President Donald Trump, according to President Donald Trump, won’t be watching former special counselRobert Mueller’s testimony to the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday. Unless he does.
“No, I’m not going to be watching, probably, maybe I’ll see a little bit of it,” Trump told reporters on Monday in the Oval Office. “I’m not going to be watching Mueller because you can’t take all those bites out of the apple. We had no collusion, no obstruction.”
So, he won’t be watching. Except maybe he’ll watch a “little bit.”
If you believe that, I have a print newspaper industry you might be interested in purchasing. Nothing but upside!
Consider what we know of this President:
1) He has, long before getting into politics, been a cable TV addict
2) His TV watching habits haven’t diminished in office — as aides have carved out “executive time” designed for Trump watch the tube and tweet about what he sees
3) He has long fixated on Mueller and the broader special counsel probe, dedicated hundreds of tweets over the past two years to discrediting the investigators and their findings
Just look at Trump’s last few days. He’s repeatedly made mention of the coming Mueller hearing. Here’s one:
“Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple. In the end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Congress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt. Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!”
On Tuesday, Trump added this: “I saw Mueller’s testifying tomorrow. How many times? Two-and-a-half years! And actually it started practically from the time I came down on the escalator.”
Ask yourself this: Do you spend a lot of time thinking — or talking — about things that you really don’t care about? Of course you don’t! If Trump was truly uninterested in Mueller’s testimony — and really was planning not to watch — he would make zero mention of either Mueller or the hearing in the days leading up to it. Instead he’s done the opposite.
The Point: Don’t fool yourself: Donald Trump will in all likelihood be doing exactly what I will be doing Wednesday — watching every second of Mueller’s testimony.