RUSH: Look, folks, no matter how pathetic or feeble or weak or bad Robert Mueller appears, nobody ought to feel sorry for him. Not a single one of you, not a single person ought to feel sorry for Robert Mueller. This has been a pathetic display today. It is clear and obvious what has been going on.
The Democrat Party — led by Jerry Nadler and this committee — has been attempting to maneuver Mueller into saying, essentially, “I was hamstrung by Department of Justice guidelines. I couldn’t get the guy. You have to do it.” That’s what they wanted him to say. They wanted him to greenlight impeachment because the polling data on it is so opposed to it, and he won’t do it. I don’t think Mueller knows where he is today. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But it is obvious Robert Mueller has never been more than a figurehead in this investigation, exactly as I laid out yesterday.
His name is on the letterhead. He’s the rainmaker. He’s the guy that gives it all of this honor and all of this integrity. Meanwhile, his 15 Hillary Clinton-donor investigators did the work. He doesn’t know what’s in his report. He doesn’t instinctively know what’s in the report. Not even specifically, per se, he doesn’t know. He has to have it read to him! In fact, he is so unfamiliar with it that he has signaled to the Democrats before this all began today that he will not read from it. He told them.
That’s another thing they wanted. They wanted Mueller to read from the report so that it looked like they weren’t. They wanted Mueller to read from the report so it would have the appearance of nonpartisanship. Mueller told them before it began. I’ve got the story right here. “Mueller’s Team Indicates to Democrats He Will Not Read Text of Report if Asked.” Why? You saw why! He may not be able to read it. He obviously could not read it with any indication that he knows what he’s reading. That’s why they didn’t let him read it, because he’s not familiar with it.
It’s why there were no questions permitted in his little eight-minute press conference back in June. It’s why some of these answers today have just been the feeblest excuse. I have never seen a setting where the witness gets to determine what they will say, what they will answer, and what they won’t — and I don’t think anybody else has, either. But it’s clear that what the Democrats wanted today was for Mueller to trigger impeachment, and it may yet happen. There’s still a number of hours of this to go before a different committee this afternoon (little Pencil Neck’s committee) will take over.
I’ll just let you in on something: I won’t be surprised if Mueller steps in it inadvertently at some point today. I don’t know how. I’m not gonna give you an exact prediction of how that would manifest itself. But this guy is so clueless and so unaware, and I don’t know who these fossils are sitting behind him, but he’s obviously got some caretakers there that are ready to pounce and jump at the slightest sign that it’s going off the rails. I think they’ve probably been close a couple of times. But remember what this is.
There’s two things this is, aside from all the details that we can get into here. The Democrats know that polling data on impeachment is a nonstarter. The American people in the latest Fox News poll and any number of places, do not want impeachment proceedings. A Fox News poll out today: 49% of the American people said it didn’t matter what Mueller says, their opinion is not gonna change on collusion or obstruction. No matter what he says. The Democrats know that the American people have tuned out of this.
I think, by this time, the American people are tired of hearing about Don McGahn, for example. They don’t care about Don McGahn! They don’t even know who Don McGahn is. The Democrats focused on Don McGahn for two to three hours, every Democrat question! So what they wanted Mueller to do here was to trigger impeachment, because he’s the one that brings his reputation, this unassailable reputation of honor and integrity. Great American patriotism! If he had any honor or integrity, he wouldn’t have taken this job, and I mean that.
They want to impeach; the American people don’t want it. They were hoping that Mueller would say something along the lines of, “Look, Justice Department guidelines say I couldn’t indict this guy. You have to do it!” He didn’t say that. That is what they wanted said. There’s another aspect of this. In a strict analytical sense (before getting into the specific characteristics of Mueller, his answers, his testimony), the overall theme of this thing today has been flawed from the beginning. It was destined to fail from the beginning, because the Democrats have been trying to create an alternate reality here.
They have been proceeding… The Democrats — every single one of them, with their questions, every one — have been proceeding on the assumption than that happened that didn’t happen. The basis for all of their questions of Mueller was that Trump is guilty of crimes, but that Mueller was hamstrung by regulations and couldn’t charge him. They have been assuming that Trump is guilty of crimes. They have sought confirmation of that from Mueller, that Trump is guilty of crimes. There’s a big problem here, though. Trump is not guilty of crimes.
Trump has not been charged with anything. Trump did not stop the investigation. Trump did not fire Mueller. He did not deny anybody talking to Mueller. He furnished multiple thousands, hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. There was no impedance of this investigation. There was no attempt to stop it. It went on for over two years. There are no charges because there are no crimes. The Democrats have come up against a brick wall of reality. They tried to crash through a brick wall today, and they had a head-on collision with the wall, and they lost.
Assuming Trump is guilty of crimes, they have sought confirmation of that via the staging of their questions and the hoped-for answers from Mueller. But because Trump has not committed any crimes, because Trump has not been charged with anything, that truth cannot be obscured. That truth cannot be erased. That truth cannot be overwritten. Yet that is what the Democrats’ mission today is. The Democrats are trying to create an alternative reality where Trump is guilty, but can’t be charged because he’s president.
They tried to create the illusion that Mueller proved that Trump is guilty but that he can’t charge him because he’s sitting in office. It has been pathetic. It is… The Republicans, I… There was a question off-camera toward the end of the hearings right as the program was starting, and it was a Republican asking a question of the chairman, Jerry Nadler. “Mr. Chairman, was the purpose of this hearing today to trigger impeachment?” (sputtering) “I’m not gonna dignify that. (muttering) I’m not a… The witnesses answer the questions; I’m not a witness! I’m not… (muttering)
“You can’t ask me that question. I’m the chairman. You who you are.” He didn’t want to do or have anything to do with that. Now some other observations here before we go to the break. It was obvious from the get-go that Robert Mueller has trouble. I don’t know what it is. He’s either uninformed or he’s incapacitated somehow. I don’t care which it is. I don’t care if he’s feeble, incapacitated. I don’t even care if this was a strategy to obfuscate. I don’t think it was. The Democrats are now hoping that this was a strategery to delay and not answer questions.
I think it is obvious Mueller has not been part of this at all, as I stated eloquently and succinctly yesterday. He’s been a figurehead designed to give it the imprimatur of integrity and honor and justice and decency. This investigation has been run by the staff. This investigation, all of it, has been run by Andrew Weissmann and 14 other Hillary Clinton donors. Participating in this staff were Strzok Smirk and Lisa Page, the text lovers openly admitting their hatred for Trump and their desire to sabotage the election so that he didn’t win.
They were part of that investigation team until that news leaked and Mueller had to fire them. Mueller knew all of this and… Well, I don’t know what Mueller knew. I frankly don’t. He may not have known this. He may not have known who these people are, in terms of their political persuasion, which I doubt. If anybody thinks that Mueller got rolled here, don’t. He’s part of this. He’s part of the silent coup effort to get Trump. But he’s reached an age and a station in life where it’s not expected that he’s gonna work 9-to-5.
He doesn’t have the energy for it, doesn’t have the stamina. The body of his career is behind him. He’s earned this status of figurehead. It’s the way Washington works! It’s the way a lot of big-time corporations work. It’s the way a lot of law firms work. During the first break in the hearing today, I was interested to see what the media take was. So I quickly channel surfed around, and there was nervousness wherever. On CNN, Jeffrey Toobin was apoplectic. He was asking Wolf Blitzer (as though Wolf Blitzer would know), “Was this just a strategy or does Mueller really…? (mutters)
“Is he really out of it like this? He’s not…? I mean, he can’t hear, he doesn’t know what he’s being asked, he doesn’t seem to know what’s in his own report? Is this a strategy? I…” They’re hoping it was a strategy, but it’s not a strategy. Mueller is not there. Mueller has never been there. Why do you think…? What witness gets an attorney at one of these things like they asked for yesterday? He needed a security blanket sitting next to him during the hearing today — and not to testify. His cohort was not gonna testify. He was there to run interference should it be necessary.
Now, Robert Mueller in this hearing… I’m gonna openly say it: He lied. He openly lied a whole lot of times about something that’s very crucial here. In the Democrats’ effort to crash through the wall of reality — in the Democrat effort to create this alternative reality that Trump committed crimes, that Trump is guilty, that Trump ought to go, that the only reason he can’t be charged is because he’s president — Mueller said a number of times (sputtering), “Well, you know, we… we’ve got the guidelines. Uh, the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines that says that we can’t indict a sitting president,” which is all true. You can’t.
Mueller tried to leave the impression that that’s the only reason Trump was not charged with obstruction: The Office of Legal Counsel guidelines. However, how many of you remember William Barr, the attorney general, in both written statements and in interviews has said that Robert Mueller… They asked him when he submitted the report! Barr and others in the DOJ asked him, “If it weren’t for the OLC guidelines, would you have charged on obstruction?” And they said that Mueller said, “No.”
In other words, the attorney general issued a written statement and numerous other times verbally said that, quote, “Bob told us…” Bob Mueller. “Bob told us…” They’re all friends. They know each other. “Bob told us that the office of legal guidelines had nothing to do with his decision not to make a decision.” Yet Mueller is lying through his teeth today saying that the only reason they couldn’t make charges was because of the OLC guidelines that you can’t indict a sitting president. Go back! We’ll find it. Mueller has told Barr numerous times that the OLC guidelines had nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t make a decision.
Some of the Republicans did a great job today in some of the questioning. We have audio sound bites to illustrate this. One of the great points that was made was (summarized), “Our legal system does not ‘exonerate’ people. You either charge ’em or you shut up. It’s not your job.” CNN’s headline since the last 45 minutes has been one thing: “Mueller: Trump Not Exonerated.” That’s all they got from today, and that’s not new. That is old news, and that’s all they got. “Trump Not Exonerated.” Well, guess what? Our legal system does not exonerate people.
The purpose of a prosecutor is not to find evidence the guy didn’t do it. You can’t do that. The perp is considered innocent. The prosecution has to prove guilt. If they can’t, they don’t get to run around saying, “We can’t exonerate.” In other words, “We think the guy did it. We don’t have any evidence. You should look at him as guilty.” They can’t do that. That is what Mueller did all day today. It’s what the Democrats and the media are now saying happened today. CNN is quoting Mueller, “Yeah, we didn’t indict because of the Office of Legal Counsel regulations.”
That’s not what Barr has said, and I don’t know if Mueller even remembers telling Barr that, but Barr is on record a number of times. Now, one of the interesting things is that Mueller had no idea of the basic principles of justice that I just outlined here. Republicans continually hammered him on this very concept, that there’s no such thing as “exoneration,” that you don’t get to investigate somebody for two years and find nothing to charge them with and then get to run around and say you didn’t exonerate ’em. You don’t get to say that!
And they asked Mueller about that and he just seemed clueless. This has nothing to do with the report. It has nothing to do with areas he can’t talk about. This is pure, 101, jurisprudence. He made it look like today he didn’t get it, didn’t understand it. He really looked bad to the people who know with the structure of the criminal justice system. There’s another thing I found fascinating too. Did you notice…? Those of you who watched, did you notice how many times Mueller seemed to not understand when his report was being read to him? He said (sputtering), “Could give me citation?” “From your report, Mr. Mueller.”
“Oh, oh, I… (muttering) I stand by it! (muttering) It’s mostly accurate, then, if it’s in the report.” “Wait a minute. You’re saying you don’t know what’s in this?” “Well, I was telling what’s in the report’s mostly accurate. I can’t go outside the, uhhh… (sputtering) I can’t go outside the, uhhh, purview! I… (mumbling) My purview, I can’t… I can’t do that.” Let me tell you one of the reasons why he didn’t understand the stuff as it was read to him, ’cause this thing is so horribly written. It is written purposefully to confuse. This report is just reeking with double negatives. I don’t know about you.
When I read something or listen to somebody speak in double negatives, I have to stop, especially when I read it. I have to stop and restructure the sentence to get rid of one of the double negatives so that I understand. Mueller has no chance of understanding what’s being read back to him from this report because it’s filled with double negatives, and it’s designed to confuse anybody reading it. And of course, the more negatives you can put in, the more creation of assumption of guilt that you can get away with, which is what the authors of this report purposefully did.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: For those of you that did not have a chance to watch or listen, do you know that Robert Mueller refused to answer questions about Russian meddling in the election? You heard me right. He refused to answer! He was asked a question, “Mr. Mueller, are you aware of any votes being changed as a result of Russia’s attempt to meddle in our election?” (sputtering) “Uh, that’s beyond my purview. I… (muttering) Other people, uh, other investigations are looking into that. (muttering) I, uh, uh, uh… I, uh… No, I — I am not able to answer. I… I…”
“So you can’t answer questions about Russian meddling in the election when that’s the only reason that your investigation was opened!” Let me give you an answer to the question that Mueller obviously doesn’t know. No votes were changed! The outcome of not a single election was affected by Russian meddling. You know who said so? Rod Rosenstein, announcing the indictments of the 13 Russian troll farms.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, let me repeat this with a little bit more time. Robert Mueller was asked if Russian meddling resulted in any votes be changed or any election outcome being altered. He refused to answer. (impression) “I, uh… I… I… Uh, it’s beyond the purview of the question! I… I… I can’t go there.” I forget who the Republican was asking the questions, but he was incredulous. He said, “Wait a minute, you can’t talk about Russian meddling?” (muttering) “It’s beyond the purview. Could you read the citation for me? Uhhh, uh, could you repeat the question!”
They repeat the question, and it’s filled with in double negatives. He still doesn’t know what he’s being asked. Folks, he even admitted that this was an investigation that was not run from top down. He admitted that he was… If you knew how to hear this and listen, he knew he was not engaged. This was a classic no-show job that he had, but I don’t feel sorry for him. I don’t feel sorry for him in the slightest. They’re even… You know, Democrats are tweeting sympathy. What a great hero he’s been! What a wonderful man they knew! Blah, blah, blah.
They’re treating him like he’s somebody they don’t recognize anymore, because this performance today was a shock to the Democrats. I’ll tell you this. I will guarantee you that if there were a really bright, single Democrat leader, they would cancel Schiff’s committee hearing this afternoon. They wouldn’t risk it. They wouldn’t risk another three hours, ’cause who knows what he may step in going forward. They wanted this guy to trigger impeachment. They wanted this guy to admit that Trump is guilty but that he couldn’t charge him; Congress has to do it.
He wouldn’t do it, she Democrats have been mortally let down because of this. But back to this business about Russian interference. Not only did he refuse to answer that question, he was repeatedly asked about the Trump Tower meeting. You know, the 15-minute meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and Corey Lewandowski and some other people (and the Russian honeypot, Veselnitskaya). They tried to make a big obstruction case and collusion case out of that meeting.
Republicans all morning said, “Well, do you know who Veselnitskaya is, Mr. Mueller? Do you know who Glenn Simpson is, Fusion GPS? They’re the people that hired Christopher Steele to create this false document called the dossier on Trump.” Mueller is clueless. “Before the Trump Tower meeting, the Russian honeypot meets with Glenn Simpson, and after the meeting she meets with Glenn Simpson. She got instructions before the meeting how to conduct, how to entrap, and then after the meeting she had another meeting with Simpson, Fusion GPS, to report how it had gone.”
Mueller refused to comment.
(stammering) “It’s outside my purview! (mumbling) I… I… I… Other people are handling that part of the investigation. I… I… I… I… Could you read that back to me? I… Uh, what’s the cite?” So you’ve got a 15-minute meeting that’s got 45 pages written about it in the Mueller report, and the minutes before and after he won’t talk about! You know why? ‘Cause he doesn’t know! I will bet you. You know, we assume that everybody in Washington knows at least what we do. We think they probably know more. They are the swamp. They run everything! This guy, I really question how much he knows about Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson.
It is clear that his investigators didn’t go anywhere near it. It is clear his investigators purposefully avoided all aspects of Hillary Clinton campaign collusion with Russia, and I don’t know that this guy watches the news or reads newspapers. If all he reads is the New York Times and Washington Post, I’ll guarantee you he does not know about Fusion GPS. He doesn’t know about these things, and he was totally bamboozled by questions. (sputtering) “Well, that’s outside the purview! I, uhhh…” These things are in the report!
Fusion GPS is in the report.
Veselnitskaya is in the report.
He refuses to answer questions about it. Now, you could say that he’s doing all this on purpose ’cause he didn’t want to give the Republicans ammo; he was there simply to help the Democrats. I guess there may be a strain of that. That’s possible. But on this business of Russian interference and Russian meddling? It was when they announced the indictments of these 13 Russian troll farms. It was Rosenstein that went out and announced the indictments. Now, these indictments were interesting because they were made to create the illusion that there was Russian meddling in the election.
They indicted these 13 Russian troll farms knowing they would never be prosecuted, knowing that the Russians would never extradite these people that had been accused. These were just joke public relations indictments designed to make the Office of Special Counsel look like they had established collusion. When Rosenstein went out to announce these indictments — and nobody reported this, but he mentioned it at the end of his press conference. He stressed it, and the media totally ignored it. He stressed in none of these indictments is an American citizen alleged to have been involved.
In none of these indictments are we alleging that a single vote has been changed. In none of these indictments are we suggesting that the outcome of any election was affected. So Mueller’s boss, Rosenstein, publicly announced that no votes were changed, no election outcomes were altered. Mueller refused to answer the question. “Well, that’s outside my… Uh, the purview. I can’t go… (sputtering) I’m not gonna go there. I’m not answering that. Uhnhhh, there are people Department of Justice looking. I can’t compromise any other investigation.”
It’s not about anybody’s other investigation. It’s yours! So does he not know? Does he not know that no votes were changed? I mean, to not answer the question! You gotta know! If you’re running the investigation about Trump colluding with Russia, don’t you think that it’s a fundamental bit of information as to whether or not the Russians tampered with any elections, changed any votes, or altered the outcome of any election? Mueller purports not to know or to claim it’s outside the purview of the hearing?
It was really pathetic.
You know, I look at these Democrats, folks. They routinely try to destroy innocent people — Kavanaugh, Robert Bork, Trump. They protect people like Hillary Clinton, where there is a mountain of evidence that, in her case, she violated the Espionage Act a minimum of 50 times. We’re looking at a party here today that is dangerously corrupt. But I wouldn’t feel sorry for the confused or feeble or out-of-it or stonewalling Robert Mueller, just like I don’t feel sorry for anybody named Christine Blasey Ford or any of these other phony baloneys that the Democrats trot out and try to portray as big-time victims.
They literally attempted today in a couple of questions by the Democrats to make Mueller a victim of Trump. “He wanted to fire you, didn’t he! He was telling people to fire you, wasn’t he? He was instructing people to not flip and not to… He really wanted to screw you, didn’t he?” (impression) “Well, I… I… (sputtering) Uh, it’s an interpretation, maybe… Uh, it’s not in the purview. Uh, if it’s in the report, then I stand by it. If it’s not in the report, well, then, I’m… I’m not gonna go there.” The Democrat Party proceeded today under the assumption that something happened that didn’t.
They have been assuming it. Their attitude, the narrative all day that they operated on and attempted to create was that Trump is guilty of crimes and that were he not president, he would have been charged. But the problem is reality. Trump is not guilty because he has not been charged. There is no such thing in the American criminal justice system as “exoneration.” You don’t investigate to find somebody not guilty and then you don’t go out and say, “We can’t exonerate because…” Well, wait a minute. You didn’t charge. You didn’t find any evidence.
Again, a really salient point: Mueller multiple times today said the only reason they didn’t come to a decision on whether to charge obstruction was because of the guidelines from the Office of Legal Counsel saying you cannot indict a sitting president. Attorney General Barr has written and stated multiple times that he asked “Bob” multiple times, “Is the OLC guideline the only reason you didn’t indict?” Mueller said, “Oh, no. No. We… Even if there weren’t the guidelines, we wouldn’t have indicted.” You’re gonna play hell finding that today in the Drive-By Media, but it’s absolutely the case.