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Originally Posted by LessinSF
I haven't watched any of the Mueller testimony, but a liberal criminal defense trial attorney friend of mine posted this on Facebook. Thoughts?
LessinSaoPaulo
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I've watched some, and followed some on twitter.
My assessment is very different, but I'm not some flashy criminal defense attorney but a corporate lawyer who spends a lot of time around not at all flashy people trying to get difficult technical issues right.
There was a surprising amount of substance in many of the exchanges with the Dems. Mueller's pace and speech patterns show some of his age, but when he was permitted to speak (the Rs rarely let him get a full response out) he came across with real gravitas - think a male RBG. That substance was uniformly damning for Trump.
It wasn't flashy and the Rs approach of ridiculing him for his age should but may not backfire, but if you paid attention to the substance his performance was mostly thoughtful, direct and articulate. Maybe folks are too used to practiced talking heads with no substance.
If you want to see the best R questioning, pull up Buck's questioning, he was clearly hostile, but it was more focused and on point than any of the other Rs, and Mueller responds well, but he does show his age as he listens and responds, and Buck takes 90% of the time with Mueller mostly getting to respond in just short direct sentences. For dems, look at Shiff's opening, you'll see it around, it lays out the case in chief.