Tom Nichols

Opinion columnist

Robert Mueller has finally testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees. We learned nothing new about Mueller’s report, but we learned a lot about the Republican Party — and especially how low elected Republicans are willing to go in order to defend President Donald Trump.

There were no surprises from the former special counsel, who tried to warn congressional Democrats weeks ago that he would not resolve their paralysis on impeachment. The format of the hearings, with five minutes apportioned out to each of the members, was predictably awful and exhausting. Some of the Democratic members wasted their time trying to coax Mueller into giving them the go-ahead on impeachment; others, however, took a more productive walk with Mueller through the evidence in the report. Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island, for example, hammered on Trump’s attempts to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, while Rep. Adam Schiff of California recited the roster of Trump cronies who are now known liars.

But it was the Republicans who put on a real show — attacking Mueller while rehashing the fever-swamp theories that they know will land them prized moments on Fox News.

Finding the truth was not the goal

Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, always a reliable embarrassment for the GOP, started by putting into the record a hit job he wrote on Mueller — Robert Mueller: Unmasked. He railed at Mueller about perpetuating “injustice” to the point where the usually stoic former FBI director broke his Joe Friday demeanor, held up his hand and said dismissively: “I take your question.”

Halting but devastating: Robert Mueller testimony on Trump and Russia was a litany of facts that point to impeachment

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio did his usual everyman-in-shirtsleeves act, trying to get Mueller to explain why he didn’t indict Joseph Mifsud, the shadowy Maltese academic identified in Mueller’s report as “connected to Russia” and who told the hapless George Papadopoulos about the Russians having Hillary Clinton’s emails. “Is Mifsud Western intelligence or Russian intelligence?” Jordan asked — as though Mueller could, or should, answer a stupid and loaded question like that in public by revealing sensitive information.

Trump, of course, is the president of the United States and could get this answer himself any time he wanted it. Jordan knows this. But Jordan wasn’t trying to get to the truth; he was trying to imply that Mueller was doing the bidding of dark forces aligned against the White House. Jordan then blasted Mueller for indicting "13 Russians no one's ever heard of, no one's ever seen" — as though spies from Russian military intelligence aren’t real unless they’re personally known to the U.S. congressman from Ohio-4.

Auditions for an audience of one

Other Republicans, however, were more polished than Gohmert and Jordan. Admittedly, that’s a low bar to clear, but Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas, a relatively new member of Congress, took a clever run directly at Mueller’s refusal to exonerate Trump of wrongdoing.

Ratcliffe accused Mueller of violating Department of Justice rules from the start, noting that the president is not above the law, but that “he damn sure shouldn't be below the law.” He then proceeded to insist that the entire question of exoneration was above Mueller’s pay grade: “Nowhere does it say that you were to conclusively determine Donald Trump’s innocence or that the special counsel report should determine whether or not to exonerate him.”

President Trump immediately picked up this talking point on Wednesday afternoon in a meeting with reporters that was angry and panicky even by the usual standards of the president’s hostile relations with the news media. After claiming that Mueller had exonerated him, he then irrationally pivoted to Ratcliffe’s claim that Mueller "didn't have the right to exonerate" him in any case.

Ratcliffe must have been pleased because, according to administration sources cited by CNN, he's apparently under consideration for an intelligence or national security position in the Trump administration. If his questioning was meant as an ostentatious show of loyalty, it hit the mark.

And then there was Rep. Devin Nunes of California.

Last fall, I argued for voting against the GOP from top to bottom as the only way to defeat the vehicle for Trump’s emerging cult of personality, and to deprive Republicans of their leadership positions in the House. I specifically argued for removing Nunes from the chairmanship of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he was acting as little more than a Trump cat's-paw.

Babbling to cover Trump's tracks

Nunes’ behavior in the Mueller hearing was Exhibit A in why I made that case.

The now ranking member of the intelligence panel did not give an opening statement so much as he regurgitated the full Deep State catechism. He welcomed the room to the “last gasp of the Russia collusion conspiracy theory” and then launched into his own cover versions of Trump’s greatest hits: Hillary Clinton, Bruce Ohr, Fusion GPS, Peter Strzok and “his lover,” Mifsud, and on and on. It was five minutes of cringe-inducing capering that was aimed, like every other Republican’s performance, at the millions of gullible Trump supporters who refuse to believe what’s in front of their eyes.

More important, Nunes was speaking to an audience of one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Like Ratcliffe, Nunes is possibly up for a senior job in the administration, and one can never be too obsequious when looking for a job from Donald Trump.

New course needed:After Mueller testimony, time for an impeachment investigation

The Republicans once prided themselves on being the toughest opponents of America’s enemies. They have now been reduced to inane babbling about conspiracy theories, excusing the Russians, whitewashing the hostile foreign intelligence service called WikiLeaks, and attacking a man of indisputable honor and probity — a fellow Republican, no less — all in the name of covering Trump’s tracks.

"Jesus, forgive me for ever being a Republican," MSNBC host and former Florida Congressman Joe Scarborough tweeted Wednesday as he watched what he called "the screaming" and "the stupidity" of the GOP.

I know the feeling. I left the party after the ascent of Donald Trump. But after the Mueller hearings, I have never been prouder to be an ex-Republican.

Mueller’s appearance in Congress was a day of shame for the GOP, and it is preview of the tactics we can expect from the former party of national security should its leader ever be called to account before the American people.

Tom Nichols is a national security professor at the Naval War College, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and author of "The Death of Expertise." The views expressed here are solely his own. Follow him on Twitter: @RadioFreeTom