Don’t take my word for it, that’s what the Democrats say. For example, David Axelrod:

This is very, very painful. — David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 24, 2019



Also, Chuck Todd (“On optics, this was a disaster.”) and Larry Tribe:

Much as I hate to say it, this morning’s hearing was a disaster. Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it. The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced. — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 24, 2019



Byron York comments on Mueller’s confused performance:

It took just minutes for Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee to turn into a painful exercise when it became clear the 74 year-old special counsel had difficulty handling the questions posed to him about his long, complex investigation into the Trump-Russia affair. Mueller was slow to react to questions. He frequently asked for questions to be repeated. He sometimes appeared confused. He did not appear to be conversant with some issues in the investigation. He did not, or could not, put together detailed answers even to those questions he agreed to address.

***

Mueller’s performance raised questions that reached far beyond one appearance before one committee. It called into doubt the degree to which Mueller was in charge of the entire special counsel investigation. “You wonder how much of this was affecting the investigation,” one Republican member of the House said as he watched Mueller’s testimony. “It sheds a lot of light on what happened the last two years. He wasn’t in charge.”

The most shocking instance that I am aware of is that Mueller was unfamiliar with Fusion GPS, the firm run by Glenn Simpson that was hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign to dig up (or fabricate) dirt on Donald Trump.

“When discussing the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, you reference ‘the firm that produced the Steele reporting.’ The name of that firm was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?” Chabot asked. Mueller asked for the page number the congressman was referring to, and fumbled through his more than 400-page report. “Page 103. That’s correct- Volume II. When you talk about the firm that produced the Steele reporting, the name of the firm that produced that was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?” “I am not familiar with—with that, I—,” Mueller replied.

If Mueller doesn’t know who Fusion GPS is, he not only had little or nothing to do with the production of the report that bears his name, he couldn’t even have been following the news for the past two years. Or else his capacities have faded badly in recent months.

One way or another, the day was a disaster for the Democrats. Whether it deals a death blow to their efforts to keep the Russia hoax alive remains to be seen.

UPDATE: Turn out the lights, the party’s over:

Wow from @RepArmstrongND. “When did you learn one of your top attorneys, Andrew Weissmann, attended Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election night party?” Mueller: “I’m not sure.” Armstrong: “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?” Mueller: “I’m not going to answer that.” — Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) July 24, 2019

ONE MORE THING: As usual, Drudge captures the consensus:

STEVE adds: Even Michael Moore is unimpressed.