just three things to take away on that tonight which we have just learned. on the matters of what appears to be now an ongoing investigation by the special counsel into the president of the united states and whether he obstructed justice. three things to take away. first, if the white house ultimately doesn't like what robert mueller the special counsel concludes about the president, we now know they are going to have a hard time smearing robert mueller the way they are, for example, right now smeari ining james comey. they'll have a hard time smearing bob mueller the same way. not just because of bob mueller's hard-earned reputation as a public servant. they'll have a hard time smearing bob mueller because npr reports that the trump white house actually went through the motions of maybe hiring bob mueller themselves. they considered hiring bob mueller when they were looking for a replacement fbi director after the president fired james comey. so in the end, they may end up