Fresh off his questioning of former special counsel Robert Mueller as part of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Chris Stewart joined CNN’s Wolf Blitzer where he said Mueller’s testimony put the nail in the coffin of any potential impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
“I think the person who is most relieved tonight is (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi because this took the air out of the sails of this push for impeachment,” said Stewart. “I think she sincerely believes it would be bad for her party if they were to push forward on that. I think it jeopardizes her chances of remaining speaker or electing a Democratic president in 2020.”
During his marathon seven hours of testimony on Wednesday, Mueller shot down President Trump’s repeated statements that the 448-page report about Russian interference in the 2016 election “completely exonerated” him. He also said Russia’s attack on the election was not a “hoax” and the subsequent investigation was not a “witch hunt” as Trump has long contended.
“I think a month from now, nobody is going to remember his hearing. There were no surprises, certainly no bombshells and not much drama,” said Stewart.
Mueller delivered a stark warning to committee members about the extent of Russian involvement in the last presidential election, and the lack of preparation to prevent foreign interference in 2020.
In June, Stewart caused an uproar when he said it would “foolish” for a campaign to not take information from a foreign government, as long as the information came from a close ally. President Trump said during a televised interview he would consider using information about a political rival that came from another government.
On Wednesday, Stewart completely reversed his original statement when asked if his campaign would accept dirt from a foreign source.
“No. I think we’ve pretty much established that’s a terrible idea,” said Stewart.
Watch the clip below via CNN.
