this is cnn special covererage robert mueller under oath. within the next hour, an extraordinary event will happen on capitol hill. robert mueller will testify publicly about his investigation into russia's election interference and president trump's alleged attempt to obstruct that investigation. i'm jake tapper. >> and i'm wolf blitzer. there will be back-to-back hearings today. mueller will first be sworn in before the house judiciary committee who will focus on the obstruction documented in the mueller report. then the house intelligence committee will get its turn concentrating on what russia did to attack the 2016 presidential election here in the united states. >> mueller is clearly a reluctant witness. he stressed he's going to limit his testimony to what is in his 448-page report. but even if mueller only recites aloud some of the key points, that effect could be stunning and these could have blockbuster potential. we gathered our analysts to bring you full coverage. >> i want to go to capitol hill right now. manu raju is up there.

robert mueller was a reluctant witness, and it showed. it was a long day on capitol hill seven hours from star

here's robert mueller from 2013. he was speaking at the commencement address at the college of william and mary. say to what he had to the graduating seniors that day. with integrity because it is so essential to who and what you ultimately will become. career pathhave a and mine. many of you have no idea where you will end up. a few of you may be surprised by where life takes you. i certainly was. and in the end it is not only what we do but how we do it. careeress of your chosen you are only as good as your word. you can be smart, aggressive, articulate and indeed persuasive. but if you are not honest your reputation will suffer and once can, a good reputation never be regained. saying goes, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. and if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. you take from that commencement address? ityou can tell that he means and i think integrity is an inreasingly rare quality american society. i think this is why rod chose robert mueller to be special counsel because he is perceiv

here is robert mueller from 2013. he was speaking at the commencement address at the college of william and mary, and this is what he had to say to the graduating years that day. >> i begin with integrity because it is so essential to who and what you ultimately will become. you have a career path in mind, many of you have no idea. be surprised iy where life takes you, i certainly was. in the end, it is not only what we do, but how we do it. your chosenf careers, you are only as good as your word. you can be smart, aggressive, articulate, and persuasive. but if you are not honest, your reputation will suffer, and once tarnished, a good reputation can never be regained. as the saying goes, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. and if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. host: what do you take from that commencement address? guest: you can tell that he means it. i think integrity is an increasingly rare quality in american society. i think this is why ron rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, chose

robert mueller will be in an interesting place. there will be questions that go outside that will be questions that normal people want to know. people i talked to around the country, especially democrats who are frustrated by the decision not to make a decision on obstruction of justice and why didn't you make the things. it's going to be an interesting thing if he doesn't go further than the report, that's enough for the people who are frustrated by it. >> one is intent and did the president intend to obstruct justice. the mueller report said they know the answer, but they won't tell us. it appears in the footnote that where mueller is talking about not subpoenaing donald trump and he said we obtained from other sources and other sources allowed us to draw relevant factual conclusions on intent. so mueller has a conclusion on the president's intent, but didn't put it in writing and now apparently the justice department is saying you can't tell us the answer to that question. >> since when is ignorance an excuse. maybe i'm missing

as much as robert mueller? >> our focus is going to definitely be on mueller, and our goal is to let mueller speak because if he just describes what is in the report, that's very, very damaging to the president. but it is very good that zebley is going to be there as well because if it's just to give advice, he's going to have specific details about all of those interactions you mentioned. also, we're establishing the precedent that we've been fighting for that some of these investigators, we have a right to call them. >> yes. >> to inquire what's going on. mueller is at the top, but a lot of the people doing the details, where they know what the negotiations were, they know what happened, they're relevant to get the story out to the american people, so we think -- we're glad that he's going to be there and we are glad that he's going to be sworn in. >> and the -- every member of the committee has a staff member nearby. when you're not coming up with exactly the right thing in the right moment. so the idea that

is a robert mueller doubleheader. the former special counsel is about to make back-to-back appearances before the house judiciary committee and intelligence committees it is about the last place on earth that he wants to be a delisting of the role that he wants to do. the former marine who volunteered to serve his country during vietnam had to be subpoenaed to testify. robert mueller arrived on capitol hill just a few minutes ago. you see the picture of his arrival. this is the first time he will answer questions about his investigation of russian interference in the 2016 u.s. election. whether anyone in the trump campaign was involved, and whether the president obstructed justice. robert mueller has had his report speaks for itself it doesn't intended to go on with the report says. it has robert mueller cannot determine whether mr. trump did or did not commit a crime, but the report did not exonerate him and the president has claimed. suck no collusion and no obstruction. we had nothing. a total no collusion finding.

i did just speak to robert mueller's spokesperson. he'll be accompanied by some of his team from the special counsel's office. this is presumably the same group of people who have been working with ront mueller as he's been preparing at the offices of william hale. that's robert mueller's former law firm right here in washington, d.c. we know that he has been preparing throughout the past few days or weeks. so that group of people will be with him. presumably we'll see them sit just behind robert mueller at the hearing as he begins to testify at 8:30 this morning. but so far no more word from the justice department. but we know they are objecting to zebley testifying alongside mueller which he's expected to do in the second part of the day. >> jess is a snyder, thank you so much. >>> president trump has been on edge ahead of the mueller hearing. using the phrase he often uses, witch hunt. let's go to boris sanchez. what's the latest over there? >> reporter: even though president trump says he's not anxious about the testimony today, i

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. so

. >> 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 c

zebly walking next to robert mueller, will still be sitting alongside him and robert mueller can confer with him as he answers questions and can get his input. this set off a scramble. it's not unusual for robert mueller to have counsel with him to advise him. of course there are a lot of boundaries he has to stay within that doj has instructed him about. it raises questions about why this request was made so last minute for him to be sworn in. his spokesman says the request for him to sit alongside him was actually made nor than a week ago. here is what that statement said. aaron zebley was the deputy special counsel and had day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by the office. he will accompany special counsel mueller to the wednesday hearings as was discussed with the committees more than a week ago. >> evan, what are you hearing? you've been doing some reporting on this as well. it's a pretty surprise last-minute request. >> it is a surprise. and as pamela mentioned, i think it is not unusual for a witness like this to have someone who is sitting behind him, counsel, s

robert mueller, i know he is conflicted. he's got a lot of conflicts, including the fact that his best friend is comey, but he has big conflict with me. as you know, he wanted the job of the fbi director and did not get it. we had a business relationship where i said no, and i would say he was not happy. all of a sudden, he gets this position. you know what, he still rules and i respect him for it. he still ruled no collusion, no obstruction, and this thing should have ended a long time ago. this has been going on for 2.5 years. we will never allow this to happen to another president again. host: that was president trump yesterday in the oval office. andrew desiderio, a lot there. guest: no collusion, no obstruction. that is what the president has set ever since the report came out. mueller said neither of those things. the first point, collusion was never evaluated. collusion is not a legal term or anything part of the deliberative process when you are racing a prosecutorial decision. what mueller did say is that there was

robert mueller testifying. and i know you said in your piece, we all see it with the sound up, so much of what we've seen with robert mueller has been video, but we're not listening to him. i want to get to some of the examples you found the most significant. including how he pointed out his independence from the doj. >> given the necessary independence of the bureau in investigation that there might not come a time where one seeks an alternative where one believes that political pressure is being brought to bear on the investigative process, that may be somewhere else in the executive, beyond the attorney general, may be congress, but i would look and explore at every option, if i believed that the fbi was being pressured for political reasons. and if that were the situation as described here i would explore other alternatives or a variety of alternatives in order to make certain justice was done. >> what do you think that response tells us about how you could handle similar lines of questioning? >> sure, that

mueller took, the oath that robert mueller took as fbi director. and the oath that he also took in the current role that he's in. this is a man who has been driven by upholding constitutional norms his entire life, upholding the rule of law his entire life. and the topic, the subject of this investigation is a man who just told students yesterday, who told young americans yesterday, that the constitution, specifically article ii, allows him to do whatever he wants to do. grants him ultimate power, much like steven miller said in 2017. in february of 2017, that president has ultimate power and can do whatever he wants. what a marked contrast we have lined up today. >> that's right, joe. yesterday, as you just indicated, the president of the united states told these students, i have article ii. meaning him alone. today, the country has bob mueller. and one of the underrated aspects of today's testimony could be the fact that we live now in a country where people are sleepwalking through these things. there's been a new normal created by donald trump.

laura: there was confusion on that, and robert mueller h. to clarify he said that because there is ao opinion from tice of legal counsel, which is in the department of justice, saying 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 did not reach a determination on w the president obstructed justice. on that when we arrwnot further d. on the question of whether or not the president himself could prosecuted once you were to leave office, -- once he weic to leave o mueller said he could. heas forer there was a crime, we did not move that much forward. jane: very complicated. rithank you for co it live on capitol hill. for more on the hearings, i spoke a short time ago with constitutional law bbc legal analyst jonathan turley. thank you for joining me does this help or hurt moves for impeachment? jonathan: i think it hurts it, quite frankls democrn

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 ev

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 cont

they want sound bites from robert mueller. i don't know what republicans will be doing. >> this is jerry nadler, the democrat from new york city, he's the chairman. they're very well organized on the house judiciary committee. they're starting pretty much on time. it's 8:30 a.m. here on the east coast right now. this is supposed to begin right now. three hours we're told of questioning. we'll see if there's a break in between, and then there will be a half-hour break we're told before the former special counsel goes before the house intelligence committee. and dana, we're told they will meet in the same room so logistically it'll be a little easier. >> yeah, and look how many hearings have we seen over the years where we say this is big, this is momentous. this is big, this is momentous. there are so many wow moments of the trump presidency i would venture to say this is, even if it doesn't go beyond the four corners, just the theater and the implications of actually hearing from robert mueller and seeing him questioned under

what's your question for robert mueller? caller: my question is not so much for robert mueller. my first question would be a show of hands by all the republicans sitting on the committee today who actually read the full report. i'm astonished that the republicans calling in obviously have not read the report. it is pretty clear cut. himlooking forward to simply reading the report, explaining the report. the only question i would have for robert mueller would be did you infect exonerate -- in fact exonerate donald trump? yes or no? host: when you say it is clear , what do you mean? caller: i read the report. that heetty clear cut was not allowed nor did he investigate collusion. that was not part of his authority to do so and he didn't do so. he quite simply said, number one, if he could have exonerated the president, he would have done so. read the report. he said that in the report. there are at least 10 cases of obstruction by president trump. it is quite clear cut. here,s not rocket science my dear. this is a report that the majority of people in america have not read. today,

here's robert mueller from 2013. he was speaking at the commencement address at the college of william and mary. say to what he had to the graduating seniors that day. with integrity because it is so essential to who and what you ultimately will become. career pathhave a and mine. many of you have no idea where you will end up. a few of you may be surprised by where life takes you. i certainly was. and in the end it is not only what we do but how we do it. careeress of your chosen you are only as good as your word. you can be smart, aggressive, articulate and indeed persuasive. but if you are not honest your reputation will suffer and once can, a good reputation never be regained. saying goes, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. and if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. you take from that commencement address? ityou can tell that he means and i think integrity is an inreasingly rare quality american society. i think this is why rod chose robert mueller to be special counsel because he is perceiv

that's going to be very interesting. >> do you think robert mueller -- >> 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, 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 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. >> 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

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 an

we'll monitor robert mueller's testimony up to the point it wraps up. investors, they're ignoring the political theater on capitol hill. instead it is all about earnings. we do have disappointing reports from boeing and caterpillar dragging on the dow, there are a lot of stocks breaking out. what you need to know about this market, where it's going next. ♪ hi i'm joan lunden. today's senior living communities have never been better, with amazing amenities like movie theaters, exercise rooms and swimming pools, public cafes, bars and bistros even pet care services. and there's never been an easier way to get great advice. a place for mom is a free service that pairs you with a local advisor to help you sort through your options and find a perfect place. a place for mom. you know your family we know senior living. together we'll make the right choice. 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. ♪ charles: th

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 away from thi

we're also following robert mueller tonight. he did not want to come to the hill, but special counsel robert mueller did just that today, testifying before the american people. seven hours of questions from two committees about the president, about his campaign, about russia. and in the first minute of questioning, mueller was asked, did you exonerate the president, as the president has repeatedly claimed. how mueller answered that. mueller was also asked, can the president be charged after he leaves office? and mueller defending his team against claims of bias. he was asked, was this a witch hunt, was it a hoax? and the president reacting just moments ago. abc's mary bruce at the hearing room today, and she leads us off. >> reporter: robert mueller walking into a hearing two years in the making. he was a reluctant witness, but democrats forced him to appear. pressing him on whether the president obstructed justice. >> director mueller, the president has repeatedly claimed that your report found there was no obstruction and that

saying that he's sure that robert mueller looked at his taxes and since robert mueller didn't say anything about that in his report, that must mean that the president's taxes are totally clean and clear. that's how we should read that. remember when the president started making that case? you may also remember that senator amy klobuchar who is running for president as a democrat, she at one point asked attorney general william barr if that was true. if robert mueller obtained and looked at trump's taxes as part of the mueller investigation. barr told her in his testimony that she should ask robert mueller that if she was so interested in getting that question. senator klobuchar did ask robert mueller that question in writing, hey, did you obtain trump's tax returns, did you look at them as part of your investigation. as far as we know, she got no answer from mueller. well, now today, in person under questioning from congress, mueller still wouldn't answer it. while he simultaneously is arguing that the president's secret financial dealings with the russian government opened him up to being

of robert mueller. he would never get up there and put on a big performance. that is just not who he is. the tank -- the task for the republicans was to attempt to discredit him. they threw him off his game a little bit but they fundamentally didn't achieve that goal. the task on the democrats was to refocus on the substance of the report to make the case to the american people and get the american people's attention about what is in the document and i think that if you look at their performance, they did a pretty good job of that. they used slides and pulled out the key moments. some of those exchanges were really incredibly compelling and so, look, i know it wasn't sort of the game-changer mueller and him saying i would have indicted him or some piece of information that might have dramatically shifted the conversation, that said i think today was incredibly consequential and i be -- i don't buy that the president thinks today was a good day for him and this was a devastating portrait for the white ho

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 the results of our work. but beyond the

mueller and then to cover up his efforts to fire robert mueller. and there are a number of trump campaign associates who were involved, who met with russians, even if they didn't take anything of value, but especially on the obstruction case. robert mueller laid out so much evidence, almost as a roadmap, and then he clearly said that that was an avenue best suited not for the criminal justice system, hint, hint, congress, when he made that one public appearance. so i think that the special counsel's office really left that open to congress. and at this point, i think it's a matter of whether congress decides they've had enough to start down that road, because if it doesn't end in impeachment, they could of course be accused of beating a dead horse, going over something that robert mueller didn't find, if they aren't able to actually explain the narrative that no, they actually have tools that robert mueller did not have. >> two of our consensus, most valuable players around here, julia ainsley and frank figliuzzi, our thanks to both of you for join

>> the aides is aaron zebley, robert mueller's chief of staff. an accomplished counterterrorism investigator in his own right and robert mueller's chief of staff during the mueller investigation. and they are asking that he be sworn in to sit next to robert mueller during the judiciary committee part of the hearing. it's not clear that's going to be able to happen because of congressional rules. >> and to do what? and to say what? >> well, i mean, you know, robert mueller is 74 years old. he oversaw this sprawling investigation. it's conceivable he doesn't know the answer particularly with the details to every question and a guy like zebley could help him answer those questions and inform the public if only

[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

but will robert mueller comply? robert mueller give the narrative answers that give the sound bites or will he be much more restrained in what he says? if all they can do is ask him did you say this in his report and he says yes, the democrats will not achieve what they want, educate the public, to get the soundbite that they can use either in the impeachment or election process. the issue is if they try to push robert mueller and yod whatbeyos in his report and he refuses to answer or gives grand jury secrecy, then robert mueller looks like a recalcitrant witness, something that was evasive. and the whole premise of the report is robert mueller is this man of great integrity and now how is he going to look on tv because his demeanor is such that he tried to press them beyond what he said he would talk about. >> how much of this in your view has to do with the fact republicans will focus on investigating the investigator so to speak? they're basically obsessed with focusing on how mueller conducted him investigation

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 terrible, phony cloud, a phony cloud, that is all it was. and they should be ashamed of themselves. absolutely ashamed. you know who knew it was a phony cloud more than anyone else? schiff and nadler and pelosi and everyone of them. they all knew it was phony

that was the one time we saw robert mueller say what he believes. >> do you think robert mueller is happy based on what you know of him? >> i don't. i think that's in part because robert mueller didn't want to be there in the first place. he went out of his way to say, you know, this is not -- i don't want to be on capitol hill testifying. i think yesterday he beared that out. >> yes. >> garrett graff, thank you very much. >>> boris johnson has been british prime minister for one day and there are already big changes in the u.k. that's next. maria ramirez? hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. (michelle) i know what it's like to be in a financially struggling family.! we had a lot of leftovers...[chuckles] i couldn't have asked for better parents, but like most people they didn't have anyone to teach them the best financial habits. so we changed that. as a financial health coa

closely with robert mueller. what would you would told jerry nadler and adam schiff? >> i think actually, chuck, that the democrats approached that in exactly the way i would have advised them to had i been asked, which i wasn't, but, you know, as chuck just mentioned, no one should've been surprised that mueller was going to confine all of his remarks to the substance of the report. so that being said, their goal should have been to get as much of the most significant material in that report out and communicated to the public in a way that's memorable and easy to understand. for my money, the best way to do that is exactly the way they approached it, which is with analyzing each category of obstructive behavior within the elements of the offense. i thought they did that effectively, and i thought that, you know, director mueller went along with that in the way that we expected he would. >> but let me -- should there have been -- should this had happened sooner? this is now july, and correct me if i'm wrong, july

robert mueller seemed older than his 74 years. he seemed less on top of matters than anybody who has worked with him in the past expected in terms of his appearance today. there had been the justice department threat ahead of today's testimony that mueller shouldn't tread outside the bounds of his report and shouldn't talk about uncharged third parties and shouldn't talk about decision making processes and did reference those boundaries at times, but surely went outside them at times as well. he did so in way that is it seems point the neon arrows toward what is we couldn't and didn't get from him that seems imperative to chase down. given the dire descriptions he gave about the president's conduct and the conduct of the president's campaign and ongoing implications for the country. it seems like they gave us two big directions that feel imperative to try to get to the bottom of this still open scandal. the first one is that mueller's personal performance today puts a spotlight on the man sitting next to him. his deputy is describ

the 126 contacts quote robert mueller. the 126 co nta cts by quote robert mueller. the 126 contacts by the trump campaign with russia. imagine that, not a single phone call to law enforcement to say there might be something wrong here. we are working next to russia, who is interfering with a selection to our benefit, and of course, very importantly, volume two, and the mountains of obstruction ofjustice evidence against this president. mountains of obstruction ofjustice evidence against this presidentm has been mentioned many times before that robert mueller didn't come to a conclusion, he has wandered to congress and it is up to you to make the case for impeachment. if you are going to write an impeachment case tonight, what would you say are the grounds for that impeachment? well, extraordinary lawlessness of breaking the rule of law. robert mueller today, one of the impressive things he said was the importance of anti—gravity of the charge of obstruction of justice. —— anti—gravity of the charge of obstruction ofjustice. —— and the gravity. that is no

obviously robert mueller disagreed with. however, some people have wondering is devin nunes the new dni. was that an audition? was that to get the president's attention? and will he become the director of national intelligence? >> i've heard those rumors. and he is rumored to be up for dni and other positions, possible. i don't think you can attribute necessarily wanting a specific job to anybody's performance. these are people who have been pretty protective of the president over the last two years. it is worth noting a fraction of the behavior by president trump and his aides, the same republicans would have been correctly calling for investigations. and yesterday, you know, to jeffrey's point, if congress isn't going to do anything, i'm not sure what there is to do. >> right. and this a choice that they have. congress not the only group of democrats with a high public profile right now. there's also the presidential candidates who will take the stage next week in two cnn debates which we will carry live. i'm curious about

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 mov

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.

robert mueller doesn't want to testify before congress. he's made that clear in that may 29th public statement that he gave. i asked what's his demeanor like, what will we see? what kind of robert mueller will we see in this big blockbuster set of hearings. the spokesperson basically said, well, we'll leave it until wednesday. a lot of prep going on, but we're likely not to see much more beyond the report itself. >> a lot of people will be watching. special coverage will begin at 8:00 a.m. eastern. thank you so much. we'll go to capitol hill now where democrats say mueller's testimony is make or break. our senior congressional correspondent, manu raju is on the scene for us. what are you learning about how democrats are preparing and what they're hoping to get out of this hearing? >> reporter: this has been some of the most intensive deliberations and preparations of any congressional hearing in recent memory. behind the scenes, democrats and also republicans have held separate mock hearing sessions, very unusual on capitol hill for doing

a long-time aid to robert mueller and is described as a deputy special counsel robert mueller. robert mueller wanted aaron to speak next to him because i'm told he wantedto zebl talk about personnel issues and the hiring process to take some pressureueff of roberter. the committee, of course, said, no, you cannot do that. as aon result, a zebly will sit ongside robert mueller as his counsel, but he'll be to talk to aaron, ask him questions, and confer if there is something he wants to talk about that may be outside therv w of the report. but the fact that we got this big surprise the day before the testimony sa there could fireworks we don't see coming. >> nawaz: some last-minute developmen behind the scene there. there is also the issue of this letter, yamiche, that the idea sent to mueller offering him some guidance on the testimony. how could what they laid out affect what he does or doesn't say? >> the department of justice has leaned in on robert mueller to stick to what's in the reporllt. robert m agrees he wants to stick to what's in the report, but the department of jus

you worked with robert mueller in the justice department. you were his boss. i presume you taught him everything he knows -- [ laughter ] >> he taught me. he taught me. >> i think of you as a mueller republican and i think that's a label you would be proud of. what was your reaction to bob mueller's testimony yesterday? >> i think he confirmed what we all knew there is an over wheeling case of obstruction of justice in volume two of the mueller report. myself, if i had that case i could have charged the president. these office of legal counsel opinions that everyone is pointing to is not like a judicial opinion with the same force of law. the assistant attorney general is the lawyer for the president and the lawyer for the attorney general. those are his or her only two clients. so it's like siting a brief instead of a judicial opinion to site that office of legal counsel opinion that's the basis for not indicting the president. i think you could have charged him and suspended and sealed the indictment so the statute of limitations would not run out. >> and i

you saw her there questioning robert mueller yesterday. congresswoman, i appreciate you making time to be here. thank you. >> it's great to be with you, rachel. >> first i have to tell you i've been looking forward to talking to you about what you took away from this day of testimony. yuri you're coe chair of the congressional caucus, outspoken, on the rise in the democratic caucus, noticed by all sides, you had your own chance to question him. what meant the most to you about mueller's testimony? >> i think kind of the most important pieces were that he repeatedly basically said that the president was lying on a number of things. he was not completely exonerated. he actually did have substantial evidence that the president committed acts of obstruction, and we went through five of those in fairly granular detail. what robert mueller didn't say, didn't really matter because what he did is actually validate everything that was in his report that we know most people haven't read and most importantly we know bill barr tried to mislead and lie