Stephen Colbert and Fox News' Chris Wallace spar over whether Mueller's testimony was a 'disaster'

Stephen Colbert and Chris Wallace debate Mueller&#039;s testimony

(Image credit: screenshot/Twitter/The Late Show)

published 25 July 2019

Fox News host Chris Wallace said former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's testimony was "a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller" just 90 minutes into six hours of hearings, Stephen Colbert noted to Wallace on Wednesday's Late Show. "So is Fox News' motto 'We report and decide before the thing's over'?" Wallace stood by his assessment.

"In what way was it a disaster? I don't understand," Colbert said. "Yes you do," Wallace responded. "I promise you I don't," Colbert said. "No, it seemed like a well-organized and choreographed recitation of the moral, ethical, and criminal failings of the president of the United States," interspersed with Republicans trying to discredit Mueller and his report.

"We heard the factual statements from the report back in March, when the report was released," Wallace said. "The report is what the report is, and it raises some very troubling questions about the president's behavior, but the whole reason that the Democrats ... wanted to have this hearing is, they kept saying, the quote was: 'People aren't going to read the book, they'll watch the movie.' The movie was a snore. And part of it was, frankly, because Robert Mueller seemed not in control of his brief, he didn't seem in charge."

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"These are all performance notes you're giving," Colbert said — Wallace agreed — "and they only mean something because we've become desensitized to the shock of the information that they were laying out for us." "But all of that was in the report," Wallace repeated. He agreed with Colbert that Trump's failings, as detailed by Mueller, are "shocking," "but I don't think they were more shocking today than they were when the report was released in March. ... You say, well, these are performance, theater critics notes. The fact is, that's what this was all about ... to breathe life into the report," and "they didn't breathe life into the report." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.