Mueller’s Devastating Report Becomes Blah TV

If the Democrats’ goal in this morning’s Robert Mueller hearing was to make it clear to anyone willing to listen that Donald Trump’s claim of “total exoneration” was false, they certainly achieved it — and even got some headlines to that effect. CNN’s “Breaking News” chyron shortly after the hearings began read “Mueller: Trump Was Not Exonerated.”

Beyond that? Democrats did a better job than I had expected of coordinating and sticking to a script, which involved laying out, piece by piece, the obstruction case against President Trump. As expected, they uncovered nothing new, and got Mueller to say nothing new; indeed, they hardly tried, and Mueller said very little. Still, they scored extensive live television coverage of evidence that the president did things that appear criminal and impeachable. Judging from Twitter reactions, some reporters seemed to be learning things, even if those things were already in Mueller’s report.