House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned Democrats to show “a level of calmness” at next week’s highly anticipated appearance by former special counsel Robert Mueller, who will testify before two committees on July 17.
“As we go into next week, I’d like to have a level of calmness, no drama, regarding the Mueller presentation,” Pelosi told rank-and-file Democrats at a closed-door meeting Thursday. “The very fact that he is presenting is what we want, so many more people will be aware of the charges that are in the Mueller report.”
Mueller is scheduled to testify before both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. Each panel is expected to have approximately two hours to grill Mueller about his 448-page report into whether the Trump 2016 presidential campaign colluded with the Russians.
Democrats are unhappy with the time constraints, which have forced the committee leaders to limit who can ask questions and for how long. They also have a history of theatrics.
At a recent hearing featuring no-show Attorney General William Barr, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., positioned a bucket of fried chicken on the desk in front of the empty witness chair. Democrats recently held a hearing featuring an ex-convict from the Watergate scandal in an effort to link it to the Trump administration.
Pelosi told Democrats to avoid such a show. She said that Mueller’s mere presence will provide more exposure to the public about the report, which was publicly released on April 18.
“It is valuable” to have Mueller talk about the report in public, Pelosi said, “Because 3% of the public say they’ve read it, which means it’s polling like .03% of the public. It is devastating, it is pointing out how the president has obstructed justice really so many times.”
Democrats are eager to question Mueller about Trump’s efforts to obstruct his investigation, which Mueller references several times in part of the report.
Republicans want to question Mueller about his handling of the investigation and when he determined that there is no substantive evidence Trump colluded with the Russians.
