Trump says testimony 'disaster' for Mueller's reputation after special counsel refutes president's claims he's cleared of obstruction

President appears to to break vow not to watch testimony

Donald Trump has responded to Robert Mueller’s testimony, tweeting a comment from a Fox News anchor that it would be a “disaster” for the special counsel’s reputation, even after he refuted the president’s claim he had cleared him of obstruction of justice.

In one of his first exchanges on Capitol Hill in his appearance before the House of Representative’s judiciary committee, Mr Mueller confirmed his investigation had not exonerated the president on the question of whether or not he acted to obstruct justice.

Asked whether the report exonerated Mr Trump on this issue, the 74-year-old Mr Mueller said: “That is not what the report said.”

Mr Trump had said on Monday, he did not intend to watch Mr Mueller’s testimony. But he appeared to have changed his mind.

On Wednesday, as Mr Mueller was confirming both that his report did not exonerate the president on obstruction, and that it found the Mr Trump had asked the White House counsel to lie on his behalf, the president tweeted comments from Fox News anchor, Chris Wallace.

“This has been a disaster for the Democrats and a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller,” wrote Mr Trump.

It appears Mr Trump had, after all, tuned into his favourite news channel, where Mr Wallace had criticised the special counsel’s performance before the committee.

According to the Daily Beast, during the hearing’s first break, Fox News presenters Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, suggested Mr Mueller had struggled to answer questions, saying the testimony had been “halting”.

Their colleague Chris Wallace, intervened: “I think you both have been very kind. This has been a disaster for the Democrats and I think it’s been a disaster for the reputation of Robert Mueller.”

He claimed Mr Mueller had “seemed very uncertain” with his answers and that he appeared to not know what was in the report that he wrote.

“He has been attacked a number of times and you would think that almost anybody else would have defended his own integrity and the integrity of the investigation and over and over Mueller just sits silent and allows the attacks from the Republicans to sweep over him and says nothing,” said Mr Wallace.

A few minutes later, the president made his first response to the testimony, quoting Mr Wallace’s assessment that the testimony had been a “disaster” for Democrats and the reputation of Mr Mueller.