Move over Robert Mueller, the liberal media have found a new love. With House Democrats announcing an impeachment inquiry against President Trump over his phone call with the president of Ukraine, the media promptly dropped the Special Counsel’s inconclusive Russia investigation in favor of the latest promise of Trump’s political downfall. Reporters even went so far as to admit Mueller’s two-year effort was a “confusing” and “convoluted” flop.

“This is also something that happened, right?,” journalist David Gregory said of the Ukraine controversy on CNN’s New Day on Thursday. He then contrasted it with the previous crusade against the President: “In the Mueller investigation, you were trying to prove whether something happened. And there was not proof of collusion in that particular example.”

Wow, it only took the possible of impeachment of Trump on a completely unrelated matter for CNN to acknowledge that Mueller found no evidence of collusion.

On NBC’s Today show later that morning, White House correspondent Kristen Welker explained that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew the Russia investigation went nowhere: “Our reporting overnight...indicates that she is going to focus this on the Ukraine issue broadly. That she believes the Russia matter really got mired and confusing for voters, the tax issue confusing for folks.”

Appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Never Trump Republican Bill Kristol excitedly declared: “...ironically, the fact that the Mueller investigation’s over, it wildly increases the chances of impeachment. Because in the old days, if this had happened a year ago, the House Democrats would have said, ‘We’ll let Mr. Mueller look into it’...now they have no excuse...the ball is in Congress’s lap.”

Fellow panelist Jonathan Lemire, Associated Press White House reporter, agreed and added: “...also of course, that probe operated in total silence and secrecy and it went on for so long with drips and drabs that the American public was sort of confused as to what was going on.”

During an NBC News special report just prior to live coverage of Thursday’s congressional hearing on Ukraine, correspondent Geoff Bennett described the Democrats’ strategy and how they hoped to avoid the mistakes of the Mueller investigation:

But this hearing is critical, I’m told, for Democrats, as they try to push forward with this new formal impeachment inquiry. The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, I’m told by several sources now wants to make this Ukraine controversy, this Ukraine question the central focus of this impeachment effort because the thinking is that this is something that is simple and straightforward, the American people can easily digest what Democrats see as the underlying bad act here. And whereas, other issues, such as the President’s tax returns, violations of the emoluments clauses, findings of the Mueller Report, a lot of that stuff is bogged down in the courts. And Democrats generally think that those issues and the hearings they’ve had here haven’t really moved the needle in terms of how the American public views the President. But when it comes to Ukraine, they think that they have the best argument to make here as they try to build a public case against President Trump.

Leading off MSNBC’s Deadline: White House later that afternoon, host Nicolle Wallace proclaimed: “A single individual has accomplished what the dozens of prosecutors and investigators who worked on Robert Mueller’s 23 month-long investigation never managed to do, focus the attention of Congress and the public on allegations of gross misconduct on the part of Donald Trump in carrying out the nation’s foreign policy.”

On CNN’s The Situation Room later that evening, journalist Bianna Golodryga dismissed the Muller investigation, “which became very convoluted and a lot of it took place prior to the President even being in office.”

Even The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah derided the Mueller Report, telling viewers late Thursday night:

The whistleblower’s complaint has accused the President of soliciting foreign interference in America’s election....this entire complaint is only nine pages long, which means people might actually read it. Because you guys don’t remember, but that was one of the big problems with Robert Mueller’s report, it was like 500 pages. Nobody wants to read 500 pages. You could give me the secret to eternal life, but if it was 500 pages long, I’d be like, “Yeah, I’ll just die, it’s fine.”

On Friday morning, CNN’s New Day seized on the same thing. While lecturing Republican senators who said they have not yet read the whistleblower complaint, co-host John Berman announced: “We read the complaint in realtime in less than three minutes.” Fellow co-host Alisyn Camerota eagerly chimed in: “And by the way, I couldn’t stop reading it after that. It’s a fascinating complaint. It’s short. Senators – you know, lawmakers, you can do this. It’s short and riveting.”

On the show again, David Gregory enthused: “It’s not the Mueller Report, it’s a lot shorter.” Camerota replied: “It’s not the Mueller Report. These are the Cliff Notes.”

Boring, confusing, convoluted – those were not the adjectives the media used to describe the Mueller Report just a few months ago as they desperately tried to keep hope alive.

Now that they have Ukraine, apparently the press just don’t need Russia anymore.

Here are excerpts of the media coverage on September 26 & 27: