WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his allies did not wait for Robert Mueller to finish testifying Wednesday about his investigation into the sitting president to frame the moment as a victory for the White House, mocking the former special counsel’s findings and performance.
The president tweeted four times during the first half of Mueller’s testimony, largely quoting Fox News coverage of the hearing, including anchor Chris Wallace saying, “This has been a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller.”
His eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted repeatedly, mocking Mueller’s lack of familiarity with some aspects of the investigation and accusing him of playing favorites.
“Funny, Mueller can’t understand the Republicans but he can totally understand the Democrats questions. This is a disaster for dems,” Trump Jr. wrote.
And the president’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, blasted Mueller’s frequent stumbles and calls for questions to be repeated, tweeting the former FBI director was “being destroyed on credibility, knowledge, competence and numerous ‘ahs,’ pauses and excuses like “beyond my purview.”
Mueller’s nationally televised appearance on Capitol Hill was long anticipated as a potential inflection point for the presidency, one that could galvanize more House Democrats toward impeachment or help dispel the investigatory cloud that has shadowed the White House for more than two years. Ever mindful of the need to spin powerful televised images, Trump and his fellow Republicans unleashed a barrage of tweets that continued a pattern of attacks in which Trump has made baseless claims about Mueller’s probe and its findings.
Trump in recent days had claimed that he would not watch much, if any, of the back-to-back hearings. But before Mueller even took his seat to testify, the president had tweeted nine times about the investigation, making clear that he had his mind focused squarely on the proceedings unfolding at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“So Democrats and others can illegally fabricate a crime, try pinning it on a very innocent President, and when he fights back against this illegal and treasonous attack on our Country, they call It Obstruction?” Trump wrote in one early tweet. “Wrong! Why didn’t Robert Mueller investigate the investigators?”
In fact, the Mueller report did not declare there was no collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Nor did the special counsel’s report exonerate Trump on the question of whether he obstructed justice.
Trump also revived a baseless charge that Mueller was “highly conflicted.” Mueller, a longtime Republican, was cleared by the Justice Department’s ethics experts to lead the Russia investigation.
Trump over the last week had been speculating with confidants about how the hearings would go. And while he expressed no worry that Mueller would reveal anything damaging, Trump was irritated that the former special counsel was being given the national stage, according to two Republicans close to the White House. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
Wary of Americans being captivated by finally hearing Mueller speak at length, Trump seethed to one adviser that he was annoyed Democrats would be given a tool to ramp up their investigations — and that cable networks would have new footage of Mueller to play on loop.
In the hearing’s opening minutes, short, direct questioning from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., yielded soundbite-ready answers from Mueller, who stated that he could not clear the president of any wrongdoing. But under further questioning from members of both parties, Mueller’s answers were more slow and hesitant.
Though the probe did not result in charges of criminal conspiracy or obstruction, there has been growing concern among those close to the president that Mueller’s appearance could push undecided or reluctant Democrats toward impeachment. But at least early on, the president’s allies seemed happy with the results.
Kellyanne Conway, senior counselor to the president, tweeted “Drop the Mic” over a video clip of Mueller reading from his opening statement that “The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
Tim Murtagh, the campaign’s communications director, tweeted, “It was never anything but a witch hunt!”
But despite the cheer, there was concern among some Republicans that the hearing, if not a home run for Democrats, could still produce moments that could wound Trump. For example, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., asked Mueller, “Your investigation found that the president took steps to terminate the special counsel, correct?”
The special counsel responded: “Correct.”
The president had a light schedule Wednesday morning during Mueller’s testimony. Later in the day he was headed to West Virginia for a closed evening fundraiser. Aides suggested that he would speak to reporters and directly respond to Mueller when the president left the White House.
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Lemire reported from New York.
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Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JonLemire and Superville at http://twitter.com/dsupervilleap
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For more of AP’s coverage of the Trump investigation: https://apnews.com/TrumpInvestigations
