While MSNBC's morning shows were touting the House Judiciary Committee's hearing on the Mueller report that include former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean and MSNBC anti-Trump analysts as expert witnesses, Andrea Mitchell took a different perspective on her Monday afternoon show.

Mitchell questioned former Obama Deputy Assistant Attorney General Elliot Williams, "What can John Dean actually provide?" As Williams began his answer, arguing that Dean "highlights and brings attention to the wrongdoing and the predicate that the committee is hoping to lay for the investigation," Mitchell interjected and asked the former Obama official, "But, is this theater rather than evidence?"

Williams conceded that, "To some extent it’s theater, because look, he is not a fact witness." He would go on to argue that if the committee wanted to get the information it wants, it needs to hear from "either the witnesses who provide the background information in the Mueller report, or Mueller, or a member of his team himself." As for Dean, Williams again conceded Mitchell's point, saying, "he’s 45 years removed from having the most to say."

When MSNBC offers a platform to a former Obama Justice Department official and he says that the Democrats' key witness is there for theatrical purposes and not to provide facts, you know your hearing is teetering on the edge of playacting.

Here is a transcript for the June 10 show: