>> you made a political case instead. put it in a paper sack. lit it on fire. dropped it on our porch. rang the doorbell and ran. >> i don't think you reviewed a report as fair and as consistent as the report we have in front of us. announcer: watch all of robert mueller's testimony on c-span and c-span 2. russian interference on 2016 election on c-span and on instruction of justice on c span 2 and use c-span .org to watch on demand.

>> house speaker nancy pelosi held a news conference following robert mueller's testimony on capitol hill where she was joined by the chairs of the house judiciary, house intelligence and house oversight committees. -- is >> good evening, everyone. a pretty interesting day. an historic one. a day in which a former special council confirmed in public what the mueller report put forth. it is a crossing of a threshold in terms of the public awareness of what happened and how it conforms to the law or not.

we have a chart. mueller investigation by the numbers. remember he said how much it would cost, less than $40 million. 37 people and entities charged with crimes. seven convicted including five top trump campaign officials. then we have no collusion, no this or that. 10 instances of obstruction, yes. no exoneration. that's some of what we heard today. i want to go to another point. at the same time we're on this path of the mueller investigation to recognize that therecognize that the more investigation was prohibited from looking into the president's finance and that is

what our committees and jurisdictions have been doing. as we legislate for the american people, we are also investigating so that we have the-- to litigate in court. those cases, lower court has appealed and we feel strongly about the position. about the position of -- article 1, the legislative branch having right to have oversight over every other branch of government. that's important because it means we can get the information to show the american people what the obstruction of justice is all about. i'm very proud of our committee. the chairman, nadler. the intelligence committee, hairman adam schiff. we're also joined by elijah cummings, the chairman of the reform and oversight committee. a committee running its reports

as well. first i yield to the distinguished chairman of the judiciary committee mr. nadler? >> thank you madam speaker. today the american people heard directly about the special counsel investigation uncovered. as to russia's interference in the 2016 election and the cooperation of the president, and obstruction of justice. mueller made clear that the president is not exonerated. there was evidence of obstruction of justice and abuses of power by the president. the reports said the president could be indicted for obstruction of justice after he leaves office. he found that trump would and did benefit from russia's help and that the campaign welcomed that help. there are multiple instances were are all three elements of criminal obstruction of justice

were met. trying to fire the special counsel in order to stop the investigation, trying to have people lie and cover up for him or the same purpose, trying to limit or impede or constrict the special counsel's investigation, trying to tamper with witnesses cooperating with investigators. all of these were found with great evidence. present trump went through great lengths to disrupt the special council's investigation. anyone else who acted in this way, if they were not the sitting president, would face criminal prosecution, indictment, and only the office of legal counsel's opinion that you cannot indict a sitting president has saved or is saving the president from indictment. because all of the elements of these crimes were found with considerable- - substantial evidence and the people have now heard this. the president's chance of no

obstruction is nonsense. his chance that he has been totally exonerated is a simple lie. >> first of all, i want to thank dir. mueller for a lifetime of service to the country from his days as a young marine in vietnam through decades of service as a prosecutor and director of the fbi. and, through his services, this nation owes him an enormous debt of gratitude. so director mueller, i want to thank you personally for all of your service. today the director outlined in powerful words how russia intervened massively in our election, systematically in a sweeping fashion. how, during the course of the ntervention they made multiple approaches to the trump campaign

and far from shunning that foreign involvement in our campaign the trump welcomed it, made full use of it, and then lied about it worried about it to obstruct the investigation into our democracy. part of what i found so powerful about his testimony today is not just when he was asked about the law but when he was asked about the ethics, the morality, the lack of patriotism of this conduct, and perhaps one of the most chilling moments in our committee was when he expressed the year fear that this had become the new normal. nd of course what is animating that fear is certainly animating it for me. even after the nightmare to have last 2 1/2 years, the president ill still say he did not

receive foreign help again. to that point the president calls this a hoax, something that was directly refuted. he still calls a witchhunt, something that director mueller today refuted. we go into this next election more vulnerable than we should be. we cannot completely control it russia does but we must do everything we can to harden defenses, to make sure there are paper trails, to make sure we deter and disrupt any kind of russian intervention but we cannot control that completely. but, we can control what we do. director mueller made it clear in no uncertain terms that it's up to us whether we act ethically and patriotically, whether we refuse to be party to a foreign attack on our democracy, and once again i thank him for his service. >> thank you.

> think him for his service. i first want to applaud chairman nadler, who heads our judiciary committee and certainly the chairman of the intelligence committee for what they did today. what they did was paint a picture for america. one of the most chilling things that i have noticed that i've witnessed is when a former member of the committee, a republican, went to a town hall meeting and got a round of applause in a republican district after he said he felt the president should be impeached. but that wasn't the thing that got me. what really got me was one when a lady at the end of the

townhall meeting said i didn't know that there was anything negative in the mueller report about pres. trump. that says a lot. and to her credit, our speaker made it clear that we needed to paint a picture for america so that they could fully understand what is going on. this is a critical moment in our country's history. don't be fooled. it is a moment which people will be talking about and reading about 300, 400, 500 years from now. and they are going to ask the question, what did you do when we had a president who knew the rules and knew that our founding fathers had done a great job creating the constitution, and

putting in the guard rails but never anticipated that we would have a president that would just throw away the guardrails. that's why what happened today is so critical. it was a giant step making sure that the american people got a picture of all of this and hopefully will look towards the future and say we are not going to have this. both mr. nadler and mr. schiff said something critical. this isn't normal and we are now getting so used in normal, to this kind of conduct by a president, and by the way, of our attorney general and our republican colleagues, that it looks like we are just going to accept it.

well, we refuse to accept it. in my committee we constantly-- i know that schiff and nadler have heard this. you're just messing with the president because you don't like him. it's not about liking the president. it's about loving democracy. it's about loving our country. it's about making a difference for generations yet unborn. that's what this is all about. and i'm begging, i'm begging the american people to pay attention to what is going on. because if you want to have a democracy in tact, for your children and your children's children and generations yet unborn, we have got to guard this moment. this is our watch. again, i am so very proud of the judiciary committee. i am so very proud of the intelligence committee because they went in and tried to pull out the facts to paint the picture so america could see it

and hopefully there will not be ladies like the lady at the town hall meeting saying they didn't know there was something wrong that trump did with regard to the mueller report. so again, the speaker is absolutely right. she told us a little bit earlier that she wants to gather all the information and make sure that we have everything we need to paint that picture. will the american people do it? that is the thing. we will not stand by and let them see the total picture. i too want to thank mr. mueller for coming forth with service to our country but last but not least, it is so interesting that when he would make a decision that they liked, they would say oh, we love you, we love you.

but then as soon as they said something they said you're a bum. come on now. we have to see through that. thank you. >> thank you. >> as we acknowledge greatness nadler and schiff, i want to acknowledge the greatness of legiona cummings from the oversight committee. he has really won the first case in his research enabled us to take to court and win the case. the decision was a beautiful segment on the ability of congress to have oversight and just a remarkable decision. now of course the administration is appealing it, but i thank you mr. cummings for your great leadership. as you now, the mueller investigation

could not make personal or business connections. one of those could be is to the russians. that's what we want to find out. as we go to questions i want to say that i believe that what we saw today was a strong manifestation, in fact, some would even say indictment, of this administration's code of silence and their cover-up. this is about the oath we take to protect and defend the constitution but some of the actions that the administration may have taken will see through our investigation that they have jeopardized our national security by interfering in our elections, undermining democracy not only in our country but others as well. upsetting our preeminence as a

democracy in the world. this is very serious. today was a very important. again, we salute six chairman ho have been involved in this. ow about a new person? as a mother of five. >> thank you. speaker, what you saw today will change whether or not you think the house of representatives can -- these proceedings? >> my position has been whatever decision we make will have to be done with our strongest possible hand and we still have some outstanding matters in court. it's about congress, the constitution and the courts and we are fighting the president in the courts.

some of your members said they are expecting imminent action of some kind. >> i don't know why they thought that. they came to me. again, the lawsuit says, we have a number of lawsuits. you want to speak to that? >> i'm not going to talk very long. the next step tomorrow or friday as we are going to court to ask for the grand jury material and enforce a subpoena against mr. mcgann. that is particularly important because the excuses, and i won't call them reasons, but the excuses of the white house began and the nonsense are the same excuses for all the other fact witnesses. if we break that, we will break the logjam.

>> where do you stand, what do you need to know -- is it -- we don't know enough yet -- >> did i not just say we're waiting to hear from the court. we're waiting for subpoenas information. we have several considerations. about what information is there. this isn't endless. this isn't endless. understand that. we have live cases in courts and some that are going forward that hairman nadler just mentioned. it is not endless. remember that watergate was when they got the information and the tapes that broke the case. it wasn't just about changing public opinion. that helped change public

opinion. it is not about me. it is about our caucus. it's about our country. there is a code of silence in the white house engaged in a cover-up in the obstruction of justice. this charges as have been demonstrated today are indictable offenses by anyone else, not the president of the united states and the president hen he is no longer president. but the american people, i think if we go on a path we should of the strongest possible way and that's all i'm going to say. >> may i say something? and i know chairman schiff and chairman nadler would repeat what i'm saying. you know, the american people in the last election, even from trump districts said we want to make the president accountable. a lot of people loved him but

they want to make him accountable. we have been stonewalled in regard to getting information, access to witnesses, and getting documents. all of us have. remember the president said i'm not going to give you anything eally. so again, the speaker is absolutely right. we are gathering information and we are met with significant force but all of that information piece by piece is like a mosaic. aints the picture. >> there's no point moving forward because republicans controlled the senate and is going to die in the senate. is that -- >> i have never said that. if we have a case for impeachment, that's the place we

will have to go. the fact why i would like it to be a strong case is because it's based on the facts. the facts and the law. that's what matters. not politics. not partisanship. just patriotism. i'd like them to honor their oath of office to protect and defend the constitution and to see the challenge that this is to national security and what the russians are trying to do to our country. but the stronger our case is, the worse the senate will look for just letting the president off the hook. >> even after the hearing -- >> i'm going to start asking questions. >> even after these the president said he's it completely exonerated. despite what mr. mueller said. >> let me just say this. you give me the opportunity and

i invite my chairman to close. we want to have the strongest possible case to make the decision as to what path we will go down and that's not endless in terms of time or endless in terms of information that we want. if it gets to a point where the code of silence and the these silence and obstruction of justice and cover up in the white house prevents us from getting that information, that will not prevent us from going forward and in fact is even more grounds to go forward. >> i just wanted to echo that. he said there comes a point when silence becomes betrayal. we refused to betray generations yet unborn and the american people. we're not going to betray them. we're accumulating information

and doing best we can. again, with a force as great -- i don't know how many lawyers the president has, but he has a lot of them and they go against every single thing we do. again, we're not going to betray america. we're going to do our part to make sure we have a democracy that's intact. >> the united states is a democracy. it must remain a democracy. a democracy acts through the elected officials with consent of the people. the people cannot give that consent unless they know the fact. this is a watershed day in telling facts to the american people. with those facts, we can proceed.

richard nixon said he thought president was a dictator. pres. trump echoed that yesterday. he said under article 2 i can do anything i want. that's a totalitarian picture. not a democratic picture. the united states must be safe from this. we have to paint the picture of what's going on, the picture of someone who gladly accepted help from a foreign power interested in subverting our democratic election process and that's what it is. subverting our election process and taking the choice of our president so some extent away from the american people. that's what the russians attempted to do and what the trump campaign welcomed them in doing. a president who engages in repeated crimes to cover up these unpatriotic and dictatorial actions. this cannot go on and it's up to congress to safeguard the constitution and we will do it.

>> chairman nadler? >> as i mentioned today during our hearing, i think the story is a story16 election of disloyalty, about greed and about lies. if there's anything that i think symbolizes those three strands of the 2016 election it was moscow trump tower. it was this maive real estate project they were trying to consummate while running for president and concealing it from the country. this i think demonstrated disloyalty to the country by deceiving american people about this massive business opportunity he was seeking while he was running for president. it is certainly a vivid example of the greed of people involved with that campaign. and an ample demonstration of

all the lies that permeated the campaign and its aftermath. that, to me, is the story of the 2016 election. we want to make sure that's not the story to have 2020 election. i will say this on the issue of impeachment which i view in very much the same way as the speaker. maybe i'm just a prosecutor, but before i brought a case to indictment i want to make sure i have the strongest evidence possible. i want to understand my case, i want to be able to make my case. i tried an impeachment case bout 10 years ago. a corrupt federal judge who was convicted. i understand what it takes to et a conviction in the senate and i have no illusions. there are two juries in an impeachment. the jury which is the senate which presides removal from office in the jury that is the american people. i most concerned about the jury that is the american people. before we embark on a course as significant to the country as the impeachment of the president

i want to make sure that we make that case to the jury of the american people. >> i thank our distinguished chairmen. i'm so proud of all of them. following up on the last statement by chairman schiff, we can imagine how different we would be from each other. they want us to remember that we are one as we go down this path we want it to be as unified for our country, not dividing. hat's why we want it to be the strongest possible case. president lincoln said the big sentiment is everything. in order for the public to have the sentiment they have to know. i hope they will be messingers of the truth to the public and thing today was really a milestone making that sentiment be more informed. thank you very much. >good evening.

>> house minority leader kevin mccarthy held a news conference to discuss robert mueller's testimony before congress. he was joined by house republicans serving on the judiciary, house intelligence and house oversight committees. this is 20 minutes. s joined by the ranking members of the judiciary committee. and oversight committee. >> go