Reflections on Mueller'sTestimony Before House Judiciary Committee, Wednesday Morning

Some assessments of Robert Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, just concluded.

Mueller is clearly not a very fluent speaker, and all too often responded to questions by deflecting to his report, or just flat-out declining to answer the questions.   But there were several powerful responses from Mueller this morning:

• He agreed with and even said, in response to one question, that there were a lot of "liars" amidst the President's cadres.   He even characterized some of those people interviewed in his investigation as "outright liars".
• Although he refrained from specifically recommending impeachment, he acknowledged that impeachment was a next step, in view of his insistence that he as Special Prosecutor could not indict a sitting President.
• He repeatedly did not back down from his insistence that his report did not "exonerate" the President, as Trump and his supporters repeatedly claim.
• He strongly backed the people who worked for him in his office as "non-political," despite Republican claims to the contrary.

Most of the Republicans on the committee also came across as motor-mouths and nasty.  Their conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton, etc came across as unpersuasive.  In contrast, the Democrats quoting from the Mueller, and getting Mueller to agree with their quotes, was an effective way of getting more details of the report out to Americans.

So, all in all, the morning session was very much worthwhile.  Mueller's testimony was valuable when he chose to answer the questions put to him.  But he should have answered more of them.

See also Reflections on Mueller's Testimony Before House Intelligence Committee, This Afternoon