The chairmen who held hearings last week for former special counsel Robert Mueller to detail his report’s findings defended the former FBI director’s testimony on Sunday, saying Mr. Mueller exposed how the president’s campaign cooperated with Russia and attempted to obstruct justice.
House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jerrold Nadler said he personally thinks the president committed impeachable offenses, but noted lawmakers need more evidence to bring forward to the American people that, according to a new poll, was left unmoved by the testimony.
The New York Democrat blamed Mr. Mueller’s declining to charge President Trump on a Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
“Anyone else who had done what he did would have been indicted for at least five different major crimes,” Mr. Nadler said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, California Democrat and chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, also said the hearings exposed Mr. Trump’s attempt to obstruct justice, telling NBC that House Democrats have entered a “potential impeachment” realm.
“I found his testimony chilling,” Mr. Schiff said during an appearance on “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Mueller’s performance during both committee hearings on Wednesday was described by Republicans as contradictory and confusing. Democrats had hoped for more powerful testimony from Mr. Mueller to bolster their impeachment inquiry into the president.
An ABC News/Ipsos American public opinion poll published Sunday found about 71% of Americans said they either watched or read about Mr. Mueller’s testimony detailing his more than 400-page report about the two-year investigation into Mr. Trump and his campaign.
But the results revealed that the testimony barely moved the needle, as 47% said their opinion on impeachment remained the same.
Meanwhile, although 27% said the testimony made them more likely to supporting impeaching Mr. Trump, 26% said it made them less likely to back the Democrats’ effort — essentially making the testimony a wash.
The online panel quizzed 577 people on Thursday and Friday and has an error margin of 4.5 percentage points.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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