After Mueller Show, Democrats Likely No Closer to Impeachment

Former special counsel Robert Mueller's reticent testimony to Congress likely confirmed what many Democrats had feared: if they want to end Donald Trump's presidency, their best bet is next year's elections, not impeachment.

Mueller's highly-anticipated appearance Wednesday at back-to-back House hearings delivered neither the viral moments nor the bombshell soundbites that the anti-Trump crowd hoped would persuade skeptics or overwhelmingly reshape public opinion.

The contents of Mueller's remarks were damning, several Democrats said, noting the former FBI director's statements that the two-year investigation of Russian election interference was "not a witch hunt," and indeed found substantial evidence of obstruction of justice.

But after Mueller's flat one-word answers, seeming confusion about questions and refusal to produce new information, hopes that the performance would launch lawmakers on a path to impeachment had dimmed.

"I'm not going to talk about that issue," Mueller said repeatedly when asked about impeachment, a remark underscoring Democrats' growing realization that elections are now the most likely way Trump's administration ends.

Next year's vote "is unquestionably the only way he gets removed from office, so we can never lose sight of that," House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who presided over one of Mueller's hearings, said Thursday.

As for impeachment, "I'm not there yet, but I'm keeping an open mind," he told CNN.

Even Democrat Al Green, who forced an unsuccessful House vote on articles of impeachment last week following Trump's racially charged attacks on four liberal congresswomen, acknowledged Mueller's appearance fell short of expectations.

"There was no 'aha' moment because we've had the report and watched or discussed the President's impeachable actions ad nauseum," Green said on Twitter.

Congresswoman Karen Bass, an impeachment skeptic, call the hearing "an important step forward," but said, "It didn't change me."

"I think that we need to get further down the line" with ongoing House investigations, she said. "I also think that all of our leaders need to be on the same page."

- Against impeachment -

They aren't. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, reportedly rebuffed a behind-closed-doors impeachment push by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler after Mueller's testimony.

Pelosi convened a caucus-wide meeting where she said it was premature to draft articles of impeachment, Politico reported, citing sources familiar with the discussions.

For months, Pelosi has tamped down impeachment calls, arguing the case should be iron clad before lawmakers launch such a divisive process, especially given the likelihood it would die in the Republican-led Senate.

Several 2020 presidential candidates support impeachment, including senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand.

But Pelosi is concerned about public opinion polling showing that most Americans are against impeachment, and has said unsuccessful proceedings would allow Trump to claim exoneration, boosting his re-election bid.

But she made clear that she was not shutting the door, saying, "If we have a case for impeachment, that's the place we will have to go."

- 'Probably a wash' -

Meanwhile, Pelosi is strongly backing House investigations of Trump and his administration, and is monitoring several court cases which could provide potentially damning new evidence and testimony from the White House.

So did Mueller's performance move the needle?

"I think it was probably a wash," Robert Shapiro, a professor of political science at Columbia University, told AFP.

But while Democrats "succeeded" in getting Mueller to present the report's damning facts, it was not as good a day for them as they had hoped, he added.

Mueller's shaky performance means Democrats "can't proceed at an accelerated pace toward impeachment, which some Democrats might have wanted to do," Shapiro added.

Those on both sides of the impeachment debate will closely watch upcoming polls to see how American voters perceived Mueller's hours in the spotlight, he said.