White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Thursday that she’d “like to know” if former special counsel Robert Mueller read his own report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.
“I read the polls that very few Americans say they’ve read the Mueller report,” Conway told reporters. “I’d like to know if that number includes Bob Mueller himself.”
Conway’s comments come a day after Mueller took center stage on Capitol Hill, giving marathon testimony in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on his findings.
“I saw somebody who did not want to be used and abused by people,” Conway said of Mueller. “I also saw somebody who, it’s not clear to me, was in charge of his own investigation, or most of it.”{mosads}
Unlike his May report, which found that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against the president but which also did not exonerate Trump, Mueller’s testimony Wednesday came with little new information and did not spark any new momentum for impeachment.
Pro-impeachment Democrats were initially optimistic about Mueller’s testimony and how it might sway the majority of Americans who haven’t read the 448-page report and who aren’t familiar with the findings.
But Trump and Republican lawmakers celebrated the hearings as a victory, ripping Democrats for refusing to move on from the Mueller investigation and allegations that Trump may have committed a crime.
“This was a very big day for our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House after Mueller’s testimony had ended. “This was a very big day for the Republican Party … could say it was a very big day for me.”