In preparation for today’s appearance by Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Judiciary Committee, I watched some of his previous appearances before Congress, he was terse and concise, but sharp, alert and always on point. 

Mueller hadn’t testified before Congress for six years, and he’s a reticent witness even under the best of circumstances. I can now comprehend why Muller was a reluctant witness and why he agreed to testify only after he was subpoenaed. I was shocked by the septuagenarian’s shoddy performance, he struggled to hear and/or understand questions, and he repeatedly requested that queries be repeated. When members read verbatim from his report, he appeared dazed and confused as if they were reading from the Kabbalah.

Mueller looked liked he had just been dragged away from a convalescent home, there wasn’t a spark of intelligence emanating from his dead eyes. He wasn’t at the top of his game, in fact I don’t think he possesses the mental acuity to play Tic-Tac-Toe.

Democrats were hoping Mueller’s testimony would be the movie version of his report, with a straight-out-of-central-casting prosecutor convincing the American public that Donald Trump is guilty of obstruction of justice. The only thing that the ageing prosecutor proved is that septuagenarians are too old to serve as Special Counsel or President of the United States.

Mueller contradicted himself (and the report) when he told Doug Collins, the ranking Republican member on the committee, that collusion and conspiracy were not the same thing. If he contradicted himself on such a major point, it invalidates his entire testimony.

Mueller’s report is a damning indictment of Donald Trump, it didn’t exonerate him from charges of obstruction of justice, it examined ten times Trump may have done so. It’s only Department of Justice policy that a sitting president can’t be indicted that prevented Mueller from filing charges.

It’s the responsibility of the House of Representatives to follow-up on Mueller’s report and impeach Trump for obstruction of Justice, but the Special Counsel’s shaky performance will make it more difficult for Democrats to start impeachment proceedings.