Well, that didn’t last long.

Dems and talking heads on TV were speculating that the way Robert Mueller answered a question from Ted Lieu during round 1 of questioning meant that Donald Trump would have been indicted for obstruction of justice if he wasn’t the president. Mueller started out round 2 of hearings just a few minutes ago and cleaned that up:

OUCH. Democrats were circulating Mueller's exchange with Ted Lieu on the OLC opinion as one of their big talking points. Mueller just blew it up in this hearing. "That is not the correct way to say it." #MuellerHearing — Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) July 24, 2019

From this morning’s hearing ICYMI:

Lieu: "The reason you did not indict Donald Trump… is because of the OLC decision. Is that correct?" Mueller: "That is correct." — Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) July 24, 2019

OMFG this is so sad:

Ted Lieu even retweeted his "big moment" replayed on the cable news that Mueller just walked back. Sad! pic.twitter.com/3lYB2roU7e — Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) July 24, 2019

Talk about a buzzkill:

Mueller clarifies his response to @tedlieu in the Judiciary hearing, that he “did not charge the president because of the OLC opinion”— “That is not the correct way to say it,” Mueller said. “We did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime.” — Abigail Tracy (@abigailtracy) July 24, 2019

Mueller explicitly backs away from his comment to Rep. @tedlieu that Trump would have been indicted but for the OLC opinion. Mueller says that that is not quite correct, and he reverts to his standard phrasing that he did not reach a view on that. An important backtrack. — Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) July 24, 2019

Mueller went back and corrected the one potential bombshell from the judiciary hearing: His answer to the @tedlieu question that Mueller did not charge Trump because of OLC policy, to which Mueller answered affirmative. He's now saying it should not be characterized like that. — Dan Sweeney (@Daniel_Sweeney) July 24, 2019

Watch here:

Mueller adding a correction to his testimony this morning… "I want to go back to one thing that was said this morning by Mr. Lieu who said, and I quote, 'you didn’t charge the president because of the OLC opinion.' That is not the correct way to say it." pic.twitter.com/H0iUJ03nyi — Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) July 24, 2019

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Related:

Following Mueller testimony, Resistance hero Laurence Tribe sounds ready to throw in the towel https://t.co/4QAqM2DxX7 — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 24, 2019

Robert Mueller dodges questions on Andrew Weissmann https://t.co/4BSc0q816A — Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) July 24, 2019