RTThu, 25 Jul 2019 17:51 UTC
Robert Mueller testifies before Congress on his report
President Donald Trump's Democratic opponents have shot themselves in the foot by forcing Robert Mueller to testify publicly, not realizing he already done his best to make the probe look credible, journalist Aaron Maté told RT.
The testimony by former special counsel Robert Mueller only further highlighted the flimsiness of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, which after more than two years of investigation ultimately turned up no evidence of conspiracy."Democrats made a very big mistake in calling this hearing today," Maté said. "They didn't realize the investigation was baseless and that Mueller and his team actually did their best to make this investigation look credible."
This hearing has been disastrous for the Democrats because Robert Mueller for over two years has been portrayed as a their savior figure.
The journalist noted Mueller's refusal and even seeming inability to answer basic questions about his own probe, including about the notorious research firm Fusion GPS, which helped to kick off the FBI's initial Trump-Russia investigation with the infamous "Steele dossier."
"It was a telling moment when Robert Mueller didn't want to answer the question about Fusion GPS," Maté said, pointing out how the former special counsel repeatedly stated certain subjects "weren't in his purview."
But the "disastrous" hearing, during which Mueller refused to "go along" with obvious efforts to blame Trump for anything potentially impeachable, is unlikely to "stop the Democrats from continuing with this Russiagate business," Mate noted.
The question is whether Trump will now be "challenged on his actual policies, not on a now totally debunked conspiracy theory."
Comment: Lliberal media pundits
weighed in as they picked through the debris:
Robert Mueller's testimony to Congress failed to live up to the expectations of many Russiagate-peddling pundits, with one notable exception being MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who had glowing praise for the former special counsel.
Even among the news outlets that championed the Russiagate narrative, Mueller's Q&A with the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday received less than stellar reviews.
CNN's Chris Cillizza lamented that "Mueller was less than convincing or forceful," and that in many instances his testimony had "made things muddier."
Another CNN contributor argued that Mueller's testimony has "provided Republicans good reason to argue that the investigation was a two-year, multimillion-dollar waste of time."
Mueller didn't fare much better over at MSNBC. One of the network's national security analysts, Jeremy Bash, remarked that he had "kind of sucked the life out of the report," describing Mueller's performance as "boring" and "kind-of evasive."
NBC's Chuck Todd was similarly unimpressed, arguing that the testimony was a "disaster" in terms of optics for the Russiagate-promoting Democrats.
© RT
Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host who perfected the art of Russia-baiting, characterized the hearings as "landmark" and "historic." (In fairness to Maddow, she also acknowledged that Mueller "definitely seemed older than his 74 years.")
"All in all, just look at today as a whole, it was a remarkable day," Maddow beamed. "I know the Trump White House and conservative media are trying to, like, chin up tonight, make it seem like they had a great day today... they did not have a great day today."
Commenting after Mueller finished his testimony, US President Donald Trump slammed media outlets which promoted the now-debunked theory that his presidential campaign had "colluded" with the Kremlin in 2016.
"This whole thing has been collusion - with the media, with other countries... This has been a disaster for the Democrats," he said.
Comment: Lliberal media pundits weighed in as they picked through the debris: