Fox News anchor Gillian Turner was obviously shocked as Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) refused to acknowledge, even after being read a direct quote, that the Mueller report did not clear Donald Trump on obstruction of justice.
Although it’s somewhat comical to watch Fleischmann insist on “alternative facts” from the ones Turner was presenting, it’s also terrifying to see such a complete disregard for the truth from a member of Congress.
Turner has worked for the National Security Council in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations and is as straight a shooter as you’ll find at Fox News. Her questions were fact-based and legitimate. Fleischmann’s answers, on the other hand, were anything but.
Turner began by quoting directly from the Mueller report: “…if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state.”
“Now the report does not go on to so state,” Turner continued. “The president’s not in the clear on obstruction of justice, right?”
Fleischmann simply ignored that quote as he repeatedly and falsely insisted that the report fully exonerated Trump.
FLEISCHMANN: The president has done absolutely nothing wrong. The American people have seen the Democrats call for an investigation…”
TURNER: I want to stop you right there, Congressman, because the report itself actually lays out 10 instances in which Mueller presents evidence the president actually did try to commit obstruction of justice. He was only stopped by the good will of his own staff who didn’t carry his orders. Ten instances laid out in the report.
FLEISCHMANN: Let me basically say this. The president has done nothing wrong. He has been totally vindicated. This is a situation where independent investigations have said he has done nothing wrong, nothing criminal. You can have certain opinions involved in that but this has gone on far too long.
TURNER: But Congressman, again, there’s a difference between “nothing criminal” and “nothing wrong.” The report again – Mueller clearly states in the report that it does not exonerate the president from wrongdoing.
FLEISCHMANN: Well, he basically found him guilty of absolutely nothing. You can get into a subjective realm but we are a nation of laws. If the president had done anything wrong, and remember, the Democrats kept moving the goalpost. Listen to their response. It’s totally chaotic. They try to change the goalpost. They argue the world is round, the world is flat. The American people are tired of the taxpayer waste of dollars. They’ve been looking into this – Democrats have asked for report after report. They are not going to be happy until they basically see an election in 2020. They’re all over the place.
TURNER: Congressman, your own colleagues for many months at the beginning of the year, took to our air and other networks to say that the president would never even consider, would never call for the firing of Robert Mueller but what has been laid bare in the report itself now is that on June 17, 2017, the president picked up the phone, called his White House Counsel, Don McGahn, at home and asked him to do exactly that. How do you defend that?
FLEISCHMANN: President Trump allowed Mueller to do his job. Congress allowed Mueller to do his job. Mueller did his job and he has been vindicated by the report, by Mueller, by Barr and the American people are tired of the chaotic way that the Democrats have continued…
TURNER: Alright, we’re clearly not gonna get off the talking points so let’s move on to the border.
Watch Fleischmann act more like a member of a cult than the representative of an entire American Congressional district below, from the April 20, 2019 America’s News HQ.