoff from china. t about nis of ivory was intercepted from nearly 300 african elephants. it is estited to be worth $13 million. it was part of a shipment from the democratic republic of congo amto vie and a pair of running shoes has been sold at auction for close to $450,000. the nike moon shoe was designed by the nike cofounder and icathlcoach for runners at the 1972 olympic trials. handmade, this was one of only 12 pairs ever made. they were bought by a canadian collector, who plans to display them at his museum in toronto. they will be on vi in a timely fashion, because for more than a week we have been bringing you full coverage of the events t arou world celebrating the first manned lunar landings. apollo 11 lifted off from the -- on the 16th of july, 1969, and four days later, neil armstrong and buzz aldrin took their legendary steps on the moon's surface. on this day 50 years ago, they came home. here is pall ghosh. >> houston, you still looking fine here. you are cleared for landing. pallab: the recovery team ready and waiting. t so, to president of the united states, richard nixon. tching on tv all across the world were the millions of people who followed every moment of this historic mission. go have re-created the bbc tv set where 50 yearsthese incredible pictures were broadcast live. from the original gigantic saturn v rocket that launched the astronauts on their way, all that was left on the final leg was a tiny command module. inside, the astronauts were abouto face one of the most dangerous parts of their joney, reentry into the earth's atmosphere. as they fell to earth at nearly 25,000 miles per hour, temperatures soared. >> you are looking mighty fine to us. >> see you later. pallab: communications from the command module and mission control was not possible for a full tee minutes. >> there is blackout. pallab: the world watched and waited. anthen -- >> apollo 11, this is hornet. >> loud and clear. pallab: they were safe. after parachutes were deployed, touchdown in the pacific ocean. once the recovery ship reached them, a diver handed the astronauts isolation suits. no one knew what alien germs teght be on the moon. so desheir newfound heroic status, the men were unceremoniously sprayed with a disinfectant. once they were on the ship, they were put immediate into a quarantine trailer to hear from eir president. pres. nixon: as a result of what you have done, the world has never been closer together before, and we thank you for that. pallab: after three weeks in quarantine, they were officially declared safe. for america, the nation had made it. they were the first country to astronauts home. but this was a mission that went beyond borde. it briefly brought together a world th was divided by conflict and showed what humanity was capable of. pallab ghosh, bbc news. jane: 50 years later it remains an extraornary story. you can find more on that story and all the day's news on our website. i'm jane o'brien. thanks very much indeed for watching "bbc world ne america." announcer: funding for is made possible by... the freeman foundation; by judy and peter blum-kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs; and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. than to make sure fnd the truth are driving conversation. "washington week" is an coland of civil disurse in a chaotic media environment. on friday night, we gather the best reporters in thnation to unpack what's really happening and have a conversation that's not about point of view but about informing the american people. announcer: "washington week," friday nights only on pbs. captioning sponsored by newshour productions

hours to go now until the reluctant and widely awaited testimony of robert mueller. and why the justice department seems nervous about what this now former employee might say and how far he might go. >>> plus, the important question we were left with after the mueller report. would donald trump have been indicted were he not president? a look at the ten instances of possible obstruction found in the investigation. >>> and entering a second week of attacks on four members of congress. the president today calls them racist and not very smart, all of it as "the 11th hour" gets underway on a monday night. well, good evening once again from our nbc headquarters in new york. day 19 of the trump day 914. administration, that puts us less than 36 hours away now from what will be robert mueller's 89th appearance before congress. likely the most consequential of his long and consequential career. on wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. eastern, the first of two back-to-back hearings will begin, and it sounded today as if the president might have given this some thought. >> i'm not going to be w

morning, a roundtable previews robert mueller's congressional testimony with the hill's national security reporter and politico congressional reporter. mattathias talks about his reporting on the life and career of robert mueller. washington journal is next. host: the flag half-staff today in honor of john paul stevens. democrats and the white house reached a budget deal allowing the government to borrow beyond current limits, green lighting additional spending in the coming years. as we take you through what that means for the fiscal house, we spend the first hour hearing about your personal fiscal house. give us a call and tell us how much debt you carry and how concerned you are about it. phone numbers different this morning. if you carry no debt, (202)-748- 8000. if you carry below $50,000 in debt, (202)-748-8001. andou carry between $50,000 $100,000 in debt, (202)-748-8002 , and if you are over $100,000 in debt, (202)-748-8003. catch up with us on social media, on twitter @cspanwj and on facebook at facebook.com/cspa n. good tuesday morning to you. start calling in. let us k

been waiting for for months if not year. robert mueller testifies in pair of hearings beginning in three hours. after years, again, years of twists and turns in his investigation into president trump and russia, this is the first time that robert mueller will answer questions in public. he goes first before the house judiciary committee where democrats. focus on obstruction. and later the house intelligence committee where they will hone in on election interference. >> mueller has said he will not go beyond the 448-page report. but lawmakers will try to find inroads into new areas. democratic leaders are hoping the hearing will bring the facts of this report to life for americans who did not read it. republicans plan to confront mueller on the legitimacy of the entire probe. >>> ricardo rossello is expected to resign today. this after weeks of protests. we will get to that in a moment. >>> let's begin with lauren fox live on capitol hill outside the room where it will happen. what are you expecting, lauren? >> reporter: well, people already lined up down the hall, and we are hours

, breaking news, watching mueller. clearly bothered by form pounds robert mueller's upcoming public testimony, president trump declares he won't watch, then admits he might watch a little bit, then unloads rehashing all of his familiar attacks. and now we're learning how mueller himself is prepping for his testimony. >>> spy planes. iran says it is holding 17 citizens accusing them of spying for the cia, a claim president trump calls a lie. tonight he's escalating tensions, declaring it's getting hard for for him to want to make a deal with iran. >>> firing squad. the president also keeps firing away at four democratic congresswomen, calling them racist troublemakers in a tweet. and in the oval office, insisting they're bad for the country. i'll talk with a member of the house republican leadership, north carolina congressman mark walker, who came out against the "send her back" chants at trump's rally in his state. >>> and puerto rico protests. hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, blocking a major highway, demanding the resignation of their governor. now president trump is

>> breaking tonight in puerto rico, we expected any minute. the address his people. he is expected to resign. wednesday july 24th, 2019. the story goes on. see you tomorrow. >> good evening and welcome to tucker carlson tonight. never meet your heroes. that's how the saying goes. they'll only disappoint you. that's true, by the way. democrats across the country learned the hard way today. robert mueller testified today. you are probably accustomed to thinking of robert mueller as a superhero sent here to do die . hollywood literally produced a comic book about roberts before. that's how convinced they were of his power and goodness. single-handedly, robert mueller was going to save america. and then came the long, sad spectacle of today. here's the actual robert mueller, squirming stomach undd light of television cameras. >> you referenced "still reporting on. is that correct? >> you are on page one oh three? >> one oh three. that's correct. volume two. >> i'm not familiar with that. >> it's not a true dominant trick question. >> not familiar with fusion gps. it turns out that if you are watching the show right now, you almost certainly no more about the russian investigation then the man who led the russian investigation. fusion gps is the reason we are talking about russia right now. in fact, fusion gps is the reason we had a mueller investigation in the first place. but of course you knew that. somehow, robert mueller did not know that. what does that say about roberts before. we are not going to speculate about it. what we can't say for certain though is that robert mueller never should have been testifying before congress today. he didn't want to come. he came because democrats forced him. they knew his condition. they were happy to exploit him anyway. the individual is always far less important than the mission. the mission never changes. acquiring political power. watch the shameless jerry nadler of new york shame mueller. throughout the >> what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? mueller no. >> mueller did not exonerate the president. that was the headline. if course it was the headline. that was the point. to create a headline. prosecutors don't exonerate anyone ever. prosecutors charge people with crimes or they don't. that's the full scope of their power. only god exonerates. the whole thing was a dishonest word game. robert mueller conceded that his was the first justice department investigation and history to claim that it's unindicted suspect was. >> justice department determined that their innocence was not conclusively determined? >> i cannot. this is unique. >> time is short. i got 5 minutes. >> that was probably the high point of the day. the rest of the time, it was depressing to watch. he seemed deeply confused. confused about why he was there. he said that he was not familiar at all with the report that bears his name. >> collusion and conspiracy are essentially synonymous terms. correct? >> no. >> collusion is largely synonymous with conspiracy as that crime is set forth. i'm reading your report, sir. it's a "yes" or "no" answer. >> page 180. >> i leave it with the report. >> out of your own report, we can put too bad the collusion and conspiracy. >> it went on like this for more than six excruciating hours. we hope you were doing something else today. mueller declined to answer the question at all. he said, the critical question, central to the russian investigation. >> do you have any reason to believe that he was lying? so it's not your purview to look into whether or not anti-russians are lying to stea steal. >> given what we've already said about mr. mueller, we don't wt to be cruel here. but we also want to be clear about what he's indicated. he saying that he doesn't know about if he's lying about the russian investigation parity doesn't care. even though robert mueller is the very same man who is trying to send robert to prison for the rest of his life for talent minor and totally irrelevant lies, allegedly, that hurt no one. but he doesn't care to know if christopher steele is lying about the most important question in the investigation, which he's dedicated to a half years of his life. it's enough to shake your faith, actually, if you think about it for a minute. even democrats had to admit that mueller's testimony was a complete debacle. >> look, on objects, this was a disaster. >> today, he was a witness, and he frankly wasn't a really good witness, because he declined to answer, by my account, over 100 times. >> i thought he was boring. i thought in some cases, he was sort of evasive. i thought it really was a very ineffective defense of his own work. >> looked, from the democratic perspective >> he particularly used the d word. >> at the very least, we now an absurd story, for certain, but not a harmless story. hardly. his charade deeply hurt this country. worst of all, it distracted us from our real problems. stop frequently. look around. how is america doing do you think? now remember that all the sadness you just saw on your drive, the boarded up buildings, all the slow-motion disasters unfolding unmistakably all around us, all of that has been completely ignored for years in favor of some stupid invented story about russian spies that never even made sense and didn't even happen. a ruling class did that. they did that to you as a distraction. they do not deserve to rule. that much is clear. congressman louie gohmert. watch as go he questions muell. >> and if somebody knows they did not conspire with anybody from russia to affect the election and they see the big justice department with people that take that person, coming after them, and then someone who hires a dozen more people that hate that person, and he knows he's in in a sense, he's not corruptly acting. he is pursuing justice, and the fact that you ran it out means you perpetuated injustice. >> the witness may answer the question. >> i take your question. >> tucker: congressman louis joins us. thanks for joining us. so, you were there. what was your assessment of his condition, of what he said? after talking to him customer >> while, he is older. he's lost a round or two the latter, but i was telling our guys early on right after he started, there is no question his staff has been telling him, if you mentioned the report, he's going to ask you which volume, which page. he's going to take up as much is your 5 minutes as he can, taking his time. i thought some of it was an act. you know, he's just an older gentleman. but that does not excuse him putting this country through hell. i don't know if you were aware, but last summer,'s he doesn't know mueller like i do. i knew the guy. he would probably have continued if he hadn't had a strong attorney general come in and see that he had nothing after two years. this is my speculation, but i think that if he had been left to his own purposes, he would have gone on and on. >> tucker: can i just clarify something congressman? you are saying from what you know, he could have wrap this up before the midterm elections in 2018. >> goumert: he wasn't going to answer when he knew that there was no conspiracy, collusion, whatever one called it. he wanted say. but it was clear. he knew early on, and in fact, we all knew way back over a year ago that there was nothing there on the conspiracy with the russian agents. that it was a bunch of garbage. he could have ended this back then, but he chose to affect the election. it was also clear that wiseman must have been the driving force in all of this. the one that has been closed, crystal clear today. >> you've seen it all along. >> tucker: he accused mueller of trying to conduct a political case, rather than a legal one. watch. >> why did you suggest russia was responsible when in court, you've been unable to produce any evidence to support it. >> i'm not going to get into that any further than i already have. >> but you have left a clear impression that it was the russian government, yet when you are called upon to produce evidence, you fail to do so. it's starting to look like, having desperately tried and failed to make a legal case against a president, you made a political case instead. you rang the doorbell and ran. >> one of the great images at today's hearing. congressman, thanks a lot for joining us. you raised one of the most interesting points of the day. we have changed one of. some of them, as you pointed out, are not. we don't know that that's actually true. >> well, it's not just me that has pointed it out. as you know, there is a court case going on now. an indictment was brought against the so-called troll farms. wait a second. you guys have published this entire reap report. the department of justice, show us your evidence linking these troll farms to the russian government. the doj says, we don't have any evidence. that is stunning. >> tucker: well, it is stunning considering that russia is an actual place with nuclear weapons, and by the way could be our ally in the fight against extremism or china or any actual threats to our security. why did so many people in washington, including a lot of republicans hook, line, and sinker for this russian idea? >> because that's what the molar report strongly implies, that the russian government is behind these troll farms. they don't have emmett tell mike any evidence. the very next day. in that press conference, he very cleverly pointed out. i asked him, did that have anything to do with the court hearing the prior day? he said no. i'm sorry, but that really doesn't pass the test. >> tucker: this is such a scandal, and it's been ignored by everybody. god bless you for bringing it up. congressman, thank you for bringing this up. >> tucker: then, a former entertainment. he has long aspired to run for office as a democrat. he's bragged about it. more than any other media company bears responsibility for promoting the absurd russia hoa hoax. for one example, mueller's. before for purposes that have never been clear even to this day. here's how mueller responded. >> providing information to the media, including cnn? big i'm not going to speak to that. see want to borrow a phrase from mueller himself, he certainly did not exonerate his team. congressman, thanks very much for coming on. what did you think of his answer to your very straightforward? >> they were frustrated by it. it's a simple question. i think it was important for people to know. were individuals within the special counsel leaking information? i made this point before. if every one of these cases, all 25 of them, detrimental to the president? it was always meant to diminish him. they never did anything that exonerated him or that seemed to indicate that there was innocence involved. it was always negative information. i just think the american people deserve answers to this. >> tucker: well, what's so striking is, this nutcase judge has now told roger stone that if he speaks up in his own defense, he will go to prison. he's not allowed to talk and present at all. and now, it's clear that the government was leaking against him. his first amendment rights are not against him, but the government can now leak to destroy his reputation? >> you always have the right to defend yourself. you always have the right to go to the public forum and to tell your side of the story, especially, as you just pointed out when the government hasn't been held back on this. and even when they are held back, many times they leak information anyway. you look at this, and by the way, he is a bit of a character. he's not the only one who's been treated in this way. >> tucker: i know. you are right. there are so many. why is it so hard to get an answer from the government, which we pay for. they work for us, at least theoretically. who do they leak to ny customer >> yeah. and not just that question, but virtually everything we've been asking for three and a half-3 years now. were they honest? we could go down the list of dozens and dozens of questions. by the way, something that i never really understood, and that is, you look at some of these individuals and say, hey look. we're trying to help you. we are trying to facilitate truth and transparency here. there's been a couple times where i don't understand why our team is in it so hard. >> tucker: actually, you are infuriating me all over again. congressman, thanks so much for that question. robert mueller did it seem very familiar with his own report, so he denigrated didn't write it . coverage of robert mueller's if you live with diabetes, why fingerstick when you can scan? with the freestyle libre 14 day system just scan the sensor with your reader, iphone or android and manage your diabetes. with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you can check your glucose levels any time, without fingersticks. ask your doctor to write a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. you can do it without fingersticks. learn more at freestylelibre.us has been excellent. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today. >> wiseman got caught just like he did with arthur andersen, where he lost in the supreme court 9-0. they put mueller. not at all. they put mueller in a very bad position. his aides put him in a very bad position. >> tucker: robert mueller's testimony today on capitol hill. some of the key individuals in it. to be clear, the report that his name is on. someone wrote the mueller report. he clearly didn't. who did. donna? >> robert mueller seemed tone-deaf to the politics of his investigation. so many members of his team openly supported hillary clinton and donated to democrats. mueller's so-called pitbull prosecutor, anticipating her victory. sally. wiseman, who we believe wrote the report, sent an email of congratulations. >> i can't imagine a single prosecutor or judge that i have ever. had a direct relationship to the opponent being investigated. mueller articles 19 lawyers, 14 of them were transferred to the department of justice. only five came from outside. >> russian election interferenc interference. did not extend to the oppositio opposition. used to secure a surveillance. >> mueller, can you state with confidence that the steele dossier. >> mueller: i said at my opening statement that part of the building of the case was predated by at least ten months. speak of my intelligence contacts report that to collect information about both campaign campaigns. investigating a source of the dossier was counterintelligence 101. a major gap in the mueller report. >> tucker: catherine harris, thank you. the mueller report was supposed to be two years of investigation that investigation. despite all of that money, your money, rather than original findings. >> i think he relied a lot on media. i'd like to know how many times he cited "the washington post" in the report. >> i don't have knowledge of that. >> i'd counted about 60 times. how many times did you cite "the new york times"? >> i counted about 75 times. how many times did you cite fox news? mueller as with the other two, i have no idea. >> about 25 times. it looks like volume two is mostly regurgitated press story. there's almost nothing in volume two that i couldn't already hear or know simply by having a $50 cable news subscription. however, your investigation costs american taxpayers $25 million. >> is on "the wall street journal" editorial board. thanks a lot for coming on. take three steps back and assess what you saw today from robert mueller. >> what i saw for robert mueller was not what democrats wanted. why did they want this to happen? they wanted the sound bite, and they wanted to relaunch the impeachment conspiracy theory. he, after say this, for all of his other feelings today, he clearly prepped hard on that. he did not in any way to any audio for them. he wouldn't read his own report for them. he did not agree with some of their characterizations. >> tucker: interesting. do you think the democrats, clearly we know what they wante wanted. how could they have miscalculated so very badly? >> i think that this was their only shot. the report was a complete dog, okay customer the party is hopelessly divided over this, between the sort of crazy despeo impeach trump. nancy pelosi know that that could be terribly bad for them politically. those who really wants impeachment, this was their last chance to get mueller out. i don't think that they stopped to consider his ability to manage a hearing like this or the fact that he had no interest whatsoever in putting himself in the middle of a political fray. he was definitely careful not to do some. see when i'm not a lawyer, but at least in the movies, rule one in cross-examination is knowing what the answers are going to b be. they just completely destroyed their case for impeachment. they humiliated themselves. they made it crystal clear that the whole thing was a hoax. >> oh, yeah, . i think the only person more happy than donald trump would be nancy pelosi. he made it a lot easier for her today. i just think that in general, they didn't know where else to go with this. the report did not help them out. and look, think about how disingenuous this was in a way to, talker. we have been hearing from the day that mueller put out his report, that all they wanted to do was talk to him so that they could ask more questions about the underlying evidence. there were no questions like that today. all there was was an attempt to get mueller to agree that trump had committed a crime. >> tucker: destructive. >> well, it may and now. >> tucker: yeah. i think it will end now. i think we can say that conclusively paired good to see you tonight. >> you too. >> tucker: at the peak of the mania, the special counsel was revered as a religious figure. they would die before getting a chance to read his report. remember that story? celebrities even co-opted the christmas holiday to make it the mueller report. >> we wish you a mueller. we wish you a mueller christmas. indictments will come to you and your kin. indictments for christmas and impeachment next year. >> tucker: now, even the most starry eyed children must admit that mueller doesn't exist. mueller isn't real. even the man who hates trump so much, the man who's been a complete buffoon for the last two years. that man, and none of the last, called the hearing a disaster. it's fantastic. he joins us tonight. chris, how bad was this for the democratic case? >> i'm telling you, honestly, i was waiting for them to reach under their table and pourable of soup. this was tragic. it was still as asterisk. i sorry for the man. obviously, he wasn't up to the task. and it was mean. nadler should be charged with senior abuse for what witnessed today. it was all just designed to be a television show. people didn't read the book. he wanted to make it into a tv show or a movie, and they tried. their star fell flat on his face. let me say, also, the democrats and the committee were not up to the task either. they were ill prepared. they didn't have what i thought were intelligent questions. i don't think they moved anything forward. whatever it was that they were trying to achieve, i don't think that they achieved it. that's not within my purview. the word purview was used more times in television history. and so now, america hangs on pins and needles waiting for the next report. >> tucker: he con it. i'm so glad that you made the point about cruelty. because that's really what it does. that's what nadler did. i keep thinking of his girls. it's got a couple of girls, watching their dad fumble around on television when he really ought to be sitting on his dock, whatever, doing something that a man would be doing. this is awful. >> it was nothing new. the democrats didn't have anything new. it was all fake. it's all just a terrible television show. and you know what they are going to do tomorrow? they are going to subpoena more people. they are going to be talking about more indictments. they are going to keep dragging on. they have crazy looted themselves to this. they have nothing positive to say. they have nothing affirmative to say. >> tucker: is there a constituency for this? you've seen all the numbers. you follow this as closely as anybody. is there a large group of voters that really want them to continue with this customer >> i mean, no. certainly the poll don't indicate this. if they hadn't yesterday, they certainly have today. honestly, this is not and what the government is for. this is not what our media is supposed to be doing. this is really a catastrophe for the united states of america, for the republic. you have freedom loving people everywhere. the one you are exactly right. i hate to agree with you, but you are absolutely speaking the truth. great to see you tonight. the democratic party's top presidential candidates have been demanding a impeachment for months. did they learn anything from today's hearing? 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(laughs) comcast business gives you a full suite of products with great performance and value. get fast, reliable internet on the nation's largest gig-speed network for less than at&t. that's 120 dollars less a year. better, faster. i mean sign me up. comcast business. beyond fast. >> of their party is in shambles right now. they've got the squad leading their party. they are a mess. this was a devastating day for the democrats. the democrats thought they could win an election like this. i think they hurt themselves very badly for 2020. >> tucker: so, that was the president of the united states. obviously, he has an interest in expressing certain points of view on the hearing today. the truth is, most people that watched it reached the same conclusion that donald trump did. it was a disaster for the democratic party and their impeachment agenda. it's over. there is no impeachment after what happened today. but the people running for president may not know that. they live in a totally alternate reality. they are completely cut off. by the way, they are egomaniacs. they are not normal people. and they are prone to fantasy in the first place. these are the people who believe that we can keep the border open and give free health care to everyone who lives here. naturally, they are still full steam ahead on impeachment. >> now, president and donald trump did everything he could to obstruct justice. >> you read the mueller report and you see quite clearly that he spelled out behavior, distracting people to live, cover things up. >> he is not exonerated. look, we know for a fact that the president did everything that he could to obstruct the mueller investigation. >> tucker: bernie sanders speaking even more slow than usual. she watched the hearings today. i understand that the people running for president are on the road. it's hard to catch up with the news. i've been there. i get it. but they seem unwilling to readjust their perceptions to suit reality. >> i do, but it's intentional. the reason they are doing this is because they are running in the democratic primary. even if it's to the detriment to bernie as a whole. what speaker nancy pelosi has been doing paired she doesn't want to move forward on impeachment, because she wants to protect the democratic majority in the house. the problem for democrats is that president trump has two important things going for him. one, he is an incumbent. two, the economy is strong. his it simply just did not happ. >> tucker: yeah. i understand the strategy completely. but at some point, and it's not that far off, one of these candidates is going to be the democratic nominee. this is pretty late to be pretending that they can impeach trump, isn't it question >> i think if you are an objective observer, yes. but if you. what we know and what the majority of the country knows who actually wash today, is that they did a lot of damage to that impeachment narrative for three reasons. one, mueller was a terrible witness. he said that it is very painful to watch him. mueller, himself, said today that he was able to conduct a stomach and investigation. even looking at the fact that aaron was sitting next to him. set up the private server and also destroyed evidence. also, i think president trump was denied his innocence by mueller and his team. for that reason, mueller did a lot of damage to democrats. >> i always appreciate staying on. thank you. >> tucker: thank you. in a recent interview from 2013, america ought to in racial profiling of white men who he blames for "most of the deaths within this country" ilhan omar said that americans shouldn't worry about muslims leaving. we are not making this up. it's hard to believe that we are actually not. this is real. omar said the real concern is the rhetoric of politicians. in short, ilhan omar is a lunatic, and embarrassing plates on american politics, but hopefully one that will eventually pass. matters that include potential tax fraud, marriage fraud, and immigration fraud. the president joins us tonight. tom, thanks for coming on paired what are you looking to find from congressman dominic ilhan omar. >> whether the strong evidence of marriage and other criminal activity is accurate in terms of did she do it? we've had them talking about their comprehensive investigation. these allegations are out there. she hasn't disproven them. it's about time for the house process to begin to work. i say that, knowing that the house ethics committee is split evenly between democrats and republicans. the american people are probably going to want the house to make sure that miss omar, who may have committed marriage fraud by marrying her brother, and we know for sure that she was signing incorrect tax returns. this needs to be explored. the justice department, the department of homeland security, and the irs need to do something as well. she's been protected from the scandal by the big media for a long time. we have to lift that protection. she is not above the law. this isn't about her crazy socialism and her anti-american statements. this is about whether he just follows the basic rules that other americans would be subject to severe scrutiny over if they were seen to have broken them. >> tucker: she is accused of coming to this country under a false identity, marrying her brother. clearly she lied about it. she said she was married. she was married by a christian minister. and then, accused of committing perjury. people are afraid to be called racist? is that what it's about customer >> i don't know. maybe the justice department is doing an investigation and not telling us about it. we are not even sure if omar is her real name. that's how crazy this is. i've been doing this for 20 plus years. this is about the most significant congressional scandal by members that i'm aware of. you have to go back to ohio to come up with something so far out. but in terms of the scope of the potential criminality, this is pretty significant. the question is, if this doesn't go forward, it's probably because democrats are protecting her. at the mueller hearing, the question for the house democrats is, is miss omar above the law? >> tucker: of course, that's the one thing they mean least of all. a whole bunch of people they believe are above the law. tom, i appreciate it. good to have you. the entire framing of the robert mueller investigation exposes how corrupt it was from day one. it is supposed to be assumed not guilty, but the democrats from the congress americans are not fully exonerated. therefore, they are guilty. blasted mueller for enabling the democratic talking point. here it is. >> there are couple statements that you made. this is not for me to decide, and the implication is that this is for this committee to decide. now, you didn't use the word like started. there was no statute to prevent you from. i go back to what he said. that is that the president is innocent until proven guilty. my time is up. >> tucker: that's it. that's it right there. congressman, thank you for joining us and for raising that point. it's not a defense of any specific politician. it's the defense of the centerpiece of our justice system, which is the presumption of innocence. why is that getting lost? >> it's getting lost, because democrats wanted to get lost. i think it's over. case is closed. let's have the country move on paired we've got a whole out of things to do. crisis at the border, deficits, fiscal responsibility, health care. i could go on and on and on. the left wing at the democratic party is absolutely zeroed in on impeachment. good luck getting that after the performance today both in the judiciary committee and the intelligence. >> tucker: i've got to ask you, i'm not sympathetic to mueller personally, but watching him today, i felt sorry for him. do you think democrats knew his condition and forced him to come anyway customer >> i think you are going to act stomach have to ask the democrats on that today, he wasn't the person he was five years ago. now, whether or not the democrats knew it and tried to put good faith on it, i don't know. the fact is, i kind of felt sorry for bob mueller, because he evaded questions about 100 times. he was their star witness. if i was sitting on a jury, i wouldn't put a lot of credibility on him. >> tucker: unbelievable. we know you have to go. congressman, thanks for joining us tonight. >> yeah, see you later. >> tucker: well, the hearing today finally ends this russia hoax once and for all or will it america? hemingway, who has been our correspondent since the very first day, joins us to close out the special hour s been excellen. they really appreciate the military family and it really shows. with all that usaa offers why go with anybody else? we know their rates are good, we know that they're always going to take care of us. it was an instant savings and i should have changed a long time ago. it was funny because when we would call another insurance company, hey would say "oh we can't beat usaa" we're the webber family. we're the tenney's we're the hayles, and we're usaa members for life. ♪ get your usaa auto insurance quote today. age-related macular man: i'vdegeneration,sed with which could lead to vision loss. so today i made a plan with my doctor, which includes preservision. because it's my vision, my love of the game, my open road, my little artist. vo: only preservision areds 2 contains the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of moderate to advanced amd progression. man: because it's my sunset, it's how i see my life. it's my vision. preservision. >> tucker: on the hill today, hannity and must watch tonight. lawmakers react. we will all break it down for you, tell you what it means for the president and the country. can't miss hannity tonight at nine. >> i think robert miller 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. i don't think there's anybody that would say he did well. i looked at your people. they say it was devastating for the democrats. the performance was obviously not very good. he had a lot of problems. but what he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country. the democrats had nothing, and now they have less than nothing. >> tucker: there was a lot that was sad and frustrating about the spectacle we saw today. it also seems like the end of something big. so, to close out our hours, we want to turn to someone who has actual mastery of the story. that person is the great mollie hemingway, senior editor and a very frequent guest on the show. she joins us today. molly, you obviously watch all of this. what you make of it? >> come well, it was really interesting. we were told for years that you could not criticize the special counsel or robert mueller in any way, precisely because robert mueller has such credibility. that's what we were told. yes, he had hired 13 democrats and no republicans to run this investigation. those democrats were close allies of hillary clinton and in some cases lawyers for her. you can it criticize, because robert mueller who was a nominal republican was beyond reproach. what we learned today was that robert mueller is not very familiar with the investigation that he was the figurehead of. the entire question of russian collusion, we were told for years that donald trump was a traitor. then, we were told that he got upset about being called a traitor, and that might be obstruction. i don't think that case was well made today. people keep trying to keep us from asking questions, but i think now more than ever, people need to know how this special was dominic counsel was set up. how did the russian hoax began? these are questions that robert mueller was unable and unwilling to answer today, but people will need those answers. >> tucker: the fact that he made baseless allegations against russia, and i know, having been accused of being a handmaiden to vladimir putin, maybe i shouldn't say this. but there is something inferior rating and really wrong about changing our foreign policy on the basis of lies. i mean, as that of concern as well? >> even people being upset about foreign policy. we learned that the special counsel was set up, in part, because bureaucrats imposed the foreign policy that voters put in place by electing donald trump. that is not appropriate. such a threat to rule of law. that is something that can't be allowed again. it's not a matter of if you like trump or you like his foreign policy. just a matter of whether bureaucrats get to decide our government and how we do things or whether the people to. >> tucker: exactly. that's the attack on democracy. hiding in plain sight. yes, our democracy was hacked, by our own bureaucrats. mollie hemingway. you have a cliff, could gift for clarity. thank you. the attack on our democracy is real, and it came from within. we will be back tomorrow 8:00 p.m. sworn enemy of line, smugness. we will be back every night in the service of those values which will not change despite fashion or trend. have a great evening. we have a surprise for you here tonight. continuing coverage live at 9:00, four seconds from now, the great sean hannity. the clock is off, but who's counting. >> sean: good to see you. welcome to hannity. with this fox news alert. the witch hunt is gone. it is buried. the real russia investigation is only beginning. now, today's hearing kept up but will now go in history as one of the single biggest, most epic embarrassments in history, in american history. what happened today should shock the conscience of every american. the liars in the democratic party, their cheerleaders and the media mob, they have been exposed yet again. and you can never

concentrate -- and you don't ever -- you don't -- you don't simply compromise on those issues that matter to progressives, but you fight for workers whether you swipe a badge or punch a clock or whether you work for tips or whether you're raising kids, and that's how we will govern come 2021. >> no eugene scalia in a democratic administration. senator sherrod brown, thank you for making time. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. >>> thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. so here's how it starts. and i will tell you, it goes by fast. from the moment they entered the courtroom to the moment they all filed out, whole thing took less than five minutes. here's how it starts in the transcript. the jury enters at 2:21 p.m. the judge, all right, please be seated. will the foreperson please stand and be identified? i understand you've reached a verdict, is that correct? the foreperson, yes, sir, we have. the judge, is it unanimous? the foreperson, yes, sir. the judge, have you completed the verdict form? the foreperson, yes. the judge, would you give it to mr. burns, please? the court clerk. the verdict form is given to the court clerk. the judge, all right. ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to read your verdict. please listen carefully to the verdict as it's read because once the verdict is read each of you will be asked whether this is, in fact, your verdict. and then the court clerk says. will the defendant please rise and face the jury. the defendant rises and faces the jury and then the clerk reads from the verdict form. we, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, bee by john keon. we unanimously find the defendant guilty of conspiracy to make willful and material false statements and omissions in a foreign agent registration act filing as charged in count 1-b of the indictment. and we, the jury, unanimously find the defendant, guilty of acting in the united states as an unregistered agent of a foreign government as charged in count ii of the indictment. so say we all, this 23rd day of july 2019, signed by the foreperson. the judge says, please pull the jury. the transcript notes each juror upon being asked by the clerk, is this your true verdict? answered in the affirmative. the judge then says to the jury, thank you. the defendant may be seated. ladies and gentlemen of the jury, your service has now ended. you are excused with the thanks of the court and the jury exits at 2:25 p.m. which means the whole thing took four minutes. that was it. guilty on all counts. it had to happen today of all days, right? i mean, even if tomorrow wasn't going to be robert mueller's testimony in congress, there's already a lot going on, right? i mean, today, for example, just tonight we just got a new secretary of defense. another lobbyist. so now there's a lobbyist for coal companies running the epa, a lobbyist for oil companies running the interior department, a guy who ran the lobbying efforts for pharmaceuticals running health and human services and now a guy from raytheon running the department of defense. perhaps you are noticing a theme here. the president literally gave in his big re-election kickoff rally, literally gave this speech about how he was destroying the unholy alliance of lob gists and special interests who were bleeding our country dry. we've now got lobbyists running each of their respective agencies in the cabinet. including the pentagon. today also, our closest overseas ally, the united kingdom, went through its own iteration of our 2016 presidential election when the tragic comic bumbling trump-like pro-brexit character boris johnson became, believe it or not, prime minister. yeah, him. prime minister of the united kingdom, actually. and the united kingdom will now face stronger pressure than ever before to, among other things, break itself up into bits. as a result of boris johnson ascending to this job because boris johnson is hellbent on breaking the uk out of the european union, no matter what it takes, but the uk's constituent parts including scotland and northern ireland and to some extent wales, they do not want to get out of the european union. and with boris johnson now becoming prime minister, pro-independence leaders in all of those constituent parts of the uk are now starting to loudly insist that if boris johnson really does insist on a hard brexit, if he really does try to force this, if he really tries to follow through on what he says about breaking the uk out of the european union, well, those other parts of the uk might instead break themselves off from boris. and his brexit plans so that they can stay european countries because they all want to stay in the european union. that happened today. >>> also today, after some of the biggest protests in the history of puerto rico yesterday, tonight the republican governor in puerto rico still has not resigned, although we have learned as of tonight that the puerto rican governor has apparently been confronted with a law enforcement warrant to search his electronics and tonight the chief of staff to republican governor ricardo rossello has resigned. his chief of staff has resigned as of tonight. so that means that we are on resignation watch for that republican governor. as of right now and into the overnight hours. it is hard to see how he stays on in that job. >>> and on top of that, not for nothing, i should tell you that tonight a whole bunch of people have superglued themselves to the u.s. capitol. they have superglued themselves to the door jams and the hallways in the doors that connect the u.s. house office building to the u.s. capitol building. these protesters are proclaiming a climate emergency. they want congress to declare a climate emergency. we have all seen lots of people chain themselves to things. in this case, they have glued themselves, they have glued their skin to the doors and hallways connecting the u.s. house office building to the u.s. capitol. that is ongoing. >> so, i mean, today has already been kind of a momentous day all around, but on the eve of robert mueller's testimony to the house of representatives, starting early tomorrow morning, it is pretty remarkable that robert mueller's team today, this afternoon, got themselves another landmark victory in court. i mean, there have been dozens of indictments. there have been many guilty plea. there have been many cooperation deals that have sprung from mueller's investigation into russia intervening in our election to help put donald trump into the white house, but for all of those dozens of indictments, mueller's investigation has only led to two trials before a jury. the first one, of course, put president trump's campaign chairman paul manafort in prison for at least seven years. that's his federal prison sentence. and that is separate and apart from any time he may get if he's convicted on the state charges. he's also now facing at the same time. so manafort was only the first jury trial that came out of mueller's investigation. only the second jury trial that has come out of mueller's investigation ended in dramatic fashion today, this afternoon with that jury walking into that courtroom in the eastern district of virginia at 2:21 p.m. eastern time to announce their unanimous decision to issue guilty verdicts on all counts against bijak kian, who was a trump transition official working on intelligence issues. now, kian initially came under investigation as part of mueller's probe. mueller's team then handed off the bijan kian to other federal prosecutors in the eastern district of virginia. they ultimately brought charges against kian for him acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign power at the time he was working as a trump official. as the number two in the transition on intelligence matters, mr. kian apparently participated in key hiring decisions for the new administration. things like who would run the nation's intelligence agencies under president donald trump. bijan kian was taking part in those decisions while he was secretly on the payroll of a foreign country, as determined today by a federal jury. and i mean that alone should be kind of a show-stopper, right? for this or any presidency. you played a role in picking the cia director while you were being paid by another country secretly. that's weird. you would think that would be kind of a -- hmm. but, you know, this kian case is one of a lot of things going on with this administration and it alone has been overshadowed a little bit, even from the outset, by what is has told us over time about somebody else in trump's orbit, about biyment an kian's business partner and fellow trump transition official, the trump campaign aide michael flynn who would go on to be named national security adviser by president trump. and the flynn stuff that came out in the kian case still is slightly mind boggling. prosecutors, for example, laid out in court in the kian case part of what mike flynn's day was like on the fateful day of october 7th, 2016. during the campaign. basically exactly a month before the actual election. you remember that date, october 7th, 2016, if you remember any other date from the campaign because that is the single day when in quick secession the u.s. government announced officially that russia was interfering in the election. that was that joint statement from the department of homeland security and the director of national intelligence. the u.s. intelligence community is confident that the russian government is -- shortly thereafter, the "access hollywood" tape came out, which threatened to end trump's presidential campaign one month before the election because that was the tape in which he was heard bragging about what he could do to women, what he could grab them by and when you are a star they let you do it. shortly thereafter, very shortly thereafter, that same day is when wikileaks started releasing the emails that russian intelligence had hacked from hillary clinton's campaign chairman and then provided to julian assange and wikileaks to distribute to try to -- to try to cause maximum harm to hillary clinton's campaign and to boost donald trump as best they could. all of those things all happened on the same day, on october 7th, and in the kian trial this past week, we learned that on that same day, on october 7th, mike flynn was fielding phone calls from his foreign pay master, from the turkish guy who was paying him over $500,000 during the campaign to essentially act as a foreign agent representing the interest of a foreign government without declaring himself as such in the u.s. while he worked on a u.s. presidential campaign. on that day, on october 7th, the turkish guy who was paying mike flynn apparently got on the phone with flynn and reamed him up about how turkey was basically not getting its money's worth from the presidential campaign of donald trump. that day, october 7th, michael flynn's turkish pay master got on the phone with flynn demanding to know why republican presidential candidate donald trump was not saying nicer things about turkey. why he was not attacking the enemies of the president of turkey. after all, wasn't flynn being paid for just that? was turkey getting its money's worth? out of this guy they secretly had on their payroll who was working on the trump campaign. i mean, that is the kind of call that mike flynn was having to take on "access hollywood" day. right? get on it, mike. yes, sir. right away, sir. we do kind of have a few other things on our plate today, sir, but i will try to get you your money's worth, foreign country paying me secretly while i work on this campaign. i mean, we still don't know how this is all going to shake out for flynn. even now that his business partner, this other guy from the trump transition, bijan kian, has been convicted an all counts today. it is worth pausing to just appreciate, just savor this for a second, that the president of the united states, his top campaign foreign policy adviser was literally on the payroll of a foreign country being paid to influence the future president and then even after that was notified to the presidential transition and the trump administration -- the incoming trump administration, the trump transition knew it, that flynn had been on a foreign government's payroll, nevertheless, the president picked that guy to be his top national security official. i mean, i know this will probably be a tiny footnote in the history of even just this insane year of this insane presidency, but, honestly, that deserves its own full chapter. that would be the kind of thing that would, like, destroy a whole another presidency. but in this one, it's like, oh, yeah, that happened. right. and you might remember, in mike flynn's own case, he recently traded in his sort of normal lawyers for instead a new lawyer. he instead retained a new sort of fox news regular who literally sells anti-robert mueller t-shirts on her website. that's mike flynn's new lawyer. flynn is still awaiting sentencing for his own crimes. he has pled guilty to lying to investigators. he admitted in his plea deal to lying in his federal filings in which he insisted that the wasn't, of course, a paid foreign agent, but since he has switched his legal team, the best we can tell the strategic legal advice flynn seems to have received from his new fox news lawyer is that he should try to blow up the federal criminal case that federal prosecutors were pursuing against bijan kian, against flynn's former business partner. he was expected to testify for the prosecution in kian's trial. he was expected to testify about all the work that he and kian did for flynn's cuttionsulting on behalf of this foreign government. it apparently would be fine for him, it would be a good idea for him to change his mind about what he had previously admitted to prosecutors. they apparently advised him that he should just go ahead and change his story now. i think the idea must have been that if these prosecutors lost flynn as their star witness against kian, the whole case against kian would collapse. you know, kian would be acquitted or the charges would be dropped and that would be a terrible big black eye for the prosecutors and for robert mueller in particular. i mean, perhaps when you have an anti-robert mueller crusading tv lawyer representing you, that seems like a surefire strategy to grease your own skids and get yourself off the hook. you know, blow up mueller's prosecution of this other guy. that will make mueller look bad and then the whole deep state charade of the mueller investigation will come crashing down and all the charges will be dropped against mike flynn, or at least he'll get a light sentence and, you know, everybody will get a fox news contributor contract and we'll all laugh all the way to the bank. i guess that's how they thought it was going to go. today that strategy took a little bit of a hit when prosecutors actually won their case against kian and got conviction of him on all counts, even without mike flynn as a witness. and now in the wake of that, in the wake of that unanimous jury verdict, that he is guilty on all counts. now mike flynn, president trump's national security adviser, is in the unenviable position of having his business partner convicted for something flynn aeady admitted to prosecutors that he, himself, did. and in a failed effort to prevent that conviction from happening, flynn has just blown up his own position as a cooperating witness for prosecutors. which was his best bet for avoiding a prison sentence for himself. and now his business partner is looking at a potential 15 years in prison. and flynn still has his own sentencing in his own case ahead of him. which, again, will hinge on just how valuable he has been to prosecutors all this time. the same prosecutors he just double crossed and changed his story on and tried to kill their case against his business partner and he failed in that effort. oops. good luck at your sentencing. i mean, it's weird. it's like the whole anti-robert mueller t-shirt arguments don't work as well outside of fox news. well, tomorrow robert mueller himself will be answering questions from the judiciary committee and then from the intelligence committee in the house. it starts early. you should probably be watching by about 8:00 a.m. they're going to gavel the first hearing into play at about 8:30. we know that mueller is going to have prepared opening statements for each of the two committees. we know that he has not provided them to the justice departmentnd advance. he's not providing them to the committees in advance and we're darn sure he's not going to release them to the public in advance. so they're due to gavel in at 8:30. you should probably be watching before that. right up towards the top, mueller will be giving an opening statement. the first one to the judiciary committee committee. we have no idea what he's going to say and nobody else does either. we're going to talk tonight over the course of this hour how the committees are preparing. what they might ask. what they should ask. we'll also talk about what else in history has been like this, if anything, but there's one piece of this that has been developing just this afternoon and into this evening which i want to try to address first, and it's about this issue of mueller's deputy. today we learned that in addition to special counsel robert mueller, there was also a deputy special counsel. there was? aaron zebley had previously been described as mueller's chief of staff in the special counsel's office. indeed, chief of staff is the same job title that zebley had at fbi. when robert mueller was fbi director, aaron zebley was his chief of staff at the fbi. and we thought that's what his role was in the special counsel's office, but today zebley was described as the deputy special counsel. in this statement from mueller's new spokesperson. "aaron zebley was the deputy special counsel and had day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by the special counsel's office. " oh. "he will accompany special counsel mueller to the wednesday hearings, as was discussed with the committees more than a week ago." that statement today by mueller's new spokesperson. well, if this has been the plan to have aaron zebley sitting there with mueller at his open testimony tomorrow and that was discussed with the two committees more than a week ago, i mean, that may be true. this is the first that we, the public, are hearing about it for sure. we had thought that maybe some of mueller's deputies including zebley might initially be testifying in closed sessions following mueller's open testimony. then that was reportedly either still in process or maybe cancelled. today's the first day that we learned that he'll be sitting there with mueller. what we understand about the judiciary committee's process is that while they believe they had notice from mueller's office that zebley was due to accompany mueller at the hearing, they didn't necessarily understand that to mean that zebley would be sitting at the table with mueller. it seems like maybe they thought he would be there kind of as a date, right? as support staff sitting behind him, looking sternly at the camera as mueller alone testified for hours. it seems like that was the impression that the judiciary committee was under. it's a little murky. that's our best understanding, though. that the specific request from mueller is that zebley would sort of just be in the room. now what we think is that the specific request from mueller is that zebley shouldn't just be in the room sitting behind mueller, he should be at the table. and as far as we can tell, that is a new request from the special counsel, at least as far as the committees understood it. at least here is how the intelligence committee chairman adam schiff explained it to reporters today. >> will mr. zebley be participating tomorrow as a witness or as counsel for mr. mueller? >> the special counsel's office has made it clear for some time that they would like to have him present, they would like to allow him to answer questions. we want this hearing to be about director mueller. we are in discussions with them about the role of his counsel and those discussions are ongoing. i expect that he will be there, but we would like to make sure that the degree that he participates that it may be on technical issues or other matters. we don't want him as a substitute for mueller's voice. >> was this a last-minute request? >> no, they have made this request for some time. we're willing to try to accommodate, but like many things about the hearing, it has been a constant process of negotiation and refinement. >> okay. literally while we were just playing that sound bite from adam schiff, i was just handed some breaking news on this very subject. you just heard there how intelligence committee chairman adam schiff explained it as of this afternoon, in terms of these ongoing negotiations about whether or not mueller would be accompanied by his deputy, by his fbi chief of staff aaron zebley, and under what circumstances. well, nbc news is now reporting, according to a house intelligence committee staffer, that we now have some clarity on this. the intelligence committee, again, is going to be the second committee that mueller testifies to tomorrow, and according to nbc news, an agreement has now been reached that aaron zebley, described today as deputy special counsel, aaron zebley, who was mueller's chief of staff when he was fbi director, aaron zebley at the intelligence committee testimony, zebley will be sworn in. so mueller will be sworn in for his testimony and zebley will be sworn in to testify as well. and that means that the expectation is that at the intelligence committee tomorrow, aaron zebley will be answering questions from members of that committee alongside mueller. now, again, that's the second hearing tomorrow. the first hearing we still don't have clarity. as far as we understand it, with the judiciary committee what we think is going to happen is that mueller will be sworn in and zebley will be sitting there with him, but zebley himself won't be sworn in. he will be there basically as a counselor, as an adviser to mueller. that means that mueller will be the one answering all the questions in the first round with judiciary tomorrow and zebley can speak in his ear and can advise him what to say, but zebley himself won't be sworn in and directly asking questions. that will be the case for the morning and in the afternoon zebley and mueller will both be witnesses and both be testifying and both be sworn in. literally while i was describing this tonight, this news developed. if we get clarity from judiciary or if they change their plans to try to match what intelligence is doing, we'll let you know. as for this late change in what we're expecting tomorrow, one of the people i most want to ask about this and what it might mean and where it might be coming from from the interest of the special counsel's office is somebody who has had the same job as aaron zebley. somebody who has been a chief of staff to an fbi director. they're somebody you know well from his time on msnbc and nbc. he is going to join us along with a bunch of other very well-placed experts over the course of this hour. lots to come. stay with us. me stay with us you don't really tk about your insurance unless you're complaining about it. you go on about how... ...it's so confusing it hurts my brain. ya i hear ya... or say you can't believe... ...how much of a hassle it is! and tell anyone who'll listen... 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>> well, aaron is as smart and humble and diligent as you could hope for. he also will know the case backward and forward. he worked right next to bob for years, including on the entire special counsel project. so here's what i make of it. if bob doesn't know an answer, aaron will. and aaron's testified in big cases before, including in the eastern district of virginia when i was u.s. attorney. aaron went from being an fbi special agent to being a federal prosecutor and was one of the most important witnesses in our presentation of the 9/11 case. so big case experience. diligent, humble, smart and earnest. knows the case backwards and forwards and will help tell the story. >> neal, what do you make about the sort of churn around this decision today? obviously these two committees, i'm not sure about what the timing was in terms of when this was first broached and how they're making these decisions. it seems like the judiciary committee won't swear mr. zebley in. they'll allow him to advise mr. mueller but not answer his own questions. the intelligence committee will handle it a little bit different. obviously it's unusual to have a second witness at the last moment. >> yeah, look, it's unusual. we're all guessing as to what's going on, but fundamentally i don't think it's going to change very much. we expect mueller to go in tomorrow and do what he said, which he said he's going to stick to the four corners of his report. the question is are the democrats going to grande stand in the house or get to the heart of this and say to mueller, tell us what your report actually says because i think if the american people hear what the report actually says as oppose to the spin around it, it's going to be a devastating day for the president. >> this is a bit of a sensitive question. do you think there may be some worry that director mueller may not be fully -- may not be at 100% capacity or some reason why he and his office feel that they need to have somebody there either advising him or picking up part of the witness responsibilities to answer these questions? is that possibly what's going on here. >> yeah, i don't know for sure. do i know this. at the end of a 22-meant investigation and a 448-page report, it's nice to have someone sitting next to you to help you. >> mmm-hmm. >> if i stumble here, neal will pick it up and, you know, carry it across the finish line. that's comforting. five hours of testimony before two committees about an investigation that long and complex, probably calls for two people. now, it is unusual. but i can tell you as a federal prosecutor, we almost always had people trying cases together under the very simple premise that two heads are better than one. >> neal, one of the things that you raised in an op-ed today in "the new york times" was that the questioning could actually be very simple and direct. that the special counsel and indeed mr. zebley alongside him should perhaps just be asked about the way the president has characterized mueller's findings. ask him if it's true that it proved no collusion, that it proved no obstruction. why do you think that's an effective approach? >> well, because i think ultimately this is a really simple set of questions, which is did the president obstruct justice? and after mueller turned in his report, the attorney general spun it without showing us the report for many weeks and said, oh, it shows no obstruction. the report actually says the reverse, which is why over 1,000 former federal prosecutors, including today jim comey in another part of the clip before nicolle wallace saying, look, if i read that report it would show that if this were any other american, that person would be looking at a federal indictment. so i think simple questions are important. then i think two questions that go beyond simple are important as well, which is the -- we know that mueller's by the book. so he wants to stick to the four corners of the report. but the book has changed because after he turned his report in, barr said, oh, you could have actually told the american people did mr. trump commit a crime. and if, you know, now that barr is saying that's permissible for mueller to have done, i think barr -- i think mueller should be asked that question by congress and should answer that question because barr is saying that's fair game to answer, mueller. >> i think that's a really, really interesting question. i would be interested in your take on this, chuck, because barr has discussed a number of things, including decisions within the special counsel's office and in the justice department about the special counsel's findings. things that the justice department just told mueller he can't talk about. >> right. >> so there is this sort of strange situation where the justice department is willing to characterize what happened in mueller's office, but mueller's being told that he, himself, is not allowed to. there is also the circumstance in which the attorney general, as neal says, has sort of redefined what the rules are and whether or not mueller should have said whether or not the president committed crimes. will robert mueller see those things that attorney general barr has said as the policy of the justice department that he should follow because they're proclamations by the a.g.? >> yeah, i think it puts bob in a very difficult spot. i mean, i've learned to take that man at his word, having worked for him. by the way, his default is taciturn. so the notion that he would do something other than what he already said he would do -- when he gave his press conference, he said i'm not going beyond my report. my report is my testimony. i have nothing to add. i understand that mr. barr opened the door. i get that. but i don't think it's in bob mueller's dna to do it. >> mmm-hmm. >> it may not be in his dna, but doesn't he have to? i mean, this is a guy who oversaw this 22-month investigation, didn't reach a conclusion because of this legal barrier that he thought existed and then you have the attorney general saying i'm your boss, that legal barrier doesn't exist. >> yeah. >> i think he's got to answer the question tomorrow. >> i would love to be wrong. >> neal katyal, chuck rosenberg, i know you two are going to be a key part of our footage -- our coverage of this as it unfolds over the course of tomorrow. which i know means you have to go home and go to sleep right this second. thank you so much for being here tonight. i really appreciate it. i'll see you tomorrow. >>> all right. we've got much more to get to this mueller testimony eve. we've actually got the vice chair of the judiciary committee who can hopefully help us with this breaking news. stay with us. this breaking news stay with us i don't keep track of regrets. and i don't add up the years. but what i do count on... is boost® delicious boost® high protein nutritional drink has 20 grams of protein, along with 26 essential vitamins and minerals. boost® high protein. be up for life. ♪ mmm, exactly!ug liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. nice! but uh, what's up with your partner? 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what happened to all that stuff? for the record, fbi director chris wray said he would be happy to check on that. the fbi director also clarified for the record today that he, himself, the fbi director hasn't read the mueller report. >> have you read the mueller report? >> i've reviewed it. i wouldn't say i read every single word. >> that's a big part of why democrats say they wanted robert mueller to testify tomorrow anyway, right? so people who haven't read the report can, you know, watch the movie instead of reading the book. who knew that would include the director of the fbi himself? we know democrats on the judiciary committee held a mock hearing today for about 2 1/2 hours as part of their prep complete with somebody playing the part of a likely interrupter who was trying to get them off their game when they were building up momentum. one of the lawmakers who of course will have questions for robert mueller is the vice chair of the house judiciary committee. she's got a big day ahead of us tomorrow. but before that she's going to join us here next. stay with us. ing to join us here next. stay with us at the lexus golden opportunity sales event. lease the 2019 rx 350 for $389 a month, for 36 months, and we'll make your first month's payment. experience amazing. 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>> you know, that's -- that's the last part that i heard. i was on my way over here, so i haven't been party to any last-minute negotiations. >> in terms of mr. zebley's role here, can you tell us anything about how the committee, how you, yourself, feel about the prospect of having him there? i think we've all been imagining robert mueller sitting there on his own in a full packed hearing room of people listening closely. what i've been fanaticizing is he and his team answering questions for weeks on end so we can get an answer to everything. what do you think about his deputy, his chief of staff sitting there with him? >> well, as you know, we've been very anxious to get mr. mueller as well as some other witnesses before the committee, so i say, you know, the more the merrier. if we can bring along don mcgahn and ms. donaldson and some of the other witnesses we've subpoenaed, i'd like them all to come by. >> surely, though, mueller's own team is -- is another matter. there had been some discussion that they would be testifying in a closed session that would sort of augment what we were able to see in open session. do we know if there is any plan for a closed session at this point with anyone from mueller's team? >> my understanding is that there isn't at this point, but mr. mueller also did give us some additional time with himself. i think it's a great idea, as one of your previous guests noted, you know, something of this complexity, the amount of time that was spent, the length of the report, the amount of evidence underlying it, i think it's a good thing if we're able to get more information by having one of his deputies there who can assist and help move the hearing along. >> what can you tell us about how prep is going? we saw tape from members of your committee coming out of what we understand to be a lengthy prep session on the democratic side late into this evening. how do you feel about it? >> well, we've been preparing for some time. we've had several months to get ready for this and there's been a number of delays, so it's been an ongoing process. as mr. jeffries noted, we're taking it very seriously. we don't want it to be a public spectacle. >> in terms of the justice department, they've had a sort of interesting role. the justice department obviously is no longer special counsel mueller's employer, nor do they employ any of the staff that have been invited to testify, as far as we know. nevertheless, the justice department last night sent a sort of cross shot across the bow to director mueller in response to these subpoenas that he received, including from your committee, that his testimony should be very circumspect. that it should not go outside the four corners of his report. that he should not talk about any decision-making process within the special counsel's office. that he should not talk about any charging decisions or anyone who is an uncharged third party. that, of course, would include the president and anyone related to the president who hasn't been charged. there has definitely been pushback, including from your chairman jerry nadler, that that justice department guidance is improper. what do you make of the justice department and their effort to sort of shape what's happening here? >> well, shape what's going to happen or continue to assist the president in his efforts to suppress the mueller report. i mean, the first thing that we had happen was just nondisclosure of the report. then we get a redacted report. then we have the justice department and the white house saying that witnesses can't appear or even when they do appear, as hope hicks did, not allowing them to answer questions and then we still have not receive the underlying evidence. we've only received a little bit of it. so it's a continuing effort to suppress the findings of the mueller report and the underlying evidence. it's not surprising. it's very disappointing. >> do you expect that robert mueller will follow those strictures as laid out by the justice department or do you expect that he will take a similar view of that instruction that you and your chairman have? >> you know, i -- i don't know. i think that's the $50 million question right now. you know, bob mueller has shown that, you know, he's very thorough, but he's very much a rule follower and i'm just not sure how he's going to view these rules. we know that he was distressed, shall we say, by the way that attorney general barr tried to shape his report and mischaracterize his report. i don't know if that will inform his testimony tomorrow. we are looking forward to hearing his statement, which i understand has not been provided to the department of justice. >> congresswoman mary gay scanlon, vice chair of the judiciary committee. if a decision changes tonight about aaron zebley and whether he's going to be sworn in and testifying to your committee like he is to intelligence, please, will you call us tonight even if it's late and we'll get it on the air? >> if i hear that, i will be happy to do so. >> thank you very much. not fair of me at all to ask you on the air. >> thank you. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. we'll be right back. stay with us but since he bought his house... are you going 45? -uh, yes. 55 is a suggestion. -...it's kind of like driving with his dad. -what a sign, huh? terry, can you take a selfie of me? -take a selfie of you? -yeah. can you make it look like i'm holding it? -he did show us how to bundle home and auto at progressive.com and save a bunch of money. -oh, a plaque. 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robert mueller's long-awaited congressional testimony. venezuela's former spymaster spks from here in the u.s. after defecting from the maduro regime. and much more. >> nawaz: it is often easier to spend money than it is to save it. that seems to be at the heart of the new two-year budget deal crafted by t white house and top congressional democrats. in a nutshell, spending on both domestic and military programs will go up, and debt ceiling a limi suspended until after the 2020 election. our own always, is here to break it all down for us.ow break itfor us. what's in the deal, and what's not? >> let's start with the big numbers. first of all, amna, this does raise the debt iling for two years. that's one fiscal crisis averred for now. that's good. so, right now in the law there are about 10% budget cuts that fere going to hit most o government, the military and non-military alike this. deal removes those budget cuts altogether. let me show you what it does instead. t's look at current spending right now broken down by defense and non-defense. defense, more spending now. here is what this

testimony? >> mr. president, robert mueller -- >> so we in a very good day today, the republican party. our country. there was no defense of what robert mueller was trying to definite defend. in all fairness to robert mueller, whether his performance was bad one or good one, i think everybody understands that. i think everybody understands what was going on. there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, in witch hunt that's been going on for a long time. pretty much from the time i came down on the escalator with our first lady. and it's a disgrace what happened. but i think today proved a lot to everybody, in fact some of my biggest opponents wrote things today that i wouldn't have believed knelled have written. and i appreciate that they did that. in has been a ver bad thing for our country. and despite everything we have been through it's been an incredible two and a half years for our country. the administration, our president, me, we've done a great job. we've got the strongest stock market, the best unemployment numbers, the most number of people ever working in the history of ou

listen on the free c-span radio app. the last time we heard from robert mueller was in may when he delivered his first public statement on the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. here is what he had to say at the time from justice department headquarters. >> robert mueller. mr. mueller: good morning, everyone, and thank you for being here. two years ago, the acting attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel. and he created the special counsel's office. the appointment order directed the office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. this included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. i have not spoken publicly during our investigation. i'm speaking out today because our investigation is complete. the attorney general has made the report largely public. we are formally closing the special counsel's office and as well, i'm resigning from the department of justice to return to private life. i will make a few remarks about

only a slap on the wrist. we have that and so more on "making money." ♪ robert mueller is in the hot seat right now. he has been there all day long, close right now to wrapping up this marathon testimony on his russia report. this before two house committees. hillary vaughn will lead us off with a live report from capitol hill. hillary? reporter: charles, democrats on the house judiciary committee are celebrating their hearing that wrapped up earlier this morning with special counsel robert mueller because they think it convinced the american public that maybe didn't read the report but saw the testimony that they need to proceed with impeachment. >> so for people who have read the mueller report or who followed these issues, this hearing was not surprising. for people who did not, this should have blown their minds. >> the broad consensus of caucus, is time. i think the speaker will reflect that. reporter: the special counsel is already making connections from his testimony earlier. in the appearance before the house tell defense committee happening right now, robert mueller said he

the world business. we have been watching robert mueller testify on capitol hill, trying to stick to his report as congressman try to move him beyond that. ,e are joined by kevin cirilli who is on capitol hill and has been following this closely. have we learned anything? no.n: the way republicans are looking at this is they are seizing on something robert mueller said that there was no evidence that members of the trump campaign fired -- conspired with members from russia in order to influence the election. democrats also finding things they like in robert mueller's testimony. the question is whether or not it will be enough to increase their calls for speaker nancy pelosi to get to impeachment. jerry nadler asked the special counsel robert mueller in their opening exchange whether or not the report exonerated president trump and he has said time or counsel robert mueller said no. things for democrats and republicans to light for a number of reasons, but in terms of moving the needle on impeachment, questionable if the first hearing would do anything to do as much. david: we have a

>>> tonight, from washington, robert mueller grilled on the hill. the high stakes showdown, after president trump repeatedly said the mueller report exonerated him, robert mueller is asked, did you exonerate the president? how he answers. also, can the president be charged with a crime when he leaves office? tonight, the president now responding just a short time ago. >>> also tonight, the urgent manhunt right now for two teenage suspects considered armed and dangerous after their alleged killing spree. that american woman and her boyfriend discovered dead. now, the suspects are wanted in another case and just in tonight, another burned out vehicle now discovered. >>> the emergency at the largest airport in the u.s. the toddler jumping on a baggage belt. the urgent calls for help. >>> the murder of a college student at ole miss. new surveillance tonight revealing how they tracked the young suspect, 85 miles away. >>> new images tonight, those two tornados, an ef-1 slamming cape cod. winds more than 100 miles per hour. and the major wildfires we're watching, one near a nuclear site

. impeachment battle shrines are being sharpened after robert mueller's marathon testimony on capitol hill. republicans say that it is time to move on. but house speaker nancy pelosi saying now not ruling out impeachment. >> it is the crossing of a threshold in terms of the public awareness of what happened and how it con forms to the wall or not. >> it is time that america turns the page. it is time for america to move forward. the democrats have to stop wasting time and trying to have a do-over of the 2016 presidential election. >> so we are expecting to hear from speaker pelosi and democratic leadership in moments. both are facing new pressure to start the impeachment proceedings. our team of reporters is here with the latest reaction and today's big story. let's start in washington, d.c. leeann caldwell and geoff bennett for us. we're expecting to hear from the leaders of the house shortly. if nancy pelosi -- we'll see if nancy pelosi has more to say on this issue of impeachment moving forward. but she did seem to crack the door open a little more on the subject even if she is at odds

. former special counsel robert mueller testified before two house committees about his report on russia interference in theel 201tion, and president trump's repeated attempts to end it.se houudiciary committee chairman jerry nadler of new yorark d off trying to rebut president trump's assertions abo >> so the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice is that correct? >> that correct. >> and what about total aloneration- did you actually tot exonerate the president? >> no. >> now in fact, your reports expressly states that it does not exonerate the president. >> it does. >> brangham: democrats zeed in on a key point-- why mueller did not obstructed justice or not. >> director mueller, you found evidence that as you lay out in your report that the president wanted to fire you because you were investigating him for obstruction of justice, isn't that correct? >> that's what is says in the report, yes i stand by the >> you f president engaged in efforts and i quote, "to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation" is that right? >> it's correct. >>

with the metering lights here shortly. >>> the former special counsel robert mueller will be in the hot seat and just about half an hour. for the highly anticipated testimony congress. >>> taking a live look at capitol hill. robert mueller just arrived moments ago and right now he is getting ready to answer questions from lawmakers and russian interference in the last presidential election. reporter is live in washington dc with a look ahead. >> reporter: we know that robert mueller is expected to testify before the house judiciary committee and intelligence committee for the first time today, happening in a few minutes, here is what else we want to know. you want to pass on to the viewers. the special counsel program made the finders did not identified evidence of a conspiracy between the trump campaign and russia. however, it cited 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice issues involving the president. the department of justice sent robert mueller a letter asking him to keep the testimony within the boundaries of the report. democrat are hoping to get more than that. >>>

: and now, a roundtable discussion on the robert mueller hearings taking center stage on capitol hill tomorrow. joining us for this discussion this morning is morgan chalfant on national -- our national security for the held news paper, andrew desiderio from politico. this gets underway at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow and the house judiciary committee -- explain what they will be covering. guest: they will focus on volume two of the report, exclusively on the idea the president was seeking to obstruct the mother investigation. a lot of democrats, even the chairman of the committee, jerry nadler, said the evidence is clear the president at least sought to obstruct the investigation. the decision was made not to charge the president with a crime in part because of the office of legal counsel opinion that we have been talking about that states you cannot indict a sitting president. the only way to hold a sitting president accountable would be outside of the criminal justice system. those are the judiciary committee issues. the big issue that will be on everyone's mind is impeachment and whether th

image of the outsider and the left is trying reclaim them. here's another new wrinkle to consider. the right cannot claim to be about safeguarding spending, not after this administration, and a tax cut that wasn't paid for and all the spending put on top. i know this isn't getting wattage because of mueller. and that's okay. but this deal and this shift matters. it matters more than all the angry talk about which side is worse. people will be selling you on what they're about. remember what they actually did. and also remember cnn's live coverage of mr. mueller begins tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. eastern. thank you for watching. "cnn tonight" with d-lemon is sitting right next to me. >> spending, spending, spending. did you see how young paul ryan looks? >> that's what power will do to you. he went from being this is what i'm all about to he got in there and he just swallowed that big tax cut and all of the bogus rationales he would have never accepted under an obama administration. >> well, it happens. you get to see the hypocrisy on display here in d.c. >> every once in a while you get a pocket effect. you got it here. now seeing what the numbers are. you got it on a big one today. you're going to be talking about it at the top of the show. >> what are you talking about? >> what christopher wray said. >> you know. facts are stubborn, stubborn things. sometimes the facts come out. and people -- we'll talk about it. people know what i'm saying. we're talking about white supremacy, white supremacists, and the biggest domestic terror threat in the country. people got mad. misconstrued what i said. because you knew what i was talking about. a couple of people were mad and they called you about it. >> yeah. that happens a lot with you. but you're not always wrong, though. i remember you arguing that you were doing research on this and said people keep saying when you let in a lot of imimmigrants you have more terrorism. and you said it's true but it's domestic terrorism. it winds up being the radicals in your own midst who don't like the immigration and they do terrible things. >> exactly. >> christopher wray the president's pick, major argument. >> he certainly did that today. i'm going to talk about that. i'm concerned about the argument or what happens tomorrow when it comes to robert mueller. what questions are they going to ask robert mueller? are the american people -- are you guys who are watching us, are you getting anything out of this or is it just going to be people who have picked their political side and have decided what they think is in the report? if they're going to ask pertinent questions. the republicans are going to ask how did this start, wasn't it a bogus start? didn't he wiretap trump tower? what about this and the phony dossier and all of that? and then democrats are only going to ask, well, would you charge him? i want to know how our -- the electoral process in our country, how it's being protected. are we safe from russia interfering in our elections? have we done enough? that's what i really want to know. >> the know the answer's no. and i'll tell you what i don't like. i had david cicilline on from rhode island. it's not him i don't like. he said the interference matters so much. people have to know that and understand how bad it was. i said here's the problem. you all know that and you've done nothing about it. he goes we passed hr-1 -- all ha matters are laws, not bills. either you can make a deal and show something can get done or people are going to get upset. mueller can't argue a lot of those points tomorrow. what he can do is tell you what he found and why they found it. and he can explain a few things that are outside the corners of that report that really matter. >> i also agree that i think he can actually bring the mueller report to life. >> yeah, he can. >> because people don't -- >> who's going to read it? >> we barely have time to read all this stuff. >> 3% they safety population read it. and that's people probably lying in favor of having read it. you don't want to say you didn't read it. 3% say they read it. >> don't you think the expectation, especially from the democrats, that it may be -- i mean the folks that are going to be watching, that it may be too high, just like in the mueller report -- you and i kept saying during the mueller report this is not what's going to drive the president from office. this is not going to be the bombshell you think it's going to be. we said that over and over and over yet people were still disappointed in. don't you think expectations are too high? >> people who are against this president and how he abuses his power had hope that was given them false energy by a lot of people playing to that hope of theirs. here's the thing. he just reads from what they found tomorrow, it's a good day. but for the democrats they should be careful what they wish for. because if he's compelling tomorrow they have to make a decision about how they'll hold this president to account. their job in the house is to see if there are enough facts to warrant a trial in the senate. not to convict him. that's an impeachment inquiry. >> i'll tell you what the biggest thing -- the biggest issue the democrats will face. everyone thinks oh, it's the squad. no, that's not it. can the democrats motivate people to go to the ballot box after winning the house? because they won the house because many democrats wanted the president impeached. right? whether it would drive him from office or not. nancy pelosi's not doing that. is that going to galvanize her base? is it going to motivate her base? i'm not so sure it is. because most democrats, especially the ones who are active and who are really against this president, they want an impeachment whether it would drive him from office or not and she's not doing that and i'm not sure what it's going to do to motivating people to go to the polls. >> i think that is the exact issue that comes to a head tomorrow. >> thank you, sir. always a pleasure. >> always a pleasure. >> i'll see you soon. i'll see you right here tomorrow. >> yes, sir. >> same bat time, same bat station. >> please. away pu. >> this is "cnn tonight." i'm don lemon. we're live in washington. thank you very much for joining us. and everyone here in d.c. counting down to mueller time, when the former special counsel testifies before the house judiciary and intel committees on live tv starting tomorrow morning. all of it's going to be carried here on cnn. people across the country will be watching. even the president. after all, mornings. you know, that's executive time. when he spends hours holed up in the residence watching tv. sow know he won't miss this. sources telling cnn the president is not anxious, he's irritated about mueller's testimony. not anxious but irritated about mueller's testimony. the proof? he's on twitter tonight of course. yelling at fox news and repeating his phony phrase about the so-called phony witch hunt. but whether he's irritated or anxious or both, he sure seemed to have mueller on his mind today in front of an audience of conservative teens at a turning point usa event. >> how about this whole witch hunt that's going on? should i talk about it for a second? the russian witch hunt. first of all, it's very bad for our country. makes it very hard to deal with russia. and we should be able to. they're a nuclear power. they have a big country. and we should be able to deal with them without having this artificial stuff. it goes on for years and years. no collusion. no obstruction. >> putting aside the president's claim that it's hard to deal with russia, because he sure seems to be best buds with vladimir putin, we all know the president's no collusion, no obstruction mantra. we know it's false. but it bears repeating. the fact is robert mueller did not say there was no collusion. he said there wasn't enough evidence that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government. he also never said there was no obstruction. mueller said he could not charge the president with obstruction because of doj guidelines that say a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime while in office. he's likely to say all of that again tomorrow. so no obstruction, no collusion? not true. but when this president gets riled up about robert mueller, and it's clear he's riled up right now, you know what he does. look over here, look over there. he looks for a distraction. a distraction like his racist attacks on four congresswomenar color, known as the squad. and he apparently couldn't resist the chance to joke about them when someone in the audience today ye8d out "one squad under god," a phrase from a recent trump campaign video. >> in america we don't worship government. we worship god. [ cheers and applause ] [ crowd chanting "one squad under god" ] >> i'm not disavowing that. they're like would you disavow that? no, thank you. [ cheers and applause ] the squad. it's very good. very true. >> we don't worship presidents either. he won't disavow that. not like he claimed to disavow the "send her back" chant that broke out at his rally last week. the chant that people said was the new "lock her up." it turns out "lock her up" is the new "lock her up." just look at the president's reaction when someone in the crowd yells out the favorite outrageous attack on hillary clinton. >> remember deplorable? i guess you do. remember hillary. the deplorables. she actually said a word that was worse. she said deplorables. and what was the second word? go ahead. a a airredeemables. that's right. >> lock her up! >> oh. >> seems like it's all fun and games for this president. as long as he can distract and deflect. and then there's another of the president's favorite refrains. the utterly false claim of widespread voter fraud. >> they're saying all of this stuff. and then those illegals get out and vote. don't kid yourself. those numbers in california and numerous other states, they're rigged. >> okay. let's stop right there. none of that is true. you heard the president claim that the system is in his words rigged in california. it's not true. the fact is -- remember, facts first here. the conservative group judicial watch settled a lawsuit against california, settled a lawsuit against california that required the state to remove inactive voters from its list. inactive voters. which means they weren't voting. judicial watch itself said that most of them had moved or passed away. so again, they weren't voting. that's the opposite of voter fraud. let's fact-check some more of the president claimed. >> you've got people voting that shouldn't be voting. [ applause ] they vote many times, not just twice. not just three times. they vote -- it's like a circle. they come back, they put a new hat on. they come back, they put a new shirt on. and in many cases they don't even do that. >> not true either. the president claiming what would amount to pretty widespread and blatant voter fraud. not true. studies have shown that voter fraud is very rare in this country. how rare? the "los angeles times" reported that california officials investigated 149 cases in 2016. they found only six cases worth sending to local district attorneys. six out of 23.1 million votes cast in the state. six out of 23.1 million votes cast in that state. doesn't sound like widespread voter fraud, does it? but there's something else the president said today. you just have to hear it to believe it. he was talking about giving a commencement speech at the air force academy when this happened. i don't even know how to describe, it but watch. >> their hands were very strong. okay? and they were all shaking. and you know, they're a little nervous, maybe meeting the president. shaking strongly and -- sir. but you know, we're shaking 1,100 hands. and saluting. we're saluting, shaking, turning, spinning. they're coming at all different directions. felt like a great fighter pilot. >> wow. pure trump. you know what else is pure trump? this. the president claiming that article 2 of the constitution gives him the right to do whatever he wants. >> i have an article iicle 2 w have the right to do whatever i want as president but i don't even talk about that. >> president thinks he has the right to do whatever he wants. the fact is the president is not above the law. no american is. no american should be. this is not about his supposed right. it's about his responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution. you know, like in the oath he took on inauguration day with the whole country and the whole world watching. >> i will to the best of my ability. >> preserve, protect, and defend. >> preserve, protect, and defend. >> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states. >> preserve, protect, and defend. that's what the president swore an oath to do. it's what the american people deserve. and however you feel about robert mueller's investigation, it was about two concepts at the heart of our democracy. the rule of law and the concept that elections should be fair and free from foreign interference in our democracy. no matter what the president says. that's what mueller's investigation was all about. it was for the benefit of the american people, for you, the american people. and that's why we should all be watching and listening tomorrow when he answers questions about his findings out loud, for every american to hear. i'm talking about robert mueller, who is about to speak for himself. but there is a lot of misinformation out there about his investigation. we'll fact check, next. 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i used to book my hotel room on those traalways a catch.here was like somehow you wind up getting less. but now that i book at hilton.com, and i get all these great perks. i got to select my room from the floor plan... very nice... i know, i'm good at picking stuff. free wi-fi... laptop by the pool is a bold choice... and the price match guarantee. how do you know all of this? are you like some magical hilton fairy? it's just here on the hilton app. just available to the public, so... book at hilton.com and get the hilton price match guarantee. if you find a lower rate, we match it and give you 25% off that stay. >>> we're back and we're now just hours away from robert mueller's public testimony before congress, set to begin tomorrow morning at 8:30. just a little while ago the house democrats wrapped up a mock hearing in preparation for his testimony and came out to talk to cnn. new york congressman hakim jeffries calling it an important moment for congress and the country. so let's bring in now some folks who can help me dissect all of this. abby phillip, carl bernstein, elie honig. so good to have all of you here in washington. welcome to the big city. >> i live here. >> i was born here. >> you're like welcome to the big city, don. >> i was born here. >> okay, okay, all right, all right. hello, one and all. abby, i'm going to start with you. millions of people are going to be watching the testimony tomorrow. the stakes are high. do you think the stakes are high for the democrats or is it higher for president trump? >> i think it's higher for the democrats. i mean, they're the ones who wanted this hearing, who have said that there's more to the report than is on paper, and so they have to prove it. they have to ask the right questions. they have to make sure that they're -- that they'r being clear about their questions and not grandstanding because robert mueller is not a novice to this. he knows how to do these hearings. he knows what he wants to say and what he doesn't want to say. and they're going to have to be careful ton make it seem as if they're pressuring him to say things that he doesn't think are necessary in this context. the onus is on them to prove either that there is something in the testimony that needs to be explored further by congress or i think one key thing for them is getting to the bottom of this important part of it. did robert mueller intend for congress to take up obstruction of justice or did he intend for it to just be left as an open question? i think that's probably the most important thing they can get out of it. >> listen, i promised viewers we would do some fact checking. elie, let's start it here. a lot of misinformation out there. cnn obtained some rnc talking points and i want to start to fact check those first. the mueller report was a complete and total vindication of president trump and the trump campaign and the obama-biden administration investigators seized on the unverifiable democrat-funded steele dossier to launch an investigation into the trump campaign. should be democratic. i don't know why they do that. both of those are untrue. >> i'll go false and false on the two of those. clearly not an exoneration. look, if i had to recommend what's your lead-off question, assuming representative chair nadler goes first, lead-off question is director mueller, did your report totally exonerate president trump? yes or no? that's what i'd recommend right off the bat. that addresses point number one. point number two, on the whole origins of the investigation, the steele dossier, if the republicans go down that road and they clearly seem like they will, they could get smacked pretty hard by robert mueller. >> because the dossier it was launched -- it began with george papadopoulos that prompted the fbi investigation. it wasn't the dossier, right? >> right. robert mueller says it in the report. he talks about why and how this investigation started. and i think where you might see him get his dander up a little bit is when people start questioning his credibility, his impartiality, and that of his team. >> well, sometimes some people don't let the facts get in the way of a good narrative. >> sure. >> so carl, president trump has made the false point before. i just want to play it again, and then we'll talk about it. here it is. >> then i have an article 2 where i have the right to do whatever i want as president. but i don't even talk about that. >> carl, 100% false? >> first thing is it's important to realize this is an assertion of presidential authority that is demagogic, authoritarian. it runs contrary to article 2, which also incidentally contains provisions for impeachment. no president of the united states ever has asserted that kind of authority. and it's exactly why we are having this kind of forum that we're having tomorrow, which is there are underlying devastating facts in the mueller report that go to the president's misuse and abuse of authority. his authoritarian actions, words, obstruction. and whether or not the democrats in particular are able to get mr. mueller to simply perhaps read from his report and say -- because the report is devastating and very few people in this country have read it. if you pick out the excerpts, mr. mueller reads them and they say to him, mr. mueller, is that accurate? is that an accurate reflection of what you found, that there are these instances that suggest obstruction by the president of the united states, et cetera, et cetera? the democrats are on trial here too. and they're on trial in terms of how they conduct this investigation particularly because so much of the country has followed trump and has moved on from this. can that part of the country, some of them being re-engauged by a responsible fact-finding hearing that will bring some elucidation, some light in a whole series of events where the attorney general of the united states and the president of the united states have attempted to bury the light. >> it's interesting. when you said fact finding. but do people -- people just don't believe facts anymore. people believe ideology. and i'm wondering, even if robert mueller says what's in his report, they've already done so much damage to his reputation, i would say, right? especially if you look at conservative media, look at what the president says. are people going to even really believe the facts, abby? >> that's a really good question. the views of the mueller investigation, of robert mueller himself, and of this whole enterprise are really baked in. people feel like they know how they feel about this already. but i do think there is something different about where we are today with respect to robert mueller the person, who frankly the public does not know anything about. we've only seen him in this context one time, and that was when he came out after the investigation to give that very brief press conference. this is going to be actually the longest period of time where we see mueller, where we hear him speak, where we understand a little bit more about his thought patterns, how he approaches the law. and i think that's going to be important because there has been an attempt at a character assassination. i'm not sure it's been complete. and mueller could do a lot tomorrow to re-establish who he is as a person and his credibility. >> elie, can you do a little lightning round here with me? let's go through some of the questions. first, did president trump obstruct justice? what do you think? >> i believe absolute -- as a former prosecutor i would have charged him no question. >> is that direct enough? should they ask him? >> should that be asked? yes, i think they should ask that. i think he will say i never reached that question because of the doj policy. but then you ask did you find substantial evidence that he obstructed justice? he said yes in the report. >> if president trump was an ordinary citizen would he have been charged with obstruction? what's the answer mueller will give? >> i think mueller will say i never reached that question because of the policy. the counter is did you find substantial evidence of obstruction? that's in his report also. he has to say yes to that. >> carl bernstein, did you intend for congress to act on the findings of your report? i mean, that's a key question. remember, there's a footnote in the report that cited the constitution's impeachment clauses. >> wait and see. that's one of the big questions, and we don't know the answer. and it's going to determine part of his whole attitude of the hearing, whether he's willing to embrace and answer a question such as that or is he going to stick straight with the language in the report and in which case if he does that as i suggest there still are opportunities for him to be assertive if the right questions are asked. >> why do you think he asked for that guidance, carl? >> i think he doesn't want to be a witness here. and he wants to be sure that he follows the justice department rules. but again, i can't be in his head either. i think it's time -- happily we're at the point of ending the speculation. we're going to find out what's going to happen. i think we've been right to try to game it out, to see what the republicans are doing, what the democrats are doing, and to talk to the people who have worked for mr. mueller. and now we're going to see what happens. you keep talking about the people of the country. i think all this takes place in the midst of a divided country, a divided people, a cold civil war that's been going on. and perhaps 10%, 15% of those people in the country may not have made up their minds about donald trump. and this is going to go to the question of making up their minds perhaps about donald trump. depending on how the republicans and democrats conduct themselves. >> carl, abby, elie, thank you so much. appreciate your time. in just a few hours robert mueller will start answering questions on capitol hill. how are democrats preparing and what are they hoping to hear from the former special counsel tomorrow? 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>> we have. busy two weeks. >> so tell me about it. what can you tell us? >> before the mock hearing today each of us had mock interviews with judiciary staff. we reviewed the relevant parts of the mueller report. we're ready to go. >> so the doj told robert mueller to stick to what's in the report, but just tonight the house intelligence chairman adam schiff sent a letter to the doj objecting. here's what he writes, "the doj's letter attempts unduly to circumskrooib your testimony and presents yet another attempt by the trump administration to obstruct the authorized oversight activity and legitimate investigations of the committee. the committee categorically rejects the department's overly expansive and baseless prophylactic assertions of executive privilege and all of its various forms." do you expect him to invoke executive privilege tomorrow? >> i do not. and special counsel mueller doesn't have to listen to the doj. he's a former employee. i think the american people should be asking what is the trump administration trying to hide? why are they so scared of robert mueller saying whatever he wants to congress and the american people tomorrow? >> the most important answers you're hoping to get infrom robert mueller. >> we don't need robert mueller saying anything breathtaking. we just need him to highlight the main parts of the mueller report because it is so devastating. at the end of the day people are going to know that the russians attacked our elections in 2016. the trump campaign embraced interference and gave them internal polling data and wanted it to happen. and then that the president engaged in numerous acts of the crime of obstruction of justice to interfere in that election. >> i want to read something from elena plot. she wrote an article in "the atlantic" titled "barr already won: trump as toernlg had the first word on the mueller investigation. it may end up being the final word." okay? she is raising the idea that barr's spin on this report was so favorable to the president that it may not be undone. are you worried about that? >> i am somewhat worried, which is why we're doing this entire hearing. for people who have read the mueller report or followed the issues, this will not be surprising tomorrow. but for people who have not read the report or have only listened to bill barr or donald trump, their minds may be blown because they're going to see facts that they never saw. they're going to be seeing that the president directed his white house counsel to fire this special counsel. that's a crime. they'll see that the president directed his white house counsel to then cover that up and create a fake document. that's a second crime. and then they're going to see that he directed corey lewandowski to ask jeff sessions to limit the investigation into donald trump. that's a third crime of obstruction of justice. >> and you know mueller took issue with barr's four-page summary of the report, right? and he talked about that. he wrote in a letter this. he said, "the summary letter the department sent to congress and released to the public late in the afternoon on march 24th did not fully capture the context, nature and substance of this office's work and conclusions." do you think mueller's going to answer questions about barr's spin on this report? >> so essentially what robert mueller said is bill barr lied to the american people. now the american people are going to see firsthand robert mueller lay out the facts of the mueller report, which is again going to contradict what trump and bill barr have been saying. it's going to show there was obstruction and there was a lot of communications between the trump campaign and the russians and that they knew exactly what the russians were doing. >> you know that barr says that he believes that mueller could have reached a conclusion on obstruction. this is what he said back in may. watch this. >> i personally felt he could have reached the decision. >> in your view he could have reached a conclusion? >> right. he could have reached a conclusion. >> so given that he said that, does the judiciary committee plan to ask mueller directly whether he could have charged the president? >> well, think how ironic bill barr's statement is, because now he's telling mueller he can't answer that question, he doesn't want mueller to go beyond the four corners of his report. bill barr doesn't want mueller to answer that. and you can simply infer from what robert mueller said, which is he could not indict a sitting president. why would robert mueller say that? because he had all this evidence showing he could indict a president but for the olc memorandumo, the department of justice guideline saying he could not. >> i want to turn now to the president's attacks on these four congresswomen of color. you heard what he said about them last week and what he's been saying. and he released a campaign video last week that ended with "one squad under god." and then this happened during his remarks today in washington. watch this. >> so above all else we know this, that in america we don't worship government, we worship god. [ cheers and applause ] [ crowd chanting "one squad under god" ] no, i'm not disavowing me. they'd like me -- would you disavow that? no, thank you. >> what's your reaction? >> i think donald trump is again trying to divide america. when he goes after immigrants and u.s. citizens and tells us to go back to our country, that is racist. it's hurtful. i served in the active duty in the united states military because i love america. people have told me throughout my career to go back to china or north korea or japan. it's always very hurtful when i get that. i never thought the president of the united states would say words like go back to from where you came. >> thank you, congressman. i appreciate it. everybody's going to be watching tomorrow. >> yep. thank you. >> thank you. the president has said he doesn't think that white nationalism is a problem. well, his fbi director certainly thinks so. why christopher wray says white supremacist violence is a motivation for more and more cases of domestic terrorism. wheo jumpstart sales. build attendance for an event. help people find their way. fastsigns designed new directional signage. ...and got them back on track. get started at fastsigns.com. governot just the powerful and well-connected. that's the american promise. but big corporations and special interests are in control. nothing's happening for real people. our democracy has been purchased. the candidates running for president have great ideas. but we can't get anything done unless we make our democracy serve the people again. i'm tom steyer. i approve this message. i'm running for president because it's time our democracy works for people. ohone day you'll tell yourse grandkids about it. and they'll say, "grandpa just tell us about humpty dumpty". and you'll say, "he broke his pelvis or whatever, now back to my creamy heinz mayonnaise". heinz mayonnaise, unforgettably creamy. and my side super soft? with the sleep number 360 smart bed it can with your sleep number setting. can it help keep me asleep? yes, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. save up to $800 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. ends saturday. would shakespeare have chosen just "some pens?"s. methinks a tul pen would serve m'lady well. thanks! and a unicorn notebook! get everything on your list. this week's doorbuster - notebooks for 10¢, 10¢ in store or online from the advisors at office depot officemax. >>> fbi director christopher wray testifying on capitol hill today about the growing threat of white supremacist violence in the united states. >> just in the first three quarters of this year we've had more domestic terrorism arrests than the prior year. i will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence, but it includes other things as well. >> wray highlighted examples of violence in the last year, inspired by white supremacist beliefs, including the massacre at a pittsburgh synagogue last fall that killed 11 people and also made this point. >> our focus is on the violence. we the fbi don't investigate ideology, no matter how repugnant. we investigate violence. and any extremist ideology, when it turns to violence, we're all over it. >> with his testimony the fbi director is confirming a dangerous truth that a lot of people don't like hearing. the biggest threat to americans is not jihadists overseas. it's homegrown domestic terrorists inspired by white supremacists. white supremacists like the men who carried torches through charlottesville nearly two years ago chanting "jews will not replace us." the ensuing violence took the life of heather heyer. president trump said there were very fine people on both sides in charlottesville. very fine people don't carry torches spouting anti-semitism. the anti-defamation league, which tracks hate crimes, reports that between 2009 and 2018 right-wing extremists were responsible for 73% of extremist-related killings in the unitedstates, compared to islamic extremists at 24%. and left-wing extremists at just 3%. look at the numbers. look at the facts on your screen. there it is. in living color. a lot of people don't want to hear that. they don't want that to be true. they don't want to believe it. including of course the president of the united states. who despite what the fbi director says has denied that white supremacist violence is a growing problem. after a gunman opened fire at two mosques in new zealand back in march, killing at least 50 people, the president was asked about it. >> white nationalism and the rising threat around the world. >> i don't really. i think it's a small group of people that have very, very serious problems. i guess if you look at what happened in new zealand, perhaps that's a case, i don't know enough about it yet. they're just learning about the person and the people involved. but it's certainly a terrible thing. terrible thing. >> and then just last week the president refused to accept that his tweets against four congresswomen of color are racist, even though he used the old racist trope go back to where you came from. to the delight of white supremacists. >> does it concern you that many people saw that tweet as racist and that white nationalist groups are finding common cause with you on that point? >> it doesn't concern me because many people agree with me. >> unfortunately, a lot of people do agree with racism. that doesn't make racism right. obviously. a lot of people don't want to believe we face significant domestic terror threats from white supremacists. ask yourself why that is. in the meantime, the president might want to listen to the fbi director christopher wray. the stats showing an uptick in domestic terrorism arrests, much of it motivated by white supremacist violence. the stats don't lie. the laws on our books now, are they enough to protect us from the dangers of white supremacists? we'll discuss that next. you try hard, you eat right... mostly. you make time... when you can. but sometimes life gets in the way, and that stubborn fat just won't go away. coolsculpting takes you further. a non-surgical treatment that targets, freezes, and eliminates treated fat cells, for good. discuss coolsculpting with your doctor. some common side-effects include temporary numbness, discomfort, and swelling. don't imagine results, see them. coolsculpting, take yourself further. 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[crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪ >>> you heard what the fbi director, christopher wra, had to say today. joining me is westerly lowery and julia kaiam. the stats don't lie. are you pleased to see the fbi is acknowledging the threat exposed now? >> yes. if they don't name it, they don't face it. two points, just quickly, about what wasn't said. what people need to know from the statistics is our terror threat in the united states, is not islamic-based nor is it immigrants. islamaphobia and things like that when it comes to the muslim ban. >> you watch conservative media. they're doing this. and they're threatening. the biggest threat is right-wing extremists. that's what it is. >> that's exactly right. you want the department of homeland security. look, we shouldn't be shocked by this. i've been saying on your show, this is terror. the use of mass media to insight terrorism or violence in a way that is predictable. the specific event, we don't know who will do it. that's what we're seeing. the president is motivating people in ways that we haven't seen before. >> wes, why do you think he's so dismissive of the danger and does that give encouragement to the haters? >> i think collectively dismissive of this threat. like, as you noted, there are members of congress this week railing about antifa nd how they need to be declared a terror organization. despite the fact that dating back to the obama administration, there is this massive uptick in this right wing white supremacist terrorism. again, part of the issue here is that some of these folks do make up the donald trump space. the language, they are attracted to and motivated by is the same language they are encouraged by but at the same time, this is a worrying moment. when you look at the court documents with cesar, the person that threatened cnn and people with bombs and look at the facebook post of the white supremacist shooter in the pittsburgh synagogue. what you see time and time again people who are motivated to attack the perceived enemies of donald trump at a time when donald trump is out there calling for congress -- >> that's unamerican. >> are you concerned about that about him sort of normalizing what is racism and saying that it's not racist at the same time and also, putting these people in danger? >> and we talked about this a few times. when you use extremist language like this, if omar and alexandria ocasio-cortez, it deputized supporters to do something about it. if there is a person that hates america out there, someone will say i'm going to do something about this. so when you have a powerful person, one of the most powerful people in the world with millions of followers attacking individuals by name and minorities that belong to groups that are stereo types about and he's attacking them personally and saying this person is unamerican, this person is dangerous, that is going to lead to some people to call for violence against them like the police officer we just saw who was fired and other people to actually attempt to carry out that violence. >> and it's amplified on fox news. attorneys for creaser sayoc, the man that pleaded guilty to sending explosives to democrats, they are arguing for a lenient sentence and says after trump announced candidate say, he began watching fox news and dovetail with hannity. the folks over there are repeating racist nationalist tropes. how dangerous is that? >> very dangerous. as wray said today, the fbi can't control ideology, they can only control action or violence. that's understandable. someone thinks something horrible you don't want them to be arrested. you may not want to be their friend but you don't want them to be arrested. the challenge for homeland security is that the president does not set the tone that would minimize or what i like to say shame these people. in other words, i don't believe -- >> elevates him. >> i'm not naive to believe racism will go away if trump were president. what i do hope from a president is that you shame those people, right? in other words, they are not out there on fox news saying the things that they are saying and not emboldened by the leadership so when you ask how does radicalization happen? some is social media. it comes from the person themselves. it's impossible to deny now that the tone, the condoning, the lack of shame from our leadership, the lack of shame for having these opinions does not impact what wray testified today which is obviously that wipe supremacy is our biggest issue. >> if you look, there is this mind trick, the people that talk about it, it's not the people committing terrorist acts, the wipe supremacy who are the real racist. >> of course, you seen this time and time again. it's a republican defense that happened before donald trump but donald trump is also deploying it that the people who call me racist, they are the real racist and the real threat. be afraid of the muslims and brown people and these loud mouth congresswomen when in reality what we know is that this president, his entire political career is based on fear and endangering people of color. >> let's put the graphic back up there so we can see who is responsible for most of the domestic terror in this country. this is facts. right-wing extremists. 73.3% of the terror in this country, they commit it. we'll be right back. moving into our new apartment. why don't we just ask geico for help with renters insurance? 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f.b.i. declined to discuss the special counsel's russia investigation on the eve of robert mueller's own testimony to congress. mueller is scheduled to appear tomorrow befe two house mmittees. today, at a senate hearing, f.b.i. director christher wray did offer general praise of mueller under questioning b h democrat mazono of hawaii. >> do you consider mr. mueller to be a person of integrity, objectivity and professionalism in yourit experiencehim? >> in all my experiences with him over the years, i've considered him to be a consummate professional and a straight shooter. >> nawaz: wray also id there is no doubt that russia will try to interfere with the 2020 e presidentiction. that, despite u.s. sanctions and election security efrts. the justice department has opened an investigation ofig technology companies, and whether they illegally stifle competition. a department statement issued late today doesn't name names, ,ut it does reference "search social media and some retail services online." that could include alphabet, amazon, facebook, google and others. in puerto rico, trouble erupt

providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from washington d.c. and around the country so i can make up your own mind created by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. government. >> president trump offered his first reaction to special counsel robert mueller's testimony before congress while going to a fundraiser in west virginia. his remarks are about 20 minutes. [inaudible] >> we had a very good day today, the republican party. our country, there was no defense of what robert mueller was trying to defend, in all fairness to robert mueller, whether his performance was a bad one or a good one, i think everybody understands that. i think everybody understands what's going on. there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, this witchhunt that's been going on for a long time, pretty much from the time i came down on the escalator with our first lady, and it's a disgrace what happened, but i think today proved a lot to everybody, in fact, some of my biggest opponents wrote things today that i wouldn't have believed they would have written and i appreciate that they did that. this has been a very bad thing for our country, and despite everything we've been through, it's been an incredible two and a half years for our country. the administration, our president, me, we've done a great job. we've got the strongest stock market, the best unemployment numbers, the most number of people ever working in the history of our country right now, almost 160 million. our military has been rebuilt, and getting even stronger. we've done a great job and we've done it under this terrible, phony cloud, a phony cloud, that's all it was and they should be ashamed of themselves. absolutely ashamed and you know who knew it was a phony cloud more than anyone else was schiff and nadler and schumer and pelosi. every one of them. they all knew it was phony stuff. and you look at the polls. the polls are showing it maybe more than anybody else or anything else. and i've had my best polls and i don't say why, but people see what's gone on in our country with this whole thing. i've been going through it for three years, for three years, all nonsense. so this was a very big day for our country. this was a very big day for the republican party. and you could say it was a great day for me, but i don't even like to say that, it's great. i tell you what, i very much appreciate those incredible warriors, if you watch today on television, republicans, that defended some things and defended something very powerful, very important, because they were really defending our country more than anything else. they were defending our country. but they were warriors and they've been warriors for a long time. and everybody knew it was a hoax, especially the democrats. i wish we could be a fly on the wall in those rooms where the democrats would go in and talk before and after meetings and they'd be laughing and smiling, and say, can you believe that we're getting away with this? but in the end, they didn't get away with it. yeah. [inaudible] >> so, there is no such a thing. he didn't have the right to exonerate. and you know, it's very interesting. people mention exoneration and that was something where he totally folded because he never had the right to exonerate. and it was covered very well by congressman turner and put to a conclusion. we were-- if you take a look at not only the report, beyond the report, take a look at not what he said, but what he was forced to say. and even your networks and your network, and your network, and your-- every one of these networks, they put up their hands. we had a couple of cases, actually six cases where they asked our people, our representatives, television networks, please don't come in tonight. we're not going to be doing much on it. and the reason they're not because it's over go ahead. >> two questions. are you concerned you could be indict -- [inaudible] >> so wikileaks is a hoax just like everything else. and all of those having to do with crime is the biggest hoax of all. it was a witch hunt, a total witch hunt and when you saw robert mueller's statement, the earlier statement and then he did a recap, he did a correction later on in the afternoon, and you know what that correction was, and you still ask the question, you know why? because you're fake news. and you're one of the most. and let me just tell you, the fact that you even asked that question, you're fake news because you know what? he totally corrected himself in the afternoon and you know that just as well as anybody. kaitlin. [inaudible] >> i don't know whose answers weren't-- i guess his answers weren't. if you look at the whole report, you take a look at what they did. some of the things that he didn't even know about. some of the things he didn't even know what was going on. but you know in the end, what he did, he actually probably came through for himself. the performance was obviously not very good. he had a lot of problems, but what he showed more than anything else is that this whole thing has been three years of embarrassment and waste of time for our country. and you know what? the democrats thought they could win an election like this. i think they hurt themselves very badly for 2020. [inaudible] >> robert mueller-- >> what? >> did-- [inaudible] >> i never-- i don't know. frankly whether or not he did wouldn't matter to me because he did nothing wrong. he did nothing wrong. this is important, it was always a very unimportant meeting. only important to the fake news, go ahead. >> no he didn't say that, again, you're fake news and right at the top of the list, also. let me tell you go back to-- it's not what he said. read his correction. read his correction. if you read his correction, you'll find out, that's why people don't deal with you, because you're not an honest reporter. [inaudible] >> josh. [inaudible] >> john. they have devastated. the democrats lost so big today. their party is in shambles right now. they've got the squad leading their party. they are a mess where even you take a look at 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] >> mr. president, after you leave office you could be indicted-- >> a very dumb and very unfair question. >> why is that? >> because if you look at his correction, he took at that totally out of play. he made his decision based on the facts, not based on some rule. so you shouldn't even ask that question because you know it's a phony. [inaudible] >> mr. president. >> go ahead. [inaudible] >> the democrats had nothing and now they have less than nothing. and i think they're going to lose the 2020 election very big, including congressional seats because of the path that they chose. who knows where it goes. from what i hear they're giving up, but i just say, i know them too well. they'll never give up. they'll go back into the room and try and figure something out. this whole thing has been honestly, it's been collusion. it's been collusion with the media. it's been collusion with other countries. this has been a disaster for the democrats and i think we're going to win bigger than ever. now, i'm going to west virginia, one of the great states, a state that's doing -- if you look at percentage up, i think it's number one or number two in the country and nobody would have believed that. west virginia is doing great. so i'm going to west virginia, we had a big case, we won the asylum case in washington, frankly you should be asking about that. that's the real deal. i can't believe how nice you are today. go ahead, give me a question. [inaudible] >> no, because we did nothing wrong. the answer is very simple. nothing was done wrong. this was all a big hoax. if you look at it today. nothing was done wrong. now, i believe what you're going to find-- you're going to find a lot of things that were done very wrong, but that's going on now. that's something you haven't been writing about, and that has to do with the other side. that has to do with the thing called investigate the investigators. let's see what happens. that's going to be very interested. [inaudible] do you think that robert mueller has-- >> 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 know, you can be a builder, but if they don't give you the right materials you're not going to build a very good building. robert mueller had no material, he had nothing to work with. so obviously he did very poorly today. i don't think there's anybody even among the fakers, i don't think there's anybody who would say he did well. i look at your people and they're 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 down, way down, even they said this was 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. >> talking to mueller and-- >> look, i know what he did to people, how he ruined people's lives because they didn't remember a date or something minor. he ruined people's lives, the democrats took people and they destroyed their lives. they went bankrupt because they couldn't afford the legal fees, there were 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, ned' say, well, we have to-- he lied. let me tell you, i've seen what they've done to people seen how they've destroyed people like general flynn and so many others, what they've done to people. no, i did the right thing. [inaudible] >> you said mueller did a horrible job and why is that? >> sure, mueller had no material to work with and he did a horrible job. obviously his preparation was way off, but that's okay. it didn't matter. he had no material. there was nothing done wrong. in fact, things were done right, there was nothing done wrong. and certainly, i mean, look, i read the papers and i read the press and i read the internet, and if you see what's 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 don't think anybody could have done a good performance. he had no material. it was a fake set of facts that the democrats used and others to try and do really an illegal overthrow, but we're going to find out about that. [inaudible] >> well, the asylum is a big-- say it. so the asylum is a very big ruling. that was a tremendous ruling today. we appreciate it. we respect the courts very much. that helps us very much at the border. 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're-- they mean business because they know what happened. the alternative is not good for them. it's also good for mexico what they're 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've got to clean it up. so they've got 21,000 soldiers. they'll probably put up more, but this ruling today on asylum is a tremendous ruling. >> [inaudible] >> guatemala gave us their word. we were going to sign an agreement and all of a sudden they backed up and said it was their supreme court. i don't believe that. but they used their supreme court as the reason they didn't want to do it. so we'll either do tariffs or we'll do something, we're looking at something severe with respect to guatemala. i've already cut off payment,dy that a year ago, i cut off payments going to honduras, salvador and guatemala for doing nothing. they did nothing, but set up caravans. guatemala we'll take care of and it won't be tough. we are looking at different things. one of the things that's heavy, mexico has put 6,000 people on their border. [inaudible] >> let me just tell you something. i know you always have a question. [inaudible] >> you mean by white house aides lied? what about his aides? what about mueller's aides? [inaudible] >> he didn't say that at all. you're untruthful when you ask -- you are untruthful when you ask that question. when you ask that question, you're untruthful and you know who else is untruthful? you know who else is untruthful? his aides and wiseman was untruthful and wiseman got caught just like with arthur andersen when he lost in the supreme court 9-0. his aides were very untruthful and they put mueller-- and they put mueller [inaudible] not at all. his aides put him in a very bad position and if you were ever truthful you'd be able to-- [inaudible] >> i'm very happy. i haven't called boris, but i'm very happy that he won. very, very happy. [inaudible] >> mr. president. [inaudible] >> what happened was-- strzok and page. they had a lot of tex messages and mueller illegally deleted the text messages. and they didn't get too much into it, he didn't know too much, he forgot, he didn't know too much. but strzok and page were texting. they were the ones in case he should lose this was an insurance policy. this was strzok and page, that was a very, very bad situation, what they did and what mueller did, he deleted their text messages back and forth, probably thousands of them, and that's a serious problem. [inaudible] >> i think it's going to help us because everyone sees now that this has been going on for so long. in all fairness to mueller this has gone on long before mueller. it's gone on from sometime after we came down the escalator and i got great poll numbers from the beginning i was leading and this took place sometime after he came down the he escalato escalator, the first lady and myself. i tell you something, i think it's going to have a huge negative impact on 2020. [inaudible] >> in c-span three presidential leadership surveys take between 2000 and 2017 grover cleveland drops from 17 to 23rd place. ulysses s. grant makes the largest wide from to the 22nd spot. where does your favorite president rank? in c-span's "the presidents" great vacation reading. wherever books are sold or kerry span. >> for a look for thursday, the house returns for general speeches with legislative business starting at noon. the chamber is expect today vote on a two-year budget agreement that also would raise the debt limit. the senate back at 10 a.m. eastern to consider the nomination of mark millie to be the chair of joint chiefs of staff with final confirmation vote set just before 2 p.m. you can watch that on c-span2. and on c-span 3 at 10 a.m., the house reform and oversight committee will hold a vote to hold kellyanne conway, the senior counsellor to president trump, in contempt of congress for refusing to supply with a subpoena for her testimony. at 1 p.m., immigration and customs enforcement matthew albans testifying before a subcommittee regarding oversight of his agency. >> the house will be in order. >> for 40 years, c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events from washington d.c. and around the country so you can make up your own mind. created by cable in 1979, c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of governme government. >> house speaker nancy pelosi held a news conference following robert mueller's testimony on capitol hill where she was joined by the chairs of the house judiciary, house intelligence, and house oversight committees. this is half an hour. [inaudible conversations] the cameras are there. good evening, everyone, sorry for the delay, a pretty interesting day and a historic one, as a matter of fact. a day in which

robert mueller, the golden goose. according to them, he was going to swoop in and prove their insane g russian lies, conspiray theories, once and for all. and that donald trump is going ha be washed up and impeached and run out of town. well, as a matter of fact, i'm watching the media today, and they were just about more depressed than they were at election night 2016. t all week, they were hyping up mueller's testimony. just this weekend, you had two of the biggest liars in the united states congress, there they were, chairman nadler, and the cowardly adam schiff. predicting mueller's remarks would prove the president's guilt as an unindicteddi coconspirator, responsible for high crimes and misdemeanors. well, it's safe to say that never happened, and per usual, the two biggest liars in congress were caught lying again. robert mueller's testimony, well, the only way to put it, it was an unmitigated disaster. it was ugly. here is just a small sample of what went down. we have a busy show, a small sample. >> mr. mueller, who wrote the a nine minute comments you read at your may 29th

interference, the origins of the russia investigation and what exactly robert mueller has to say on the topic of obstruction of justice. first, we learn back on march 22 that robert mueller had wrapped up his investigation. you may recall that sunday, attorney general bill barr released his own summary that said mueller did not find the they had not conspired or coordinated with russia. he also said mueller did not draw a conclusion and the report did not exonerate the president of obstruction. that same afternoon, trump claimed complete and total exoneration. >> there was no collusion with russia. there was no obstruction and none whatsoever and it was a complete and total exoneration. it is a shame that our country had to go through this. to be honest, it is a shame that your president has had to go through this. >> the next part is crucial. for the next 26 days, robert mueller said nothing while barr's version and the president's version hung out there in public because we hadn't seen the mueller report. barr's summary version was the only version we had to go on. fast forward to

seated and quiet while the witness exits the room. >> more than 3 1/2 hours after robert mueller walked into that room, is he walking out. next will be the house intelligence committee. we expect another two hours there. it's very interesting, jake. on three major issues, he did make some significant news, saying that the report he prepared, 448 pages did not totally exonerate the president, as the president has claimed. he said the president could be charged after leaving office, a sitting president, according to current justice department guidelines, can't be charged or indicted but after leaving office could potentially be charged. and also that he wasn't charged specifically this time in response to questions from ted lou, democratic congressman from california, because of the office of legal counsel opinion that a sitting president can't be charged. that's going to be pretty significant, that statement that he made there. >> yeah. debate about whether or not he meant i would have charged if he weren't the president or no matter what i wanted to do, my hands were tied. it's unclear

>>> now at 5:00, former special counsel robert mueller gets ready to testify on capitol hill over the russia investigation. the bay area lawmakers who will play a role in today's hearings. >>> plus, do not try going to the dmv this morning. why they'll be closed statewide until the afternoon. >> good morning. this is not the dmv. it's much better on this wednesday, july 24th. >> just a little bar, have to admit. endless lines, take a number, wait forever. you're never more than seven minutes away from my accuweather forecast. >> should have a food cart there. i bet you could make a lot of money. >> what an idea? don't give it away. >>> a couple of things to show you on live doppler 7. clouds at the coast not making the turn to the east like yesterday because the sea breeze. today is one of the three hottest days in the forecast. mid 50s to 60s, 80s to mid 90s, even a few triple digits possible near brent wood. >>> looking at the bay bridge toll plaza. car pool lanes are open as we can see. a lot of folks taking advantage of that. cash lanes stacked up on either side. fast track lanes moving through without any issues. we should have the metering lights flipped on closer to 5:20. nice and light with no major blocking problems. westbound 580 tracy to dublin now in the yellow at 40 minutes. westbound 4 antioch to concord in the green. >>> we are just minutes away from robert mueller beginning his highly anticipated testimony before congress. >> let's take a live look at capitol hill. democrats are hoping mueller will reveal whether he would have charged president trump with a crime if it weren't for the justice department rule against prosecuting a sitting president. both parties have been preparing for this testimony with mock hearings. sources tell abc news the democrats are framing their questions for yes or no answers. six california lawmakers will play a big role in today's hearings including house speaker nancy pelosi, congressman eric swalwell from dublin and san mateo congresswoman jackie speier. abc news will have a live special report on the mueller testimony. that begins in just a few minutes at 5:15 this morning. we'll also be streaming the entire testimony on abc7news.com. >>> in the meantime, if you plan on heading to the dmv this morning, don't do it. offices across the state are closed until this afternoon. >> abc 7 news reporter jobina fortson live in daly city with the update. good morning, jobina. >> reporter: good morning. there will not be a single line this morning at the dmv. i bet that caught some people's attention at home. yes, but that's because they'll be closed until 1:00. 5,000 employees will be trained on real i.d. transactions. starting october 1st of 2020, you'll need a real i.d. to fly within the united states or go inside a secure federal building and/or military base. a passport does work as well. yesterday governor gavin newsom announced his plan to modernize the dmv. you can expect the dmv to start accepting credit cards, upgrading the website and hiring between 1800 and 1900 new employees. most of the workers will be temporary to help with customer service for the real i.d. >> we need to prove that we can use your tax dollars wisely. we need to prove that government can work. i think one of the most important places to start is the dmv. >> reporter: governor newsom also announced a marketing campaign. the state hiefrd a consulting firm to work with them on that. the idea is for the dmv to be utilized more. governor newsom says on the weekends it's rather slow because most people don't realize the dmv is even open on saturday. reporting live in daly city, jobina fortson, abc 7 news. >>> now to the latest on the deadly tesla crash in san francisco. abc 7 news reporter kate larsen spoke with a traffic investigation expert about the circumstances surrounding that wreck and also safety at that tenderloin intersection. >> i spoke to a retired sfpd traffic inspector who says the speed seen here in the video is what makes sunday's wreck so concerning. >> this is a pretty unusual case. >> reporter: geoff levin investigated fatal car accidents in san francisco for almost a decade and caught the police academy crash on traffic collisions. even he was surprised by this horrific crash in the tenderloin sunday caught on dash cam video. >> i didn't see braking at all. something was going on with her. i don't understand why she would go through a red light so rate at such a lie rate of speed. >> reporter: she,ni 21-year-old kelsey cambridge, who was arrested for crashing into this mini cooper and then a couple. kelly and benjamin dean. benjamin was killed and kelly is in the hospital. >> they were on the curb waiting. the walk man comes on. they started walking. you really don't have anywhere to go because they were in her lane and she just hit them. >> in the second it took for her to get to the crosswalk, there's no time to react. >> no time to react. they may have even seen her half a block away and there's no time to react. she's going 45 miles an hour. she's covering 100 feet in a second. >> this guy -- why would he do that? >> it wasn't hard to find cars speeding on city streets. >> in san francisco people shouldn't drive fasteran at 25 miles an hour, if somebody were braking, it can at least bring the speed down. those arevivable crashes. >> i stood at the intersection. there are newly installed traffic delineators that improve visibility. all sorts of clear traffic lights, even a new crosswalk and unobstructed views all he says contributes to the safety of the intersection. in his estimation the accident was likely driver >> we have a map of the highest injury intersections in san francisco on our website, abc7news.com. >>> developing news now, puerto rico's governor is expected to resign this morning according to puerto rico's top newspaper. his chief of staff stepped down yesterday. it came hours after a judge issued search warrants for the cell phones of the governor and other officials tied to crude and offensive online class. for more than a week protesters have ricardo rossello's resignation because of messages and mismanagement of the government. >>> protests held over the construction of a 30-meter telescope on ha wwaii's big island. a group wants the foundation to withdraw their money from the telescope project or move it to the canary islands. similar protests have been held daily at mt. ak kay yeah. >>> democratic presidential hopeful pete buttigieg will be in the bay area for at least two fund-raisers. the current mayor of south bend, indiana is expected to be in menlo park. later this afternoon buttigieg will be in san francisco for another fund-raiser. >>> in the east bay uc berkeley police are warning residents about a mountain lion. it was seen yesterday on the upper fire trail near skyline ridge. several sightings have been reported in the last couple years. >>> hardly strictly bluegrass is giving us a sneak peek of their fall lineup. >> the festival is posting medleys of confirmed acts over the next few weeks. the first includes hayes carl, betty leave vet and margot price. this year's festival will be in golden gate park the weekend of october 4th. we usually have beautiful october weather, mike, in san francisco. >> best weather of the year. >> people are often surprised that that's when we get the sunshine. >>> we'll have some today, too, but it won't rival the temperatures we can have in october. here is a look at san jose. 63 degrees under mostly clear sky. this will be the first of our three hottest days over the next seven days. good news, at night we'll have heat relieve everywhere and the scorching weekend outside the coast. that's going to be our other two hottest days. in fact, much hotter than even today. today we're looking at low to upper 90s in santa rosa, lakeport, ukiah, mid to upper 90s in fairfield. low to mid 90s from san jose southward, even near 90 in froemt. san francisco 70, that's above average. 66 at half moon bay with increasing sunshine. again, good news with the dry air. going to cool off nicely. tonight mid 50s to mid 60s around antioch, pittsburg, brentwood upper 60s. you see a little tapering thursday and friday and blistering hot saturday, sunday and to a lesser extent monday. >>> thank you to maggie who sent me a tweet and got me up to speed here on this closure of east bay 580 heading into tracy. turns out there is a full closure. that information wasn't at the usual places we check. it's from 1:00 until 6:00 a.m. we have about an hour to go. you have to get off at greenville road and get back on atali at altamont pass. we have typical delays if you're traveling westbound 205 to 580 getting out of tracy. a.c.e. having signal issues and probably will be the same between lathe rop, manteca and tracy. >>> coming up, robert mueller's highly anticipated -- excuse me. reggie, go ahead. >> b.a.r.t. is considering building a pedestrian bridge at the antioch station. officials want your input. b.a.r.t. posted an online survey asking how you commute to the station and use the bridge to cross highway 4. we'll post a link on our website, abc7news.com. >>> robert mueller's highly anticipated testimony congress, abc news special report with george stephanopoulos just moments away. >> we take you outside at 5:10. you can see the city as it is waking up this morning. we'll be right back. dluckily her dorm iss heabout 10 minutes. from a hotel by wyndham. ashley's meeting all her in-laws, and she's about 10 minutes from a wyndham. with over 6,000 hotels across the country, a great hotel by wyndham is closer than you think. visit wyndhamhotels.com. ...you discover paint bleed you under your tape...... not with frogtape! frogtape is the only painter's tape treated with patented paintblock technology. paintblock reacts with the water in latex paint to form a micro-barrier against paint bleed, giving you the sharpest lines possible. get professional results with frogtape... no messy lines, no paint bleed. for sharp lines every time, frog it! you can't fake the goodness the crunch of real almonds. how chocolatey chunks taste in cold milk. we keep it real. because you can't fake... delicious. special k. enough, especially when triple digits are in the forecast for several days inland. heat exhaustion, you're still sweating. find cooler weather. heat stroke, you stop sweating, seek out medical attention immediately. >> mike, thank you. >>> we're just moments away from an abc news report, robert mueller's highly anticipated testimony before congress. >> taking a live look at capitol hill. we know robert mueller arrived about 16 minutes ago, expected to address his investigation into russian meddling in the 2016 election and his report. >> this will be split into two sections. the first section we expect around 5:30 our time and go to around 8:30 our time. there will be a little bit of a >>> the justice department sent mueller a letter saying he must stay within the boundaries of a stephanopoulos tracking this today. we'll go to a special report in just a moment. it starts right now. >> this is an abc news special report. >> there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election, and that allegation deserves the attention of every american. >> the mueller testimony. now reporting, george stephanopoulos. >> good morning and welcome to our special coverage of robert mueller's congressional testimony. this day has been a long time coming. for months it seemed it may not happen at all and now the stakes are high. for mueller, the members of congress questioning him, you see mueller coming in moments ago and for the president he's investigated for almost two years. that's the scene of the house judiciary committee. around 8:30 chairman nadler will swear mueller in. anthree hours, expected to focu on his investigation into whether president trump obstructed justice. then two hours house intelligence committee, their focus, russia's interference in the 2016 election. mueller's key conclusion, page one of his 448-page report that the russian government did interfere in our elections in a sweeping and systematic fashion. his team of prosecuted indicted 26 russian nationals and three companies, concluding their interference helped elect donald trump. mueller detailed 100 contacts between trump and russia. guilty pleas with five oats, campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, national security adviser and personal lawyers for betwe wi to the fbi and congress. on obstruction, no bottom line. mueller concluded that the justice department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted, pvented him w frothru. mueller's report lays out evidence of several possible instances of obstruction by the president and his team. he then adds this blunt coda. if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. based on the facts and the applicable legal standards we're unable to reach that judgment. accordingly while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. that balanced paragraph has become a rorschach test of our politics. the president attacked mueller and claimed vindication of his report. i'm joined by our whole political team including david muir at the capitol. david, perhaps the most consequential question on the table, will mueller's appearance accelerate momentum towards impeachment or wind it down once and for all? >> that's a central question. hugely consequential day at the hill. robert mueller arrived on the hill. five hours of questioning. the american people hearing from rub robert mueller in his own words. up on the hill we heard from 90 house democrats who supported the idea of impeachment. the big question today, will other democrats, other lawmakers hear anything different from robert mueller that will change their mind? house speaker nancy pelosi has said, said it again in recent day, let us see where the facts take us. she continues to make that point. we all, of course, remember what robert mueller said in may. he said i expect this is the only time i'llak to you in this manner. yet here robert mueller is here again today. this is whaed, waedueer on aner american people could hear a voice, not just the report itself. democrats are convinced many americans mueller will shed new light on what he found. central to the questioning today, george, and you brought this up, those instances of possible obstruction of justice. when robert mueller handed this report to the justice department, he made no decision on obstruction. bill barr essentially clearing the president, and robert mueller will be asked is that what he wanted, did he want barr to make that decision or did he want congress? he'll likely be asked that question a multitude of different ways today. >> we know robert mueller is a reluctant witness. our chief justice correspondent pierre thomas has followed this as well. tell us more about how he's prepared, how far you expect him to go. >> george, he's been in intense preparation with small staff from is the special counsel's office. such prep has involved rehearsals with heavy focus on the most controversial questions that could be asked. i think he's prepared to lay out what's in his report. the stakes are enormous for muel legacy and he knows it. this is the biggest appearance since right after the 9/11 attacks when he was fbi director. he's well aware what he says will be used in some fashion to see if democrats pursue impeachment on the president of the united states. the key will be whether the democrats are skillful enough to tease out the information in terms of what mueller will say. he wants to stick to the transcript of the report. they want to turn this into a movie where he serves as narrator. >> we see the ranking republican on the house judiciary committee joining the stage right now. i want to bring in mary bruce, senior congressional correspondent. we know this is high stakes, also, for the democrats and republicans on the committee and they've put in a lot of prep time. >> in a few moments, right behind this door, waiting for two years and they've bee intensely preparing for it. spending hours, even doing mock hearings with members of their staff playing both mueller and members from the other side to try to interject and throw them off their game. that's how they've been preparing for what's been a historic moment here. i want to give you a sense of the mood here. a massive line of the public who want to witness this historic moment, george. >> mary, let's bring in chief white house correspondent john hurley in our news room as well. the president, john, when this report was summarized claimed it vindicated him. he's been on a twitter attack ever since including this morning. >> when it first came out, i asked if robert mueller had acted with integrity and he said yes. he's been on quite a tirade on twitter. i count eight tweets already this morning. he wa tweeting last night about th,omplaining a elr's iga alleging conflicts, even complaining about the fact that mueller's long-time aide aaron zebley will be seated at the table next to him. while the president has said this report, this investigation exonerated him, he's clearly concerned about what's going to happen today. i expect he'll be watching. >>> we have our team of analyst hs the studio. let me start with chris christy, republican ally of president trump. my big question, how much do you expect republicans on the committee to follow the president's lead? he's been pretty direct at attacking robert mueller. is that a smart strategy. >> there will be variability on the committee. i think some will be very aggressive against bob mueller this morning. do i think that's the right strategy? i don't. i don't think for the long-term republican interests that the right thing to do here is to really go after mueller in a big way. i think what i would try to do if i were up there, to get ofhe ttre positive for the president and draw him out on that. i know there will be folks up there this morning, george, who decide they want to go into attack mode. they need to remember there's stuff in this report where people very close to the president at the time, especially on the conflict issue, say they thought it was nonsense. i think they need to be careful. some of them won't be. >> dan abrams, our chief legal analyst. we've read the report several times as members of the committee have as well. what's the big thing you're looking for. >> how much of the report we'll hear today. i think it's clear he's not going to go beyond what's in the report. everyone is going to want to hear the answer to the question, if it weren't for the office of legal counsel opinion that a sitting president can't be indicted, would you have indicted. >> never going to answer that question. swer i gng to f disappoint. the peop i publi d't reiz iredie damngnggegast t pren is going to be how much of that can they get mueller to say, to repeat and i think it's going to be a combination of, number one, first undermining the president's own statements of no obstruction, no collusion. they'll try to get that out of the way more quickly. is it true you found there's no cluks? is it true -- he's going to say -- he's not going to say no. >> that would be pretty dramatic if he did. >> i think he said collusion is not a legal phrase. that's in the report. he specifically says that. the followup then is, so the answer is no. you didn't actually -- i think he'll eventually agree to it. on no obstruction, same sort of thing. beyond that, i think the democrats want him to weave the story for them. >> cecelia b you in. one of the big questions, is the public still paying attention. we know fact that public attention on the russia investigation is definitely waning. dan abrams may have read the report. the fbi director said he didn't read the report. a lot of people have not read the report. >> when he told me he read the report, a week later he said i read some of it and then he said, well, i read the conclusion. >> i think a lot of people out there, including many at the top may not have read this entire report. that's what the democrats are banking on today. one analogy i read yesterday say people are not reading the book, but they will watch the movie. they will listen to this book on tape. the democrats are hoping they can shape some minds, change some minds on this. >> terry moran, our senior international correspondent, so much of this is in mueller's hands. if you tbout does he cose to b gary cooper or does he choose to continue to be as indistinct as he was in the report? >> b, he does not want to be in your movie. this is not where he wants to be right now. i think one of the things he does want to do is reassure the american people that this investigation was conducted with integrity and by the book. that's where you'll see him get emotional, if at all, where his integrity or the integrity of his staff is attacked. the problem with the whole hearing is most people have made up their minds, and we live in an era of partisan epistemology. what counts as a fact depends on what team you ear on. >> democracy is a separate question. >> what it means for this, it's hard to see how it changes. >> part of that, kate shaw, was determined how the attorney general dealt with conclusions, his summary of the summary and also just before the entire report was released, coming out and summarizing it again. >> i expect opine on the attorney general's conduct. the shading of the narrative was so much because of the way the attorney general kind of framed both before the report was released and the morning of the release. in terms of the letter from doj yesterday suggesting mueller not go beyond the four corners of the report, he not opine on the conduct of potential unindicted third parties, of course that means to comment on the president. the attorney general on the morning of the release of the report commented extensively on the prpt. it's a bit of a double standard to say the special counsel can't do what the attorney general -- >> he can repeat what he said in the report. >> absolutely. the letter from doj said don't go beyond that. that's what the democrats reason o the committee will try to press the special counsel on. >> on the movie that we're talking about, i worked with bob mueller post 9/11 on terrorism cases. he was also -- in that room with john ashe croft and larry thompson, always the most careful, the most precise and the least talkative of anybody in the room. this is just a group of senior justice department officials. he would even opine during that. i have a hard time believing he's going to go on and act differently. >> would you expect him to read portions of the report or force members of congress to read them. >> i think he may in some of his responses, where he thinks it serves the purpose of remaining low key to say as i said in the report and read certain portions of it. i'm sure he's got a binder in front of him on the hot topics and have excerpts on the report he's going to want to repeat. he's not going to want to make news. i think that's the key for him today, he doesn't want to make any news. he's goings to say it's all smoke and it's all in the report. on bill barr, i think he will repeat what he said in those letters which is that he was uncomfortable with some of the things that the attorney general said. my guess is he can't run away from that. >> back to mary bruce outside the hearing room. we're getting close to the time the gavel is supposed to fall. the members have been filing in? >> reporter: george, it is an absolutely packed hearing room. i don't think i've ever seen it this full. they're eking out every last scrap of space trying to get everyone in for this historic moment. i have to say at every seat is a full copy of the muelle report. they're expecting him to refer to it frequently. democrats, as part of their strategy, to try to get him to read aloud portions of the report. i've also seen members of the public carrying around that report. the line is massive. a tremendous amount of interest in what is about to unfold here. you can also sense the weight of the moment. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are acutely aware of the massive stake here today. >> mary, you the judiciary committee, most of the democrats are moving toward support for impeachment. even privately chairman jerrold nadler is walking in right now, up against house speaker nancy pelosi and probably the majority of house democrats resisting going too quickly. >> reporter: george, democrats know this hearing, what we're about to hear, may be their last best chance to make their case to the public for impeachment. pelosi has been watching an incredibly fine line. while we've seen a growing number calling for impeachment, she has been holding the line. she insists they need to follow the facts. that's the line you always hear from him. that it's premature to move to impeachment. the question is, what we hear today, is that going to move the needle, make more members come out and support impeachment? is there going to be a sense from the american public that they back this push? pelosi needs buy-in from the public if she's ever going to consider backing impeachment. >> chairman jerry nadler has taken his seat. the house judiciary committee would be the home of any impeachment proceedings. they have had a couple of hearings before robert mueller to date. most of the white house employees have been blocked from testifying from president trump. we see robert mueller now enter the hearing room for the first time. as i said, he's an experienced witness, his 89th appearance testifying before congress as fbi director. he was up before congress in the days after 9/11. 74 years old, marine, prosecutor. confirmed by the senate as fbi director 99-0. never had any claims to have been a partisan advocate. always had support from both democrats and republicans, appointed by both democrats and republicans, senior justice official and fbi director. he will be sworn in. by his side members of his team including chief of staff aaron zebley who served with him for so many years, expected to be ale to give him some advice. robert mueller has asked him to be sworn in -- >> -- on the date of the trump tower meeting -- >> you can expect this. protesters in the hearing room. probably won't be the last time today. the gavel has fallen. chairman nadler has hit the gavel. let's listen. >>> robert mueller preparing to be sworn in. also there on his team, jonathan newer ow ski, long-time hill veteran. >> judiciary committee will come to order. the chair is authorized to declare recesses of the committee at any time. we welcome everyone to today's hearing on oversight of the report on the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. i will now recognize myself for a brief opening statement. director mueller, thank you for being here. i want to say just a few words about our themes today. responsibility, integrity and accountability. your career, for example, is a model of responsibility. you are a decorated marine officer, awarded a purple heart and bronze star for valor in vietnam, served in senior roles in the department of justice and in the immediate aftermath o of 9/11, you served as director of the fbi. two years ago you returned to public service to lead the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 elections. you conducted that investigation with remarkable integrity. for 22 months, you never commented in public about your work, even when you were subjected to repeated and attac. instead, your indictments spoke for you and in astonishing detail. over the course of your investigation, you obtained criminal indictments against 37 people and entities. you secured the conviction of president trump's campaign chairman, his deputy campaign manager, his national security advisor and his personal lawyer, among others. in the paul manafort case alone, you recovered as much as $42 million so that the cost of your investigation to the taxpayers approaches zero. volum one, youin that the russian government attacked our 2016 elections, quote, in a sweeping and systematic fashion, and that the attacks were designed to benefit the trump campaign. volume two walks us through ten separate incidences of obstruction of justice where in your words president trump attempted to exert undue influence over your investigation. the president's behavior included, and i quote from your report, quote, public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate, closed quote. among the most shocking of these incidents, president trump ordered his white house counsel to have you fired and then to lie and deny that it had happened. he ordered his former campaign manager to convince the recused attorney general to step in and limit your work, and he attempted to prevent witnesses from cooperating with your investigation. although department policy barred you from this conduct, you made clear he is not exonerated. any other person who acted in this way would have been charged with crimes. in this nation, not even the president is above the law. which brings me to this committee's work. responsibility, integrity and accountability. these are the marks by which we who serve on this committee will be measured as well. director mueller, we have a responsibility to address the evidence that you have uncovered. you recognize as much when you said, quote, the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to the formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing, closed quote. that process begins with the work of this committee. we will follow your example, director mueller. we will act with integrity. we will follow the facts where they lead. we will consider all appropriate remedies. we will make our recommendation to the house when our work concludes. we will do this work because there must be accountability for the conduct described in your report, especially as it relates to the president. thank you again, director mueller. we look forward to your testimony. it is now my pleasure to recognize the ranking member of the judiciary committee, the gentleman from georgia, mr. collins, for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, mr. mueller, for being here. for two years leading up to the release of the mueller report and in the three months since, americans were first told what to expect and then what to believe. collusion, we were told, was in plain sight, even if the special counsel's team didn't find it. when mr. mueller produced his report and attorney general barr provided it, we read no american conspired to interfere in our elections, but learned the depths of russia's malice toward america. we are here to ask serious questions about mr. mueller's work and we will do that. after an extended unhampered investigation marks the end to an investigation that closed in april. the burden of proof is extremely high and especially in light of the special counsel's thoroughness. we are told this investigation began as an inquiry as to whether russia meddled in our 2016 election. mr. mueller, you concluded they did. russia accessed democratic servers and tricked campaign insiders inrevealing protected investigation. the investigation also reviewed whether the president sought russian assistance as a candidate to win the candidacy. mr. mueller concluded he did not, his family and advisers did not. the president watched the public narrative surrounding this investigation -- assumed his guilt while he knew the extent of his innocence. volume two details the president's reaction to frustrating investigations where his innocence was established early on. the president's attitude toward the investigation was understandably negative, yet the president did not use his authority to close the investigation. he asked his lawyer if mr. mueller had conflicts to disqualify him from the job, but he did not shut down the investigation. the president knew he was innocent. those are the facts of the mueller report. russia meddled in the 2016 election, the president did not conspire with the russians and nothing we hear today will change those facts. one element of this story remains, the beginnings of the fbi inestigation into the president. i look forward to mr. mueller's testimony about what he found during his review of the origins. the inspector general continues to reveal how baseless gossip can be used to launch an fbi investigation against a private citizen and eventually a president. those results will be released and we need to learn from them that law enforcement powers are never again used and turned on a private citizen or political candidate as a result of the political leanings of a handful of fbi agents. the origins and conclusions of the mueller investigation are the same things, what it means to be american. every american has a voice in our democracy. we must protect the sanctity of their voice by combating election interference. every american enjoys the presumption of innocence and guarantee of due process. if we carry anything away today, it must be we increase our vigilance against foreign government interference. finally, we must agree that the opportunity cost here is too high. the months we have spent investigating from this dias failed to end the border crisis or contribute to the job market. instead it's paralyzed this committee and this house. as a side note, every week i leave my family and kids, the most important things to me, to come to this place because i believe this place is a place where we can do things and help people. 6 1/2 years ago i came to work on behalf of the people of the ninth district. partisan basis. however, this year because the majority's dislike of this president and endless hearing into a closed investigation have caused us to accomplish nothing except talk about the problems of our country while our border is on fire, in crisis and everything else is stopped. this hearing is long overdue. we've had truth for months. no american conspired to throw our election. what we need today is let that truth bring us confidence and i hope, mr. chairman, closure. with that i yield back. >> thank you mr. collins. i'll now introduce today's witness. robert mueller served as director of the fbi from 2001 to 2013. most recently served as special counsel in the department of justice overseeing the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 special election. he received his b.a. from princeton university, m.a. from new york university and j.d. from university of virginia. mr. mueller is accompanied by counsel aaron zebley who served as deputy special counsel on the investigation. we welcome our distinguished witness and we thank you for participating in today's hearing. now, if you would please rise, i will begin by swearing you in. raise your right hand, please. >> do you swear or affirm under penalty of perjury that the testimony you're about to give to be the truth to the best of your knowledge and belief. so help you god. let the record show the witnessed answered affirmatively. please be seated. please note that your written statement will be entered into the record in its re accordingly i ask that you summarize your testimony in five minutes. director mueller, you may begin. >>> good morning, chairman nadler and ranking member collins and the members of the committee. as you know, in may 2017, the acting attorney general asked me to serve as special counsel. i undertook that role because believed it was of mayor mount interest to the nation to determine whether a foreign adversary interfered in the presidential election. as the acting attorney general said at the time, the appointment was necessary in order for the american people to have full confidence in the outcome. my staff and i carried out this assignment with that critical objective in mind, to work quietly, thoroughly and with integrity so the public would have full confidence in the outcome. the order appointing me as special counsel directed our office to investigate russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. this included investigating any links or coordination between the russian government and individuals associated with the trump campaign. it also included investigating efforts to interfere with or obstruct our investigation. throughout the investigation i continually stressed two things to the team we had assembled. first, we needed to dour o work as thoroughly as possible and as expeditiously as possible. it was in the public interest for our investigation to be complete, not to last a day longer than was necessary. second, the investigation needed to be conducted fairly and with absolute integrity. our team would not leak or take other actions that could compromise the integrity of our work. all decisions were made based on the facts and the law. during the course of our investigation we charged more than 30 defendants with committing federal crimes including 12 officers of russian military. seven defendants have been convicted or pled guilty. certain of the charges we brought remain pending today. for those matters i stress that the indictments contain allegations and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. in addition to the criminal charges we brought, as required by justice department regulations, we submitted a confidential report to the attorney general at the conclusion of our investigation. the report set forth the results of our work and the reason for our charging and decisions. i made limited remarks about closing the -- first our investigation found that the russian government interfered in our election in sweeping and systematic fashion. second, the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired with the russian government in it's lex interference activities. we did not address collusion which is a legal term. rather, we focused on whether the evidence was sufficient to charge any member of the campaign with taking part in a criminal conspiracy, and it was not. third, our investigation of efforts to obstruction the investigation and lying the investigators was of critical importance. obstruction of justice strikes at the core of the government's effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable. finally, as described in volume two of our report, we investigated a series of actions by the president towards the investigation. based on justice department policy and principles of fairness, we decided we would not make a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. that was our decision then and remains our decision today. let me say a further word about my appearance today. it is unusual for a prosecutor to testify about a criminal investigation. given my role as a prosecutor, there are reasons why my testimony will necessarily be limited. first, public testimony could affect several on going matters. in some of these matters, court rules or judicial orders limit the disclosure of information to protect, to protect the fairness of the proceedings. consistent with longstanding justice department policy, it would be inappropriate for me to comment in any way that could affect an ongoing matter. second, the justice department has asserted privileges concerning investigative information and decisions. on going matters within the justice department and deliberations within our office. these are justice department privileges that i will respect. the department has released a letter discussing the restrictions of my testimony. i, therefore, will not be able to answer questions about certain areas that i know are of public interest. for example, i am unable to address questions about the initial opening of the fbi's russia investigation which occurred months before my appointment or matters related to the so-called steal doele do. these are subject by on going review of the department. any questions of these topics should be directed to the fbi orr the justice department. as i explained when we closed the special counsel's office in may, our report contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. we conducted an extensive investigation over two years. in writing the report, we stated the results of our investigation with precision. we scrutinized every word. i do not intend to summarize or describe the results of our work in a different way in the course of my testimony today. as i said on may 29th, the report is my testimony, and i will stay within that text. as i stated in may, i will not comment on the actions of the attorney general or of congress. i was appointed as a prosecutor, and i intend to adhere to that role and to the department's standards that govern it. i'll be joined today by deputy special counsel aaron zebley. mr. zebley has extensive experience as a federal prosecutor and at the fbi where he served as my chief of staff. mr. zebley was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by our office. i also want to again say thank you to the attorneys, the fbi agents, the analysts, the professional staff who helped us conduct this investigation in a fair and independent manner. these individuals who spent nearly two years working onhis matter were of the highest integrity. let me say one more thing. over the course of my career, i have seen a number of challenges to our democracy. the russian government's effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious. as i said on may 29th, this deserves the attention of every american. thank you, mr. chairman. >> robert mueller ending his testimony. the questions will begin by chairman nadler. >> i will begin by recognizing myself for five minutes. director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that it completely and totally exonerated him, but that is not what your report said. is it? >> correct. that is not what the report said. >> reading from page two of volume two of your report that's on the screen, you wrote, quote, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment, closed quote. now, does that say there was no obstruction is? >> no. >> in fact, you were actually unable to conclude the president did not commit obstruction of justice. is that correct? >> well, we at the outset determined that when it came to the president's culpability, we needed to go forward only after taking into account the olc opinion that indicated that a president, sitting president cannot be indicted. >> so the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice. is that zplekt. >> that is correct. >> what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? >> no. >> now, in fact, your report expressly states it does not exonerate the president? >> it does. >> your investigation actually found, quote, multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the russian interference and obstruction investigations. is that correct? >> correct. >> now, director mueller, can you explain in plain terms what that finding means so the american people can understand it? >> well, the finding indicates that the president was not -- that the president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed. >> in fact, you were talking about incidents, quote, in which the president sought to use his official power outside usual channels, unquote, to exert undue influence over your investigations. is that right? >> that's correct. >> now, am i correct that on page seven of volume two of your report you wrote, quote, the president became aware that his own conduct was being investigated in an obstruction of justice inquiry. at that point, the president engaged in a second phase of conduct involving public attacks on the investigation, non-public efforts to control it and efforts in both public and private to encourage witnesses not to cooperate with the investigation, closed quote. so president trump's efforts to exert undue influence over your investigation intensified after the president became aware that he personally was being investigated? >> i stick with the language that you have in front of you. which came from page seven of volume two. >> now, is it correct that if you concluded that the president committed the crime of obstruction, you could not publicly state that in our report or here today? >> can you repeat the question. >> is it correct that if you had concluded that the president committed the crime of obstruction, you could not publicly state that in your report other here today? >> i would say you could -- the statement would be that you would not indict, and you would not indict because under the olc opinion, a sitting president cannot be indicted, it would be unconstitutional. >> you could not state that because of the olc opinion if that had been your conclusion? >> the olc opinion with some guide, yes. >> under department of justice policy, the president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice crimes after he leaves office, correct? >> true. >> thank you. did any senior white house official refuse a request to be interviewed by you or your team? >> i don't believe so. well, let me take that back. i would have to look at it, but i'm not certain that that was the case. >> did the president refuse a request to be interviewed by you and your team? >> yes. >> is it true you tried for more than a year to try to secure an interview with the president? >> yes. >> is it true you and your team advised the president's lawyer that, quote, an interview with the president is vital to our investigation, closed quote? >> yes. >> is it true that you also, quote, stated it is in the interest of the presidency and the public for an interview to take place, closed quote? >> yes. >> but the president still refused to sit for an interview by you and your team. >> true. >> did you also ask him to provide written answers to questions under ten possible episodes of obstruction of justice crimes involving him? >> yes. >> did he provide any answers to a single question about whether he engaged in trucks crimes? >> i would have to check on that. i'm not certain. >> director mueller, we're grateful you're here to explain your investigation and findings. having reviewed your work, i believe anyone else would engage in the conduct described in your report, would have been criminally prosecuted. your work is vitally important to this committee and the american people because no one is above the law. i'll now recognize the gentleman from georgia, mr. collins. >> thank you mr. chairman. reiterating the five-minute rule. i have several questions, many of which you just answered. i'll talk slowly. i'm said to talk fast. in your press conference you said -- the work speaks for itself. i would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. do you stand by that statement? >> yes. >> since closing the special counsel's office, have you conducted any official interviews or obtained any new information from your role as special counsel? >> in the wake of the report? >> since the closing of the office in may of 2019. >> the question was? >> have you conducted any new interviews? >> no. >> you can confirm you're no longer special counsel, correct? zblim' no longer special counsel. >> at any time of the investigation was your investigation curtailed or stopped or hindered? >> no. >> were you or your team provided any questions by members of congress ahead of your hearing today? >> no. >> your report states your investigative team included 19 lawyers and approximately lawyers and analysts. >> can you repeat that. >> 40 fbi agents, 19 lawyers and analysts. >> generally, gentlemen. >> 2800 subpoenas, executed 500 search warrants, obtained 240 -- >> that went a little fast for me. >> in your report -- i'll make this very simple. you did a lot of work, right? >> that i'll agree to. >> a lot of subpoenas. >> a lot of subpoenas. >> we'll walk this really slow. >> a lot of search warrants. >> a lot of search wants. you're very thorough, in your opinion very thorough? >> yes, yes. >> you listed this in your report, correct? >> yes. >> is it true the evidence gathered during your investigation -- given the questions you have just answered, is it true the evidence gathered during your investigation did not establish that the president was involved in the underlying crime related to russian election interference as stated in volume one, page seven? >> we found insufficient evidence of the president's culpability. >> so that would be a yes? >> pardon? >> that would be a yes? >> yes. >> isn't it true the evidenced did not establish the president or those close

announcer: president trump offered his first reaction to special counsel robert mueller before congress while attending a fundraiser in west virginia. his remarks last 20 minutes. pres. trump: we had a very good day today, the republican party. our country. there was no defense of what robert mueller was trying to defend, in all fairness to robert mueller, whether his performance was a bad one or a good one. i think everybody understands that. i think everybody understands what is going on. there was no defense to this ridiculous hoax, this witchhunt that has been going on for a long time. pretty much from the time i came down the escalator with our first lady. this has been a very bad thing for our country, and despite everything we have been through, it has been an incredible 2.5 years for our country. we have done a great job. we have the best unemployment numbers, the most number of people ever working in the history of our country right now , almost 160 million it our military has been rebuilt, and getting even stronger. we have done a great job, and we have done it under this terr

sure he'll watch special counsel robert mueller's testimony before congress wednesday. the president going after mueller's credibility today, tweeting, quote, highly conflicted robert mueller should not be given another bite at the apple. in the end, it will be bad for him and the phony democrats in congress. as abby phillip reports, the president also stepped up his attacks on four democratic congresswomen of color. >> reporter: as washington and the white house prepare for special counsel robert mueller's big day on capitol hill this week, president donald trump tamping down expectations. >> i'm not going to be watching mueller because you can't take all those bites out of the apple. >> reporter: the president winding up familiar attacks against mueller and his credibility. >> robert mueller, i know he's conflicted. he had a -- there's a lot of conflicts that he's got including the fact that his best friend is comey. but he's got conflicts with me, too. he's got big conflicts with me. as you know, he wanted the job of the fbi director. he didn't get it. >> reporter: but m

. it will be interesting how hard that job becomes for her on wednesday with robert mueller testifying in public session. there's been a lot of things spilled on the idea that one of the audiences in that speech are other members of the house, the folks who haven't called for impeachment. all of a sudden, that call for pelosi becomes much more difficult if more voices are raised in direction. >> kelly o'donnell and garrett haake, thank you very much. >>> joining us now is aaron blake, a senior political reporter for "the washington post." and one of the authors of "the fix" political newsletter. aaron, it's great to see you. we've got mueller coming to the hill. let's pick up there where garrett left off. it does seem that one of the major questions out of that is just how many minds does it change in the american public, but also inside the democratic caucus? >> well, i think that first of all, it's can worth pointing out that many people have nod read the mueller report. there was a sur fvey of 3% peop. why not focus on individual events in the obstruction of justice investigation. m