I said, bob, whats with the letter . Senator cory booker on why he is now for beginning impeachment proceedings. How Mitch Mcconnell and the white house are leaving americas elections unguarded in 2020. There were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every american. All in starts right now. Good evening from new york. For the first and possibly the last time, special Counsel Robert Mueller spoke in his own voice about his findings and told congress and the American People in so many words, i have done what i can. Its up to you now. It was an unmistakable rebuke to bill barr who in bad faith misrepresented the report to clear the president in a way mueller did and never intended to. Mueller stressed his teams inability either to clear the president of a crime, since there was so much evidence of his criminality and like wise inability to charge him because they were barred by department of justice policy. Ultimately, his appearance before the cameras represented a kind of passing of the constitutional baton from muellers office to congress, which mueller noted pointedly has the ability to formally accuse the president of wrongdoing. As set forth notice report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. It explains that under Longstanding Department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. The opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal Justice System to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. Mueller reiterated at times almost verbatim the Main Findings of his report, the russians engaged in an attack to sabotage the American Election and help trump get elected. That mueller was unable to establish sufficient evidence to charge members of the Trump Campaign or u. S. Persons with criminal conspiracy with that effort despite evidence that they actively encourage and sought out that help from the russians. And that the president and the people around him actively sought to obstruct the inquiry into the russian governments illegal help to the Trump Campaign. As alleged by the grand jury in an indictment, russian Intelligence Officers who were part of the Russian Military launched an attack on our political system. The indictment alleges they used cyber techniques to hack into computers and networks used by the clinton campaign. They stole private information and then released that information through fake online and identities and through the Organization WiOrganization Wikileaks. It was design aed and timed to damage a president ial candidate. The matters we investigated were of paramount importance. It was critical to obtain full and Accurate Information from every person we questioned. When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the governments effort to find the truth and hold wrong doers accountable. Robert mueller said he doesnt want to testify to congress. He is returning to private life and said his peace. Its in the report. It does raise the question for everyone, what to do with a clearly lawless president , with a president who as illustrated in the report in depth and detail obstructed justice, a president who cannot be criminally charged according to mueller and a president who theoretically can break any law he wants Going Forward so long as 34 senators decide to stick with him. They say, i have most loyal people. Did you see that . I could stand in the middle of fifth avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldnt lose any voters. Okay . Its incredible. The president s hefrnchmen a women lied. A journalist who wrote the book on Robert Mueller tweeted today, mueller is in his own muellerlike way screaming for president ial impeachment proceedings. He is too respectful to say it as directly as america and Congress Needs him to say it. Its hard to argue. Reading between the lines, mueller came before the American People and said, the president is a criminal and theres not a damn thing i can do about it, but congress can. Joining me now for more on the Public Statement are Walter Dellinger and frank figluci. Frank, let me start with you. Were in a position where we have the mans words, butfully intended to remain neutral. What is your read of what he did today, the intent and purpose . If you know mueller, you know that today was remarkable for him. By that i mean, he had to make the decision that he would go outside the system, he would not testify before congress, he would not file a written report, he would stand inside the department of justice and make his own statement and take control. And that for him is remarkable. His measured tone, which frustrates many today, im sure, needs to be read through the lens of mueller, which is that he was openly and publically rebuking the attorney general of the United States and the way in which his work muellers work has been characterized by that attorney general. I also have many, many questions, chris, tonight, which is how we even got to this point. Yep. By that i mean, theres a fundamental disconnect thats apparent between the rules that mueller was playing by and the rules that attorney general barr was playing by. It would be like me inviting you to a Football Game and you show up with a soccer ball. We didnt coordinate what we meant. I believe that mueller may have been played here by barr. You are nodding your head, walter. Do you agree . I do. Finally today, mueller seems to have come to the realization that surprisingly American Public officials dont read and dont read a report. I think what was most telling was what he chose to say in a little more than two pages out of a 440plus page report. He, i think, decided to really slam down on the fact that we did not exonerate the president , we could not find that he was innocent, we could not under the rules declare him to be guilty, we could declare him to be innocent, but we did not have any basis for doing so. I think he also underscored the seriousness of the crimes. This is not a president who is lying about a sexual encounter. This is a Russian Military attack on the countrys democratic processes and efforts by a president of the United States to obstruct that investigation. Theres some you just highlighted the sort of choice here. Theres weird things going on thats driving me insane. Barr said, you know, you either charge or dont charge. They didnt charge. Thats that. It seems like mueller is saying, no, no, no, we could exonerate. We could say theres not sufficient effort to charge him. They did say that in volume one. We cant do the opposite. We cannot charge the president , we cannot say the president committed crimes, here is an indictment, were making a determination on this report that he did that. The absence of that was taken by barr to be like, well, thats that. Mueller seems to be reiterating today, frank, no, the absence of that is to congress to basically do. Yeah. I have to look at the report im sorry, frank. Go ahead. I was going to say, thats the key takeaway is that this cant be read as anything other than a referral for impeachment for congress to do what they need to do. Mueller couldnt have said it any plainer today. Walter . If you look back at the report, he sets out in clear detail with testimony from the white House Counsel, the white house chief of staff and their deputies that the president tried to have the head of the investigation fired for no reason, there was no plausible conflict. And that he instructed the white House Counsel to make a false document and to keep that document on file denying the president had done just what i have said. Its incredibly damaging. Its overwhelming. How could you not proceed against a chief executive who had undermined the system of justice in such a profound investigation as this . What do you think happens now, frank, in terms mueller said, look, this is my last word. I dont want to say anything else about this. He is a private citizen. If he is subpoenaed, he would go. This also seemed to me a warning shot to congress, you are not going to get much out of me if you pull me up to the hill. Yeah. This is a man who is saying, you have to read the report. You are not reading the report. If you did, you would understand what im saying. Im not going to say much more than that. I have to tell you, theres still value in questioning him if he will simply be forthcoming. We need to get in the weeds about what was communicated and transpired between doj and mueller. And what shaped his thinking with regard to not doing certain things. By the way, another statement that came up today in muellers nine minute was that the decision as to what of his work product is going to get released is being done completely without his team. He threw that in there. Its important because every sentence is important. Understand notes, surveillance logs, legal memos and opinions, all are now in the hands of who . Attorney general barr who gets to decide what congress and the American People will see. Walter, you worked at olc. Do you have what do you think about the sitting precedent that he referred to about the president not being indictable . Well, i think its a mistake. I think the unraveling of this shows its a mistake. Putting a president on trial would be an undo interference with his executive powers, but indicting would clarify the circumstance. In defense of the policy of mueller, mueller wants you to know that whether something is technically a crime has little to do with whether it ought to be the kind of wrongdoing which should lead to impeachment, which is more profound. I thought his use of that word, its only congress that can formally accuse a president of wrongdoing, accuse a president of wrongdoing, was an interesting choice of words. Not of a crime. Not of violating a statute. Of wrongdoing. Walter and frank, thank you both. Joining me now, democratic congressman joe nigoose. One of two freshmen on the House Democratic team. Thanks for having me on. A degree with yo i agree with your prior guests. Its hard not to see it as anything other than an impeachment referral. He believes the next step is one for congress to take. I believe that we ought to take that next step and open and impeachment inquiry. I want to play for you what jerry nadler had to say. In response to mueller. Take a listen. With respect to impeachment questions, all options are on the table and nothing should be ruled out. What special counsel mueller said today for the American People is that President Trump is lying when he says no collusion, no obstruction and that he was exonerated. If mueller wanted to exonerate the president from having committed a crime, he would have said so. Instead, and he says he would have said so. I have known congressman nadler for a while. I have interviewed him a number of times. I saw a man who was being very careful in staying within the boundaries of what the current position of house leadership and the speaker of the house is, which is we are not moving forward with impeachment at this moment. Look, chris, im not going to speak for the chairman. I agreed with his statement, particularly with respect to what he said regarding the special counsel and the fact that out of a 500page report, special counsel clearly also chooses his words carefully and decided to pull out several pieces that i think are of great importance to the American Public. With respect to your underlying question regarding where the caucus is, i would say we are a big tent party. We are diverse. Represent different areas of country. We will have differences of opinion with respect to policy and overnight. There are some of us on the Judiciary Committee who feel likeinquiry is prudent. Part of that is because we have been closest in terms of witnessing the obstruction. The subpoenas that have been ignored by this department of justice were issued by our committee, the Judiciary Committee. We have an obligation in terms of those members on the committee who believe that opening an inquiry is the right next step to educate our other members to talk with them about why we reached that conclusion. People will reach their own decisions. You are someone who i think has come has evolved in your thinking on this. Can you sort of just speak to the degree to which your own process has sort of evolved over time . Sure. Look, i believed in reading the report, its clear certainly to me, that the president engaged in impeachable offenses. Representative amash articulated that well. I think there were a number of us that wanted to be able to ultimately review the underlying evidence, to hear from the special counsel directly, to hear from some of the fact witnesses. So were proceeding on a meth method methodical panel. It became clear this administration was going to continue obstruction thats revealed in the report by obstructing and impeding congress in terms of preventing us from being able to get to the bottom of it. Both the findings in the report coupled with the pattern of obstruction the administration engaged in since led me to the conclusion that we needed to open a formal inquiry. I believe many others over the course of the last seven days, you have seen a number of different members of the caucus, you saw a number just today in response to the special counsels very Important Press conference this morning, also joining that call. Congressman in colorado, thank you very much. Thank you. Still to come, the calls to begin the impeachment proceedings. Cory booker on what he heard from mueller today that changed his mind. He joins me in two minutes. He joins me in two minutes. Or trips to mars. 4. 95. Delivery drones or the latest phones. 4. 95. 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I can schedule a time for them to call me back, its great you have our number programmed in . Ya i dont even know your phone anymore. Excuse me . what . I dont know your phone number. Aw well. He doesnt know our phone number you have our fax number, obviously. Todays xfinity service. Simple. Easy. Awesome. Ill pass. Many people noted Robert Mueller didnt say anything in his Statement Today that wasnt already in his report, including the point that received the most attention, that if he had confidence that President Trump did not commit a crime, he would have said so. That said, the spectacle of the former special counsel declaring that inperson on camera was powerful. That led to new calls for an impeachmentinquiry, including from senators kamala harris, gillibrand and booker who said, Robert Muellers statement makes it clear, congress has a legal and moral obligation to begin impeachment proceedings immediately. What changed today that you felt compelled to issue that statement . Well, it was more than just today. It was an evolution of me witnessing whats happening in the house. You have the house going in good faith trying to continue an investigation. Nancy pelosi in a sober fashion talking about lets follow this evidence to the conclusions that it brings about. When you have a president that stonewalls congress, that refuses to allow people to testify, refuses to allow the release of information, that is a serious undermining of what i believe is constitutional intent. We did not elect an authoritarian in chief. In this case, he is not doing that. As you said today, the power of mueller coming forward and reiterating the point that he did not in any way exonerate this president from wrongdoing and that if you read the report in fact, theres considerable evidence that speaks to obstruction. Now we have a point where we have a president refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation. I believe that expungement proceedings will strength en Congress Hand in getting the information and responses they need to come to a conclusion about ultimate impeachment. I want to give you a few arguments people make against impeachment and hear your response. I want to say that i have these arguments with people through correspondence and off the report with politicians. One is the president is essentially baiting democrats into a highstakes reality show fight in which he will have an advantage and will be take them off the panel th of kitche table issues and substantive issues on the things they campaigned on in 2018. I have had these moments a lot of times in my political career where you look at a