The significance of Mueller's testimony yesterday is that Democrats got the sound bites they sought. Those damning sound bites will be replayed again and again that exposed the Trump party line relaying Mueller's findings as lies and deception to non-Trump media viewers and listeners. The proceedings and House Democrats reading directly from the Mueller report and Mueller's oral verification and confirmation are now part of the Congressional record forever available to the public and future historians.
The fat lady has not sung on this chapter of the Trump era. Mueller revealed FBI investigations into Trump and his circle concerning financial crimes and other counter-intelligence issues are still ongoing. House Democrats have already seen legislation to improve security measures against foreign nations attacking voter systems defeated by Senate stonewalling, but they may yet double down on their efforts to craft more legislation. House Democrats are weighing options about launching an impeachment inquiry in order to force key administration officials to obey their subpoenas. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes there is still a need to develop an even stronger case for impeachment than just relying on the evidence of the Mueller report. As it stands now, any impeachment referral to the Senate dominated by the GOP would find a dead end with votes along party lines.
The GOP House members in the July 24 hearing failed to contradict the facts and evidence of the Mueller report, but they tried to paint a picture of an anti-Trump bias of Mueller's staff that portrayed the negatives and neglected offsetting information,. They were attempting to "kill the messenger", if not the message. The GOP will be diverting attention from the substance of findings via Senate probes into the origins and bias of the Mueller report. Given the credibility of Mueller himself as just the facts person and his 400 plus pages of well-documented evidence, the GOP approach will appear as self-serving if they fail to find substantive evidence to show how any bias affected Mueller's fact-finding.
That Fox listeners will get these damning sound bites is yet to be seen, but for viewers of other media who may be fence-sitters and still questioning who is telling the truth, this may have some impact in helping them realize Trump and his supporters have misled or lied to them about what was in the report. Mueller directly contradicted the White House party line in six critical areas:
Mueller, a reluctant and no-drama witness, answered most questions in monotonous tones and one syllables as the Democrats read passages from his written report .and asked if Mueller agreed with his own words contained in the report. Mueller, when he did not confirm those contents with a yes or no, avoided drama by referring the questioner to the written version or refused to answer within the muzzled boundaries of the Attorney General's edicts. The advantage of one-syllable answers, though, is that there were no shades of gray and few modifiers attached to the answers. However, confirmed much which contradicted what Trump and his devoted followers have been told. Chief among them1) Trump was not exonerated of obstruction; 2) Per Mueller, the investigation into Russian active measures in 2016 was no witch hunt or a hoax; it was sweeping and systematic; 3) The Russians could do it again in 2020; 4) there were many examples of Trump and his cohorts lying about contacts with Russians, evidence and facts that went unchallenged by the GOP; 5) Russians interfered on behalf of electing Trump; 6) Examples of Trump's attempts to obstruct justice and the facts and evidence were not challenged by the GOP, but Trump was never indicted due to a rule against indicting a sitting president.
