>> that is it for us. what an exciting day. "special report" is up next. ♪ >> bret: welcome to washington, i'm bret baier. breaking tonight, the rhetorical smoke is still clearing in the building behind me after more than five hours of some of the most politically charged hearings on capitol hill in recent memory, whether former special counsel robert mueller adequately supported his report or crumbled at the hands of inquisitors is largely in the eye of the beholder. mueller, as protected, relied almost exclusively on the 448 page report, saying more than 200 times he couldn't answer the questions or deferring to what was written down in that report. the president tonight is doing a victory lap, democrats meantime are plotting what happens next. we will have complete coverage, you'll see reaction from president trump.

we will talk live with two congressman from opposing parties who were both a part of hearings throughout our program tonight. democrats insisted the special counsel would have charged president trump with obstruction of justice had that been an option. republicans, meantime, hammered robert mueller on the origins of the probe and the specifics of the investigation. we have fox team coverage. john roberts at the white house, but we begin with chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge on capitol hill, a busy day, catherine. >> thank you, brett, good evening. the five hours of testimony was intense, dramatic and at times unproductive all. there was something in it for the president's supporters and his critics. >> this will help you god. >> the democratic chairman of the house judiciary committee pinned down former special counsel robert mueller on president trump's claim. >> did you actually totally exonerate the president? >> no. >> yet mueller testified that he could not consider charging a president because of a long-standing justice department legal opinion that blocks the indictment of a sitting

president, but then went for the. >> and the department of justice policy, the president could be prosecuted for obstruction of justice crimes after he leaves office, is this correct? >> true. >> mueller later clarified after earlier saying he did not charge trump because he was bound by that legal opinion. >> we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. >> republicans attacked mueller, alleging he was the one who violated long-standing justice department policy. >> can you give me an example other than donald trump or the justice department determined that an investigative person was not exonerated because their innocence was not conclusively determined? >> i cannot, but this is unique. >> democrats highlighted the president of estevez order to white house counsel don mcgahn to fire mueller for alleged conflicts, though mueller again offer differing testimony on whether his two-year probe was impeded. >> at any time was the investigation curtailed or stopped? or hindered? >> no. >> lies by trump campaign

officials and administration pacific to officials impeded our investigation. >> i would generally agree with that. >> mueller's mandate as special counsel was to investigate russian election interference but mueller testified it did not extend to the opposition research paid for by democrats and used to secure a surveillance warrant for a trump campaign aid. >> can you state with confidence that the dossier was not part of russia's disinformation campaign? >> that's part of the building of the case, predated me by at least ten months. >> mueller frustrated some lawmakers with his often terse answers and appeared off balance at times. >> where are you reading from on that? >> i'm reading from my question. >> when you talk about the firm that produced the reporting, the name of the firm that produced that was fusion gps, is that correct? >> i'm not familiar with that.

>> let me just help you. it was, it's not a trick question. it was fusion gps. >> the testimony continued in the house intelligence committee or mueller characterized then-candidate trump's comments on the stolen clinton emails. >> problematic is an understatement. >> the trump campaign officials built their strategy, their messaging strategy around those stolen documents? >> generally that's true. >> and then they lie to cover it up? >> generally that's true. >> but democrats were accused of being desperate. >> serious political theater. it's a hail mary attempt to convince the american people that collusion is real. >> mueller had this morning about russian interference in the 2020 presidential race. >> as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign. >> mueller also testified that his team decided against issuing a subpoena to interview president trump in person because they concluded it would be a long legal battle and he

said they wanted to wrap up the case as quickly as possible. >> bret: catherine herridge up on capitol hill. catherine thank you. president trump began the day with nine tweets about the mueller hearings and he was just getting started. if chief white house correspondent john roberts is here to tell us what the president said after the testimony before leaving for west virginia tonight. good evening, john. >> good evening to you. going into today's hearing, president trump set i might watch a little bit of it, speaking to the white house press corps as he was leaving this afternoon, it was clear that he watched a lot and he liked what he saw. >> i think robert mueller did a horrible job both today and with respect to the investigation. >> on his way to a fund-raiser in west virginia, president trump claimed total victory. >> this was a very big day for our country. this was a very big day for the republican party, and you could say it was a great day for me. >> in a statement after this morning 'house judiciary

committee, jay sekulow said this probe was conducted by a small group of politically biased prosecutors and that the special counsel conducted his two-year investigation unimpeded. the american people understand that this issue is over. they also understand that the case is closed. while many democrats saw mueller's testimony as a reason to begin an impeachment investigation, a new fox news poll finds support for the impeachment and removal of president trump has actually dropped since last month. now 42% compared to 43. president trump has a higher approval rating in mueller, 45% against 40% and 49% of respondents told fox news mueller's testimony would not change their minds about president trump. >> they are devastated. the democrats had nothing, but now they have less than nothing and i think they're going to lose the 2020 election very vague, including congressional

seats. >> president trump challenged mueller's repeated statement today that while the report did not make a determination whether the president committed a crime, it did not exonerate him either. >> he didn't have the right to exonerate. that was something where he totally folded. >> the president thanked his republican colleagues on the judiciary and intelligence committees and while many democrats sought today as more ammunition to continue congressional investigations, president trump said today it was the final nail in the coffin. >> they should be ashamed of themselves. schiff and nadler and schumer and pelosi, everyone of them. they all knew it was funny stuf stuff. >> president trump was asked today, given what he saw on capitol hill, whether he regrets not sitting down to talk with mueller. the president said he has seen what has happened to other people who did that and that in retrospect he made the right choice. asked whether he thinks this will keep going, the president said today he expects the democrats will try to find a way. >> bret: john roberts live at

the white house, thanks. we are going to get reaction out from two lawmakers, one democrat, one republican, who are both on committees involved in today's hearings. first up from a republican john ratcliffe. thanks for being here. >> great to be with you. >> bret: i want to ask you generally your thoughts of today and what you took away from it. >> i think the main take away today is the impeachment balloon got popped completely today. you can't impeach a president on obstruction charges when the special counsel admits that they applied a legal standard to the president that has never been applied to anyone in the history of american jurisprudence before, which is something that bob mueller admitted today. >> bret: we heard that sound bite in catherine's peace. you really went after level exoneration standard and the presumption of innocence. >> i did, because i hadn't seen it before. it's just something that prosecutors don't use. when i read the special counsel's report and he talked about exonerating the president only if his innocence could be conclusively determined, those

are terms as a career prosecutor i've never seen before. it's a standard i haven't seen so i knew it didn't exist at the department of justice and he confirmed that today. why they try to come up with a different standard for this case is why you can't move forward with impeachment. >> bret: why do you think that was? he says it's a unique situation as he was laying out this case and do you think that bob mueller was behind this report or was it just his team? >> i think it's pretty clear that bob mueller learned a lot about his own report today but i think his did play an integral role. why they came up with a different standard i think it was the only way they could have an opportunity to try and talk about the things the president have done that were bad but didn't rise to the level of a crime, things that they saw were bad he didn't rise the level of a crime. >> bret: there are serious elements in the report itself, serious things he talked about today. one was the russian activity that did happen, take a listen.

>> it wasn't a single attempt, they are doing it as we sit here and they expect to do it during the next campaign. >> bret: saying its continuing. russia is continuing, other countries are continuing and he's concerned the u.s. has not done enough to stop that. are you? >> i shared his concern. i agreed with him today. the russian efforts were sweeping and systematic and it is important, it should concern every american, but what we learned today despite the sweeping and systematic efforts aimed at the trump campaign, they didn't get the help -- they didn't do anything without help. but we don't know, what he didn't answer today was whether or not that's weeping and systematic effort influenced the obama administration. did they use a false dossier to surveilling american citizen and thereby influence the election? that was something that bob mueller wasn't willing to address today and i think john durham and the folks at the justice department will be looking into that. >> bret: is your expectation that that's going to happen soon

or sooner rather than later, the ig and john durham? >> i think we will get the ig report probably sometime right after labor day. i think john durham just got started, but i think there's a lot to look at there. i think there's a lot that you saw the special counsel wouldn't answer today because it was in the purview and under the investigation of john durham as the new special counsel. >> bret: the president for a long time has said he was innocent, no collusion, no obstruction. he says the same thing all the time. do you think he says enough about what russia did do, the threat that we saw in 2016 but we may see in 2020? >> in the president's defense, the talk about russia's influence was really a way to invalidate his election. we saw the democrats talking about that today. that's why the president get so upset by them and what he uses the term "hoax" or "witch hunt." he sang the russian interference didn't have anything to do with him more influence his success in the 2016 election, and he's

right. >> bret: over underwear stomach whether the democrats continue to pursue impeachment? >> they won't pursue it, they can't. nancy pelosi didn't want to move forward with it. it wasn't a good day for those that wanted to move forward. >> bret: we appreciate your time. for the democrat perspective where joined by california garnishment, former presidential candidate eric swalwell, he's on capitol hill. thanks for being here. i will start how we did with the congressman, your take on the overall impressions of today and what you took from it? >> the american people heard for the first time from the prosecutor assigned to the case that the russians attacked america, they sought to help donald trump, the trump campaign welcomed it and embraced the help and then when donald trump became president he and his team went to great lengths to cover it up and by the way he's the only person in america who is shielded of being charged with a crime because his own department of justice has a policy that protects the president. >> bret: there are some democrats tonight who seem deflated by bob mueller's performance and what came out of these hearings. are you?

>> no, and i was a prosecutor. prosecutors are not generally comfortable testifying as fact witnesses. today was act i. back to two will be to hear from the witness as he laid out and i imagine a lot of americans who hurt bob mueller for the first time today and are really starting to learn about this, want to hear about the trump campaign manager who was sharing polling data of the campaign with the russian intelligence officer. you probably want to hear about the president's attorney who was told to fire the special counsel. those of the witnesses now that have to come forward. >> bret: going into this, democrats are telling us privately that this is about the objects, that they wanted this to be the movie because they didn't think americans read the book. now tonight, others are saying you're focusing too much on the optics. what did you think of the movie today? >> again, i think you saw a patriot, a marine -- your last guest, he's got a lot of issues with things on the sideline but whatever happened on the field he was not able to dispute a single count of obstruction of justice that was laid out against the president and he

wasn't able to really discount any of the efforts that the trump team took to work with the russians. stepping back, i thought it was so important when the special counsel said this can't be the new normal and that's taking help from a foreign adversary is disloyal and is unpatriotic. i don't think any of us want to see this happen again. it republican or democratic administration. and that can't be lost on americans today. >> bret: you call for impeachment. house speaker nancy pelosi has not. tonight do you think you're closer to moving impeachment than you were yesterday? >> i don't think we are farther away. i don't think you've seen people in the past who say they want to see impeachment say the president, turns out he's a great guy, let's give the nobel peace prize. i actually think we will get a lot closer to impeachment. in fact, one of my colleagues came out for impeachment while the hearing was going on. i think more will come out before the week ends. >> bret: some of the democrats were disappointed today, harvard law professor tweeted as much as i hate to say it, this morning's hearing was a disaster. far from breathing life into the

report, the tire robert mueller sucked the life out of it. if the effort to save democracy in the littlest lot of the smallest president not advanced. the president retweeted michael moore saying he agrees with him saying a frail old man unable to remember things, stumbling and refusing to answer basic questions. i set it in 2017, mueller confirmed yesterday. all you pundits and moderates who told the public to put the faith in the esteemed robert mueller, just stf you from now on. it what you say to those democrats? >> it's a free country for now. the russians are seeking to have their own will in our country. if they can what they like. my job is to make sure this never happens again. to try and learn lessons as well, bret, because it's not just about investigating. bob mueller throughout the day said there should be laws that stop people from getting help like the trump team got and that was not in place, that's why he couldn't charge them, that's why i've written legislation that's called duty to report. if you get help from foreign adversary that gives you dirt on your opponent, you have to tell

the fbi or you are committing a crime. >> bret: if you were to put a percentage on the democratic caucus moving forward with articles of impeachment, what percentage would you put it at? >> i wouldn't put a percentage but i do think that we are getting closer and closer there and it's not just the conduct that we saw with the russia investigation. again, the emoluments issue still persist. i think the president, what he's doing on the border concerns people, the way that he characterizes other people in congress concerns people. i don't think the president gets better as the days go on. i think his conduct gets worse and is going to have to be an accounting for that. >> bret: after today's hearing are you missing a presidential campaign trail? >> i'm missing my kids, so i'm happy to get back to them. i will just tell you this, one thing i did pick up going across the country were people -- they really got sick and tired of hearing washington say that people outside washington don't care about what happened with russia. it's not the top priority, but people love this country and they want to know that when they

vote, if their vote and another country is not seeking to influence an election. that should unite republicans and democrats. >> bret: we appreciate your time tonight. up next, details on two major financial stories we are falling down my following. huge pine for facebook and a federal investigation into big tech companies. here's what some of our fox affiliates on the country are covering. box 16 in little rock as a federal judge temporarily blocks three new abortion restrictions of taking effect in the state. the republican attorney general says she expects further action and that ruling is just an initial step. fox 5 in new york with the arrest in connection with separate incidents in brooklyn and harlem involving police officers and witnesses doused with water. videos of both incidents as we showed you went viral. police are still seeking more suspects in both cases. this is a live look at cape canaveral from fox 35. if the big story there to make the impending launch of the spacex falcon nine rocket. it's scheduled to lift off 6:24

eastern time. some unusual items are in the dragon capsule this time. nickelodeon slime, and adidas soccer ball are among the 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments for the international space station. that's tonight live look outside the beltway from "special report," will be right back. ♪ doubts behind. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. even hanging with friends i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret, i was cured. mavyret is the only 8-week cure for all common types of hep c. before starting mavyret your doctor will test if you've had hepatitis b which may flare up and cause serious liver problems during and after treatment. tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b, a liver or kidney transplant, other liver problems, hiv-1, or other medical conditions, and all medicines you take including herbal supplements. don't take mavyret with atazanavir

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>> bret: breaking right now, you're looking live on capitol hill, house minority leader kevin mccarthy. earlier the channel took the deaf and dumb i democratic, let's listen in for a bit to mccarthy. >> we've gone to roughly 200 days of this new democrat socialist majority. name me one thing that they have solved. we have a challenge on our border. we have a trade agreement that could build more jobs, make america stronger and more prosperous, but they will not bring it up. we have a challenge in our health care when it comes to surprise billing. thousands of americans. again, they've only focused on the mueller investigation. today is the end of that chapter. today is to put politics aside and put people first. put this country first. now i'd like to call of our republican leader of judiciary

committee, doug collins. >> thank you, everyone. i think what was interesting today and was just set a few minutes ago there was a painting a picture. the democrats that they want to paint a picture. let's start with today. let's paint a picture of today. what did we find out? mr. mueller came here today and actually for anybody who wants to separate collusion and conspiracy, we put that to rest today. even in his report he says so, so for all the accusations out there that say there's collusion, we put that to rest today. if we are painting a picture. when they tried to paint a picture today about putting up slides today and talk about obstruction and going through these different acts and even putting green checkmarks and when asked about it mr. mueller says i disagree with your theory or your interpretation. when we go through this, what we are seeing -- it's my committee, agreement on the one thing that there was russian and farmer interference in our 2016 election. but what has been answer for my committee and my majority and my term? to bring all bills forward, no

solutions forward. all we want to do is paint a picture of a president they despise. they've done so since 2016 and for seven and a half months -- seven months, that's always done in our committee. if someone asked me yesterday how did you prepare for the speech and hearing, didn't have to worry about it because it's all my committee talks about for several months. everything would come up with is show hearings, dog and pony shows, running at old people from watergate era and what we found? that the american people are footing the bill for a continuation of 2016 election that they don't like. so the question i have is if we are going to paint a picture, then let's paint the picture of what's actually happening. if you have a democratic majority that has no agenda. a democratic majority that's trouble bringing bills to the floor. democratic majority in our own committee where the very things that talk, immigration, election interference and others could be dealt with, but they don't bring any bills forward. in fact, even tomorrow we are going to have another hearing to talk about the problem on the border instead of fixing the problem of the border.

i challenge my democratic colleagues. get over the election of 2016. run in 2020 if you want. this president has put forward a great economy. great ideas. run on those. quit trying to dredge a picture that today got painted. mr. mueller has done his job, he presented a report. someone asked did you find out anything new. if the answer is no. without the report for three months and mr. mueller simply said what was in the report. collusion and conspiracy were over and the observations of obstructions by the democratic majority, he didn't ascribe to the theory. it would be there to the american people. if that's what we're fighting for real solutions instead of the continuation of the show. that's the picture that was painted today. >> thank you. i think what you see today is collusion between the republican party and the trump campaign is over, there was no evidence. there was a dossier that was built and paid for by the

clinton campaign. that is was the real collusion. collusion through a british former mi6 agent who was working supposedly with russian sources. if we didn't get any new information on that today, but the democrats have refused to accept reality. they live in an alternative universe. so i think as representative collins said and like we said today, this is over and hopefully this will be the end of these hearings because the house intelligence committee has important work to do. if you look at the national security for this country, there is nothing more important right now and passing the united states and mexico and agreement that's ready to go. if you look at the situation on our border, that has to be dealt with. we need real legislation to start to move through this house so it can get to the senate. it's what the democrats ran on. they promised solutions to immigration and they are not delivering. so two pressing issues not being

dealt with. hopefully after today we will begin and when we get back here in september to work on immigration reform and to pass this very important trade agreement. i want to introduce mr. jordan. >> thank you. leader and my colleagues are exactly right, it's time to move on. >> bret: republican leaders on capitol hill reacting to the mueller testimony today. we took roughly 5 minutes of the democratic leadership during "the five," we will take the same here, fair and balanced coverage. one lawmaker from the democrats and one from the republicans on the show reacting, much more with the panel just a minute. up next, 2020 and the back-and-forth over a crime bill with the democrats. keep it here. ♪ [alarm beeping] {tires screeching} {truck honking} (avo) life doesn't give you many second chances. but a subaru can.

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♪ >> bret: in america's election headquarters tonight democratic presidential candidates in detroit speaking to the annual convention of the naacp. correspondent peter doocy is in the motor city tonight to tell us how two of the candidates are going at each other over criminal justice. >> nine democratic candidates just courted the naacp, including barack obama's vp. >> looked me over, i need your help. >> cory booker agreed and expressed disappointment with biden's past support of the tough 1994 crime bill. >> i've been living and working now in new jersey for 20 years and we've seen the devastating

impact of legislation like that that has destroyed communities. that has turned, put mass incarceration on steroids. >> but that bill was tough for a reason according to biden. >> 1994 crime bill we had a gigantic epidemic in america of violence, particularly in african-american communities. >> now biden is returning fire at booker. >> if you look at the mayor's record in newark, his police department was stopping and frisking people, mostly african-american men. >> biden has a new criminal justice platform and his belief is that some crimes shouldn't result in hard time. >> i don't think anybody should go to jail because of a drug crime. unless they are a major seller or dealer. >> the popular rapper in a swedish tail right now accused of fighting in president trump, whose approval rating ticked up to 46% in tonight's fox news poll says he's using diplomatic channels to get him out because the rapper kanye west asked him to, which some democrats

disagree with. >> so you're saying this is another piece on the wrap treat of donald trump. >> yes >> yes. >> paris is one of the democratic candidates pitching and expansion of the supreme court, an idea liberal primary voters might like but some liberal justices don't. the latest, ruth bader ginsburg. >> anything would make the court appear partisan it would be tha that. >> before making appointments to the judicial branch, a candidate needs to capture the executive branch, so hopefuls are trying not to get ahead of themselves. >> i wouldn't have been elected president -- vice -- excuse me, senator because i got engaged early on in the civil rights movement. >> every candidate that came here today spoke at the same time as robert mueller but his name barely ever came up and audience members were not rushing out during breaks to catch the testimony they were missing, which means this election might be decided by issues other than election

interference. right. >> bret: peter doocy in detroit. thank you. a big one my for the trump administration on the immigration front tonight. a federal judge says the trump administration can enforce new restrictions on asylum for people crossing the u.s.-mexico border while also challenging that policy play out. the judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order saying the immigrant advocate groups behind that group did not show the work would be irreparably harmed if the policy with forward. president trump calls that really "tremendous." the dow lost 79, the s&p 500 and the nasdaq hit new all-time highs finishing with record closes, the s&p 500 was up 14, the nasdaq gained 70 today. the mueller hearings as you see them, did they change anybody's mind about the president or impeachment? we will talk to an expanded panel after the break. ♪ i switched to geico and saved hundreds.

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>> when it came to the president's culpability, we needed to -- we needed to go forward only after taking into account the olc opinion that indicated that a president -- a sitting president cannot be indicted. >> of the did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice. is that correct? >> that is correct. >> and what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? >> no. >> people mentioned exoneration. that was something or he totally folded because he never had the right to exonerate. the democrats had nothing. and now they have less than nothing and i think they're going to lose 2020 election very vague. >> bret: a president taking a victory lap of sorts today after two massive hearings with the former special counsel bob mueller. a lot of democrats rating on

twitter and elsewhere. one of them the former senior advisor to president obama, david axelrod which we did at one point during the hearings this is very, very painful. let's bring in our panel. byron york, chief political correspondent, mollie hemingway, amy walter, national editor for the cook political report and "washington post" columnist marc theissen. molly, your take today? >> the whole premise of today was the movie would be better than the book, that the mueller report didn't do what they wanted it to accomplish in book form so if they had visuals that it would help people understand the case against the president. what i don't think anybody expected was that mueller would present himself as doddering, lacking command of anything to do with the investigation and thereby raising a whole host of questions about who actually was in charge of this mueller investigation. a lot of people just gave it leeway because they respected him and seeing today, i don't think anybody things he was in charge. it had been previously part of

that 13 of the 17 associates were democrats, zero were republicans, nine were democratic donors, six were hillary clinton donors, some were pretty close allies of the clinton. at one attended a hillary clinton election rally, i think you will see many more questions about precisely who was running this investigation and to what end. >> bret: amy, the question now is what goes forward and we are going to deal with that in a second panel but you listen to the democrats tonight and there is like a dejected feeling, that they had expectations for today. >> this is actually dominic absolutely not the day the democrats wanted to be. if there's a rotten tomatoes rating, i don't know if the go to the bad is coming or supposed rotten tomatoes, it was a bad version of that movie. if you're thinking about -- monkey one of the winners on the democratic side is something like speaker nancy pelosi and some of the moderates in the house, who have been pushing back against a rush to impeachment. they really don't want to see this, they'd rather see the house and their colleagues focused on some of these issues

like health care as they did in the 2018 election. what i'm looking for is whether this actually tamps down, put the brakes on. i don't think it's going to change and about is mine who does believe the president needs to be impeached. they are not going to walk away and say because of the speech and hearing are no longer in favor of this but i do think you will no longer see a number of them continuing to rise. >> bret: people told me on the coverage on other channels. the first hearing that dealt with obstruction, this one sound bite really set everybody off and then it was walked back a little bit later. >> the reason again you do not indict donald trump is because of olc opinion saying you cannot indict a sitting president. correct? >> that is correct. >> want to go back to one thing that was said this morning, he said "you didn't charge the president because of the olc opinion." that is not the correct way to

say it. as we say in the report and others at the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime. >> bret: there was the thought that it was that moment and in the beginning of the next hearing he walked it back. >> got everybody excited for about an hour and then it went away which actually points to a bigger feature of today's hearings, which is apart from the concerns about mueller's performance, it didn't have any news in it. when mueller said he would have indicted if not for the olc ruling, that was a big deal. then he walked it back. the thing the democrats seem to feel it was a great compliment was mueller said he did not exonerate the president. we have known that since that day in march when bill barr summarized the major dominic major findings of the report. he concluded that they are and we've known it ever since. >> bret: let alone the argument about the standards.

talked about with congressman look radcliffe is the right standard to apply here. your thoughts? >> i agree with byron and look, i don't think any of us knew that bob mueller was so fragile. this was a slow-motion train wreck anyone could have seen from the day the mueller report came out. it was clear for most americans this was about a conspiracy with russia to undermine our democracy and once it was established by the mueller report that that did not happen then the democrats should have said case closed, let's move on. there was a poll in april and may when this moved out, herbert harris poll, 80% of americans say they want their congressional representative's work and more in infrastructure, and immigrations than investigations of donald trump. they decided not to do that and focus on this and it's completely overshadowed their agenda. "washington post" reported that the democratic congressional campaign committee did focus groups which show that americans believe they are preoccupied with investigations and it's completely overshadowing their agenda.

that's why pelosi was the winner today, i agree with amy, because she's been trying to push them off of this and get attention on the agenda she wants so she can keep the house and this is taking the wind out of the sails. >> bret: it seemed like they had planned for something bigge bigger. they obviously have the russia stuff, which is serious and republicans and democrats say it's serious. but they went with the obstruction. they planned for it, they practiced for it, there were mock hearings, jim jordan and bob mueller and mock hearings. and then this. >> and then nothing. right. look, i think there are plenty of folks who privately would tell you they knew that this hearing was unlikely to change any americans' minds. and i think it's still the case that moving the ball on how people feel about mueller, the investigation, whether they think impeachment is the right thing or the wrong thing to do wasn't going to be changed. the only question was whether there was going to be some more

pressure from activists and from their own members to push this forward. so in some ways like this needed to happen and now the band-aid has been sort of pulled off and theoretically democrats go on and do other things, but realistically, it still going to be part of that -- >> bret: we will talk about where we go from here including the questions about the investigation, the ig and what's coming next now the mueller hearing is over, where do we in washington go from here, but first we are waiting for an announcement from puerto rico's embattled governor. you're looking live there at san juan about whether he's staying in office or bowing to intense pressure to design. we are told the video to the puerto rican people is going to be released soon. we don't have a clue what's in that video. we have cruise on the ground and san juan. we will have the latest when it happens here on fox. ♪ it's not sexy... oh delicious. or delicious... or fun. ♪

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♪ >> bret: over under whether democrats continue to pursue impeachment? >> they want pursue it, they can't. i think this was a good day for nancy pelosi because she didn't want to move forward with it. it wasn't a good day for those democrats that want to move forward with impeachment. >> i do think we are getting closer and closer there and it's not just the conduct we saw with the russia investigation. the emoluments issue still

persists. i think the president's -- what he's doing on the border concerns people, the way that it characterizes other people in congress concerns people. again, i don't think the president gets better as the days go on, i think his conduct gets worse. >> bret: to congressman on "special report" tonight, back with a panel. mollie, what does come next? nancy pelosi clearly giving the heisman award to impeachment so far. >> i agree this is a good day for nancy pelosi. i'm not sure i agree they will not move forward with impeachment plans. i might think that because i remember jerry nadler saying the day after the election on the train as i sat across from him that he was going to do investigations leading towards impeachment. >> bret: watch what you say in the quiet car. >> it wasn't even the quiet car. i think the facts don't seem to say change things. donald trump did when might the election, obstruction, the idea that being angry about being falsely accused of being a traitor is impeachable, i think that wouldn't sell either but i think i'll just keep going and

some attempt to get something done. the big change i think is there well republicans willing to trust the mueller investigation on the grounds that robert mueller was running alone. he was the only republican affiliated with it and he apparently had no idea what was going on so i think you're going to see some people -- you're going to see an increase in the ranks of people who think that maybe the investigation was not handled properly and there were deep problems with it. >> bret: let alone we have this ig report and the other side of the investigation, which at some point and congressman radcliffe said just after labor day, which would make, june, july, but he says just after labor day for that. >> republicans got no answers for their questions. they had questions about the dossier. they had questions about the mysterious circumstances with joseph and george papadopoulos and starting investigation. they got nothing from robert mueller, who said that he wasn't going to talk about it because if the subject of another investigation. by the way, his investigation went on for almost a couple of years before some of these were

started. but on the bigger issue there is really always been two parts to the trump-russia investigation. there has been what russia did part and then there's the gap trump part and if democrats are focused on the what russia did part there could have been a lot of bipartisan agreement. mueller thought it was very serious, republicans but it was serious, democrats that it was serious and they could've talked about what to do, but they get trump part stumbled them and ask any of them if they are now in favor of impeachment and they weren't before. >> bret: the democrat debate, two of them, in detroit this week. meantime, new fox poll's on job approval for the president, now 46% approve and disapprove of 51%. you can see a tick up from june. also the president on the economy. take a look at this. 52% approve, which is a bump up from may on that number. >> we've seen this in a number of other national polls, the president getting a little bit of a bump as well as the opinions about the economy and the president's handling the

economy. >> bret: in the midst of the investigations. >> that's where voters have been paying attention. the reason in 2010 i watched almost every single ad run in that midterm election. democrats ran on health care, they ran against the tax cuts. they ran on getting rid of special interest money. they did not talk about donald trump and they did not talk about impeachment and they didn't even talk about russia. those of the fundamental issues and i just want to go back to something mollie said which is true, i do think democrats are going to have a hard time staying on message and staying disciplined on this idea of what are we to impeachment or not. the other issue is that the president will not stay disciplined either. if he stays disciplined on the economy, if he did not send off the tweets, as he often does, he has his own worst enemy and part of the reason that his approval rating is lower than his approval rating on the economy is because of who he is and how he -- >> bret: the democrats are not going to spend a lot of time on these hearings. >> i think that's true. >> bret: mark. >> i think the democrats won back in 2018 because they

flipped republican districts that went for a trumpet focusing table issues in this impeachment drive is actually putting their hold on the house at risk i think because those democrats don't want to focus on impeachment. americans have been very clear they don't want impeachment but interestingly with the americans do not want, the polls show, a majority, they think there was bias against donald trump and the fbi and they want an investigation into how this thing started, and that's what's coming and the reason they want that investigation now is because they were lied to. they were told over and over that donald trump is a russian agent, that he committed treason, he conspired with russia and they want to know how he spent $30 million and came to this moment -- how did this happen? i think the democratic impeachment drive is dead. they may try to give it a live -- >> bret: on impeachment, yes or no? >> no. >> i will go with yes. >> bret: to >> 95 democrats voted for it in a test but the other day. they're not going to go away. they felt that would be for mueller showed up. >> bret: i asked for a "yes"

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