I agree with the theory that Mueller doesn't want to testify on TV with showboating Jordan & Collins

[Miles Archer]

I also agree with the theory that part of Mueller's tale to tell is what Bill Weld suggested to Lawrence O'Donnell:

"Bill Barr told me that he was going to squash any indictment I tried to bring against the president for obstruction"

I guess we'll have to wait for the transcripts to see.

[radical noodle]

1. I do as well

I'd love to see it as it happens but the spewing of the trump apologists would be distracting and give Fox sound bytes to show over and over.

[ooky]

2. As long as we get the full transcripts it wouldn't bother me for all the

testimony to be in private, and skip the GOP grandstanding which has no value. All we really need is to dig out the facts that will go into our articles of impeachment.

[EffieBlack]

3. Exactly!

The rest is just a whole lot of useless drama

[Thekaspervote]

5. Amen to that!!

[standingtall]

7. And when the GOP misrepresents the transcripts the way they did the report

because most people won't read the transcripts. Then what?

[ooky]

24. Then we just correct the record, like we always do when the GOP misrepresents stuff.

Most people aren't going to watch it anyway. Just us political junkies. Most people don't know what's going on until they hear it on the nightly news. The last thing they will hear is the articles of impeachment being read to them.

Getting the testimony is the objective. How we get it is secondary in my opinion. I'm not sure that having it drowned out by Jordan's and Collins' noise all through the hearing isn't worse anyway.

[standingtall]

25. Most people will still get it even don't watch

there bound to watch at least some news coverage where clips from the hearing will be repeated. So even people who don't sit down to watch hearing when it happens will at least get parts of the hearing.

[ooky]

32. But the people seeing any clips will see both sets of clips (hopefully)

and if they don't regularly follow politics the clips won't mean a lot to them other than seeing two political parties bantering back and forth. JMO.

[EffieBlack]

26. Exactly

The idea that suddenly, all of the people who haven't been paying attention until now will suddenly stop everything to watch Bob Mueller testify in the middle of the day and, based on his testimony, change their minds, is ridiculous.

It's certainly not going to change the minds of the people clamoring for his public testimony - they've already reached their conclusions.

Most of them just want a side show.

[ooky]

38. Yep. +1

[uponit7771]

31. "most people" don't watch anything, you know that and they'll would hear Mueller's words on the

... news and not the sophistry from Republicans who will tell their Clan anything.

The max effect from Mueller's appearance is just this ...

[ooky]

36. To be honest, regretably, I don't think most people even know who Mueller is

if you go out on the street and just start asking people randomly.

[uponit7771]

44. Of course most people don't know, most people knowing is not required and not important...

... getting the story out in Mueller's voice and word is in this context.

It's harder to distort if we have Mueller's words in Mueller's voice

[ooky]

46. I agree with you that most people knowing is not required.

[uponit7771]

28. +1

[spanone]

37. will we get a redacted version?

[ooky]

40. My understanding from listening to Nadler last night is unredacted.

[spanone]

41. we still don't have an unredacted version of his initial report.

pardon my cynicism

[ooky]

42. Its okay to be a cynic but the main reason we need his testimony is

is because we don't have an unredacted version of his original report.

[uponit7771]

45. +1, there's no reason to put anything past the Kremlin KKKlan at this point

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. +1,000,000

Then, Mueller says he was not allowed to finish his work

Then, everyone outraged

Then, they say well, we need corroboration, let's supoena Mueller staff.

Then, trump/Barr orders Mueller staff to defy subpoena

Then, still no impeachment and trump never held accountable

Meanwhile, no one has worked to protect the vote and Russia rolls out an improved 2020 interference plan and the monster returns

#No end game.

[standingtall]

6. Mueller has testified publicly in front of congress before

he ought to know how to deal with grandstanding congressmen. If he testifies in private you can be pretty sure those transcripts will be treated by republicans exactly the same way they treated his report.

[pnwmom]

9. He knows how to deal with them -- by not giving them the opportunity to grandstand.

He can make his opening statement, introducing himself and his work to the American public. And then he can go behind closed doors and talk frankly to the members of Congress who show up even without benefit of the cameras.

[standingtall]

12. I think republicans misrepresenting the transcripts of a private hearing

are a bigger problem then grandstanding in a public hearing. Plus there will not be any video clips of the most significant moments of the hearing ran and repeated on the nightly news in a private meeting therefore most of the public will not get the message. I think if he testifies in private it will be an absolute dud.

[uponit7771]

35. +1, they'll say Mueller admitted to crimes

[EffieBlack]

27. And he's also testified in closed sessions. He has more experience with this than anybody us

And he knows that a public hearing can turn into a spectacle.

[BigmanPigman]

8. It is due to Barr telling Mueller he couldn't indict him.

I saw Lawrence on MSNBC and former Gov Weld, who is in your article, told Lawrence that this is the reason he won't testify in public. It makes sense if you watch the clip at the link.


"And my reading of what happened behind closed doors — Bob Mueller’s report says we decided not to make a traditional prosecutive judgment because we really couldn’t. Translation, Bill Barr told me that he was going to squash any indictment I tried to bring against the president for obstruction,” he continued",
said Weld."

[Miles Archer]

14. The timing of everything is simply too damned "coincidental."

1). Barr arrives.

2). Mueller: "We're finished!"

I've never been a fan nor an advocate of "tinfoil hat" or "conspiracy" theories, but dear God...how did those two incidents neatly mesh themselves together within a period of days? One of the primary questions should be, and most likely will be, "Did Barr order you to end the investigation? Did he tell you that he'd squash an indictment if you called for one>"

It's a matter of what degree Mueller will go to in describing what actually happened with Barr.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. You are right...too much of a coincidence. And, dont

Get why Mueller didn't look at Trump's finances. So many things came up along the way and everyone said, oh no worries, Mueller's looking at that.

Yet, what I don't get is that Barr and Trump don't seem to be worried or trying overtly to stop him from testifying. Implies to me nothing horribly incriminating????

[Miles Archer]

18. One option is that if Mueller implicates Barr, Barr will simply deny it, and Trump will back him up

That's my "educated guess."

[Laura PourMeADrink]

22. Could be. And then I see subpoenas for Mueller

staff to corroborate. Dragging this all out even further.

[uponit7771]

39. +1, and Barr is a hack of hacks ... of course Barr would end the investigation and order no one tell

... or impeded an indictment.

I put nothing past Barr

[JHB]

10. "He's such a gentleman."

“I think what’s going on here is Bob is so straight, that he doesn’t necessarily want to say how the process has been perverted,” he suggested.

“And my reading of what happened behind closed doors — Bob Mueller’s report says we decided not to make a traditional prosecutive judgment because we really couldn’t. Translation, Bill Barr told me that he was going to squash any indictment I tried to bring against the president for obstruction,” he continued.

“That’s a dirty story,” he added.

“Bob Mueller doesn’t want to have to tell that on TV. I think that’s exactly what’s going on here,” he concluded. “He’s such a gentleman.”

Balk. Staying silent on such a thing forfeits "gentleman" status.

[JHB]

11. "Terribly sorry about the loss of your house and family, chap..."

"I saw the whole affair, rather spectacular fire, it was. But it would have been unseemly to go dashing off to alert the fire department. No gentleman should be seen looking like a lathered horse ridden hard and put away wet."

[StarfishSaver]

20. Or more accurately

"I saw the whole affair, rather spectacular fire, it was. I wanted to run to the fire department to report it, but I needed you and all the neighbors to see me do it and it was dark and everyone was asleep, so I just stayed at home. After all, why would any gentleman report a fire to the fire department if the entire neighborhood couldn't watch him as he did it?"

[EffieBlack]

30. ...

[uponit7771]

43. False dichotomy at best ... come on. People don't do the right thing to be seen but don't mind being

... seen doing the right thing.

The right thing is to tell the people in a way that will make it hard for the KGOP to distort.

[EffieBlack]

29. But he's not trying to stay silent

Just the opposite. He wants his words to matter and not get drowned out in a circus.

[kentuck]

13. If we can get a transcript later....

I would have no problem with that.

The Republicans on the Committee would make it a partisan circus. Without the TV cameras, he might be able to talk to them in an adult manner?

[DeminPennswoods]

16. It would be fun TV, but taking away the cameras does

eliminate the grand-standing that would surely be part of the GOP committee members questioning strategy. I hope Nadler would have committee counsel do the questioning. The CSPAN cameras could be used to broadcast Mueller's opening statement, then cut off.

I would like to be able to hear live audio, though. That would be cool for everyone to be in front of their radios listening. I do think at least a sketch artist and the AP and Reuters reporters should be allowed in to take notes acting as pool reporters.

Maybe at some point, Mueller even could be persuaded to do a live interview on "60 Minutes".

Once the transcript is out, think about the dramatic re-enactment possibilities. Robert DeNiro already has a pretty fair Mueller impersonation under his belt.

[UniteFightBack]

19. Mueller should stand up and tell the country just WTF IS GOING ON AT THE DOJ. nt

[kentuck]

21. The partisan divisions would overwhelm him.

His message would not get thru.

[UniteFightBack]

48. Well I'll take my chances. Did the message get through when he dumped his report? nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

23. Just noticed. He agrees to make an opening statement

Link to tweet

?s=20

[PRETZEL]

34. Hope that is true,

televised or not, if his opening statement is made public, he could put to rest before it happens the grandstanding by the GOP by laying out, without compromising what was redacted, the process by which he conducted the investigation and the reasoning why he followed OLC position not to indict a sitting president.

He could, if he wanted, make Barr look even more like the fool and tool he has become by stating that he was ordered by Barr (maybe through Rosenstein) to issue his report based only on existing evidence and to not make any further indictments or hand off any other cases to another federal district.

His opening statement could very easily answer alot of unanswered questions that many of us have.

[blueinredohio]

33. I don't like to watch the show boating kgop on television anyway.

[Hoyt]

47. I suspect Mueller is also worried about Dem "showboating" or someone nailing him.

I'm fine with a transcript, although I suspect Mueller will just beat around the bush. He's a Company Man.