During a brief Q&A on Friday afternoon, a reporter asked Donald Trump if he planned to watch Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony. “No, I don’t,” the president replied. “I don’t…. No, I won’t be watching Muller.”
Asked yesterday if he’s “worried” about what the former special counsel might say, Trump said, “No, I’m not going to be watching. Probably. Maybe I’ll see a little bit of it. I’m not going to be watching Mueller.”
Well, that certainly cleared things up.
The president quickly added:
“We had no collusion, no obstruction. We had no nothing. We had a total ‘no collusion’ finding. The Democrats were devastated by it. They went crazy. They’ve gone off the deep end. They’re not doing anything. […]
“And Robert Mueller, I know he’s conflicted — he had a lot — there’s a lot of conflicts that he’s got, including the fact that his best friend is Comey. But he’s got conflicts with me, too. He’s got big conflicts with me. As you know, he wanted the job of the FBI Director. He didn’t get it. And we had a business relationship where I said, ‘No.’ And I would say that he wasn’t happy. Then, all of a sudden, he gets this position. But you know what? He still ruled — and I respect him for it — he still ruled ‘no collusion, no obstruction.’”
It’s not easy to pack this many lies into 90 seconds of rhetoric, but when it comes to deceiving the public, Trump gets a lot of practice.
As regular readers know, the idea that House Democrats aren’t “doing anything” is demonstrably foolish, but as Vox’s Aaron Rupar noted, there were at least five other obvious lies in Trump’s pitch yesterday:
1. There was no finding clearing Trump of collusion allegations, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
2. There was no finding clearing Trump of obstruction allegations, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
3. Robert Mueller did not have conflicts of interest, despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
4. There’s no evidence Mueller wanted Trump to name him the new FBI director after James Comey’s ouster — Mueller had already served in the position for 12 years — despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
5. And Mueller and Comey are not, and have never been, “best friends,” despite Trump’s claim to the contrary.
It’s hard not to wonder whether Trump told so many lies because he’s nervous about tomorrow’s congressional hearings.
And speaking of tomorrow’s congressional hearings, I hope you saw Rachel’s coverage on the show last night about the Justice Department attempting to limit Mueller’s testimony before it begins.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."