SALT LAKE CITY — Special counsel Robert Mueller spoke in front of the lawmakers on Wednesday about his investigation into President Donald Trump and Russia.
Mueller spent the morning talking with the House Judiciary Committee and faces more questions from the House Intelligence Committee later on Wednesday.
As The New York Times explained, Republicans largely attacked Mueller and his investigation, while Democrats tried to elevate his words. Republicans suggested that the investigation was misguided. Democrats, meanwhile, dug deeper into the specifics of the report.
Social media reacted to Mueller’s hearing throughout
This is the defense we were expecting Mueller to give--that he hired the most competent people to do the most efficient investigation. https://t.co/MZHFpIof4W
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) July 24, 2019
Someone has to explain to me what exactly is so pressing that Robert Mueller can't spend more than 3 hours at a congressional hearing.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) July 24, 2019
subtweet: How in the world is it weird or unseemly that an investigation started off looking into one thing, then, when there were clear attempts to derail that investigation by a subject of said investigation, those actions caused a shift in what was being examined
— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) July 24, 2019
Glad this hearing is going late so a junior congressman can ask Mueller to say which presidents appointed him to which jobs, advancing knowledge.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 24, 2019
Huge moment.
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) July 24, 2019
Mueller pushes back hard on his hiring practices as Rep Armstrong accuses team of being filled w/ Dems who were bias. Mueller said that he strove to hire ppl who were capable & who could do job quickly & w/ integrity. He said he didn't ask about political beliefs.
Mueller making an important point here, that under the federal code, applicants are not supposed to be passed over on a job opportunity simply by dint of political leaning or bent
— Eric Tucker (@etuckerAP) July 24, 2019
Noteworthy: Mueller says "yes" when asked whether Trump could be charged with obstruction of justice after he leaves office.
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) July 24, 2019
No mincing words here: bad morning for pro-impeachment crowd. They needed a bravo testimony to sway public opinion (and Pelosi). That hasn’t happened, so far.
— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) July 24, 2019
Many hours remain. Let’s see.
Mueller starting to push back when D's try to get him to agree that Trump committed obstruction, unwilling to go beyond anything in the report. "Going thru elements does not to mean I subscribe to what you're trying to prove through those elements," he tells Lieu.
— Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) July 24, 2019
Live televised tryouts for Hannity and Maddow's shows today.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 24, 2019
Shorter Mueller Hearing
— Caroline Moss (@CarolineMoss) July 24, 2019
GOP: So you’re not saying he *did* do it
Dems: So you’re not saying he *didn’t* do it
Mueller: it’s in the report
Both parties: ok but we didn’t read it
an exhausted professor mueller discovers nobody did the assigned reading pic.twitter.com/8t7J9rcaNR
— David Mack (@davidmackau) July 24, 2019
Mueller says he hired so many Clinton donors and operatives to investigate Trump for treasonous collusion before pivoting to "obstruction" for being upset at the charge because he strove to hire people who could "do the job." A certain truth to that, I suppose.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 24, 2019
I am not sure how many times Mueller contradicted his own previous testimony and public statements today, but it was a lot. I'm sure the researchers will have the list for a soon and it will be long.
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) July 24, 2019