CNN's Anderson Cooper prebuts Trump, GOP talking points on Mueller's testimony

On Wednesday morning, "a quiet, retired public servant will go before a pair of House committees to talk about a 448-page document," though perhaps only former Special Counsel Robert Mueller would prefer his high-profile testimony be described that way, Anderson Cooper said on CNN Tuesday night. "House Democrats who will be questioning him tomorrow spent the day prepping for it. The president's Republican defenders circulated talking points, which CNN has now obtained. The president has been tweeting and talking about it — no surprise — and this is, whether he thinks it ought to be or not, a key moment in his presidency and a critical one for the country."

Even if Mueller stays within the confines of his report on Russian election interference and Trump obstruction of justice, his testimony "is still tremendously important," because "most people have not" read his report, and "so many, including the president — especially the president — have been mischaracterizing what the report actually says," Cooper said. So he read some key parts of the report, including its opening and closing lines, and sections in which Mueller suggests he would have charged Trump with obstruction of justice if he thought he could.

"By the way, one of the Republican talking points ... says: 'The president never interfered with anyone or any part of the investigation and was committed to transparency throughout the entire process,'" Cooper said. "I mean that, that's a talking point. It's clearly not true, according to the Mueller report. ... As for another talking point, that the report did not establish that the campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election interference, that is true. What's not true is the talking point claiming the report confirmed there was no collusion, which it didn't."

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"Just to repeat Robert Mueller's first words, 'The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,'" Cooper said. "As for his last words on the subject, stay tuned til tomorrow."