of just saying i do, they can brag he did come. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> and thank you so much for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. a day and a half from now former special counsel robert mueller will go before a pair of house committees and be asked about the russia investigation. there will be breaking news on that and a letter from the justice department that says it was sent at mueller's request reminding him not to go beyond the boundaries of his public report and we learned the former special counsel has not shown his old bosses the opening statement he'll get on wednesday, all of which serves to add more drama to the moment. no testimony in recent memory has been so widely anticipated, even though tonight's breaking news not with standing the witness has already made it clear what he will and won't say. >> any testimony from this office would not go beyond our

report. it contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. we chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. and the report is my testimony. i would not provide information beyond that which is already public and any appearance before congress. >> that was the out going special counsel, a little less than two months ago telling anyone who wants to know his thinking with respect to the investigation to just read the report. at the same time, though, the very fact he gave that press conference at all which came as a surprise signalled something else as did his earlier letter complaining how his report was bei being characterized by barr and he liked people misrepresenting the work of his office less adding to the drama, the testimony before the judiciary

committee which is necessary. not everyone has read it all they say to which cynics added and not even committee members which means millions of viewer wills hear some or all of this for the first time including the bottom line in the obstruction of justice from page two of volume two of the special counsel's report and i'm quoting now, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. and they did not so state. we're on tonight for two hours and will be devoting a lot of time to the report itself to the testimony and the significance of this moment. it is a big deal clearly even if the man in the white house who tried and failed today to significa suggest it's old news and no big deal, certainly not to him. >> i'm not going to be watching. i'll see a little of it. i won't watch mueller because you can't take all those bites

out of the apple. we had no collusion, no obstruction. we had no nothing. we had a total no collusion finding. it said no collusion. the report was written and the attorney general based on the report was easily able to find there was no obstruction. there is no nothing. >> keeping them honest as you saw in that key sentence from the report, that is not the conclusion nor does the report clear the campaign on the question of collusion. in fact, it lays out many examples of the campaign the president's son don junior and the president himself welcoming help or interference some which has never, i repeat never been part of any presidential campaign before. in addition to reports says and i'm quoting again the investigation established that several individuals affiliated with the trump campaign lied to the office and to congress about their interactions with russian affiliated individuals and related matters. those lies materially impaired the investigation of russian election interference. this, of course, speaks to

obstruction and perhaps collusion depending what was being hidden behind false testimony. none of what the president said is true and whether he's read it or not he seems to be leaning on attorney general barr's characterization of the report and his decision not to bring indictments against the president. as you know, the attorney general's actions and statements made his impartiality clear, which doesn't seem to concern the president who is focused on just one individual. >> and robert mueller, i know he's conflicted. there is a lot of conflicts he's got including the fact his best friend is comey but he has conflicts with me, too. he's got big conflicts with me. he wanted the job of the fbi director. he didn't get it. and we had a business relationship where i said no and i would say that he wasn't happy then all of a sudden, he gets this position but you know what? he still ruled and i respect him for it. he still ruled no collusion, no

obstruction. >> so again, that second part is untrue as by the way is the first part in order, like just take this in order from mueller his best friend is not james comey. robert mueller did not seek the job of fbi director. there was no business relationship nor falling out. what he's talking about concerned mr. mueller requesting a refund for the unused balance of a membership from one of the president's country clubs. literally, every single assertion of fact from the president there is not true. it's false. which may be the single best reason to have the hearings on wednesday to hear something about all of this from the man in question instead of only the man under suspicion. joining us now is a member of the house judiciary committee among those asking the questions, democrat david sic sy of road oh lahode island. does that affect what you and your colleagues hope the achieve on wednesday? >> no, look, i think we all

understand that mr. mueller is likely to limit his testimony to the contents of his report and his investigation. i do think it's sort of curious that the president's lawyers thought it was important to remind him of his commitment to do that and make this sort of ridiculous claim that there is executive privilege attaching to everything else. i mean, think about that. the subject of an investigation claiming executive privilege on the content of the investigation is absurd. there is no basis for that. i don't think mr. mueller intended to go beyond the contents of his report. >> i want to -- personally what your strategy is on wednesday. how do you plan on getting answers you want or at least responses you want from the former special counsel? >> well, i think what you'll see from the committee is a very strategic, very sober examination of mr. mueller in which we will allow him to really tell story of what he found, the evidence he uncovered, the conclusions he made about the president for example directing his legal

counsel don mcgahn to fire the special counsel, to fire mr. mueller, that he then directed don mcgahn to lie and said he never told him to do that and directed him to create a false document memorializing that lie for the future. he also, we'll hear testimony from mr. mueller about corey lewandowski being summoned by the president to the white house being told to go tell the attorney general of the united states jeff sessions to tell the special counsel to limit his investigation to future presidential elections, not the election of 2016. those are just two examples of clear obstruction of justice by the president of the united states and i think what you'll hear from mr. mueller is a recounting of the evidence in the report that supports the claims of serious misconduct by this president and i think it will incredibly important for the american people to hear it from the special counsel that prepared the report and lead the investigation. >> you're with democrats trying to coordinate and focus on

instances and walking mueller through it because you believe those instances are the most informative in terms of what you believe went on. >> well, there are ten specific instances. at least five of those all three elements of that offense are met. so i think you'll see a real emphasis on those five in particular and then additional questions about the balance. but this is really about the special counsel really for most americans for the first time they will hear the contents of the mueller report. i mean, most of the american people haven't read the report. i did in its inteeintirety. that's my job. so for most people, this will be the first time they will hear what is in that report, what was actually found in this investigation by mr. muller and his team. it's a damming report with really disturbing evidence against the president, and i think it's going to have a powerful impact on the american

people. >> you're limited on time in how long you can ask questions for, how long you can speak for and the length of time that mueller is actually going to be sitting for questions. i've heard a number of people express concern that, you know, it is often times members of congress making opening statements and sometimes that opening statement goes on for quite sometime. do you expect that to occur given the time constraints overall you're working under? >> no, i don't think you'll see that. i think you'll see most members go directly to their questions to give mr. mueller the opportunity to really speak to the american people and the committee. this is not a hearing which members of congress should have any interest in highlighting themselves. it is really about giving mr. mueller an opportunity to give the american people this important information about what he found, i think you'll see people go quickly to their questions and avoid lots of speeches. i know you'll see that on the democratic side. we understand from our republican colleagues they will try the same old, same old attack the fbi, attack the credibility of mr. mueller, bring up peter strzok, a bunch

of red herrings to distract from a very damming testimony from the special counsel about the conduct of the president. >> graph who wrote a minute, every minute of public testimony or statement he's ever given, his top three bits of advice for lawmakers questioning mueller is one, the former special counsel is better at this than you are in his words, two mueller doesn't care about what you care about and three, he doesn't play word games and he's already done your work. could mueller, i mean, does any of that ring true to you or is that a concern for you? >> no, i think that's why mr. mueller will be an excellent witness. i think people recognize he's a person of extra ordinary integrity and thoughtful andda remember deb lib rid. he was a great patriot to take on this responsibility. this was an important investigation about the attack

of our democracy but russians and the coverup and his responsibility is to share the conclusions of this report with the american people. it a proceeding that will be serious where i think people understand the gravity of this moment but again, i think what he will reveal is really damming evidence about this president engaged in specific acts that would constitute obstruction of justice for any other person except the president of the united states because of the olc opinions saying a sitting president can't be charged. >> congressman, if you would, stay with us. i want to bring in kerry and julian epstein that served as chief counsel during the clinton impeachment. i know you have some -- julian, i know you have questions for the congressman. >> congressman, this is carrie. assuming he's not going to answer the ultimate question of whether in his view as a prosecutor all of the facts that are documented in volume two

constitute obstruction and then if he doesn't answer that question, that doesn't really change the minds of other members of the house as to whether or not there should be an impeachment inquiry. what's that going to say about whether or not congress is capable of holding a president accountable? >> well, i think mr. mueller will certainly say what is in the very end of his report, the final paragraphs that in fact the responsibility to hold a president accountable rests with congress to vindicate the principle nobody is above the law. i think we can certainly ask whether or not the elements of obstruction of justice have been met and you're right, he will say he's bound by the olc opinion but it will be an important time to remind people 1,000 federal prosecutors signed a letter and all of them said that if an individual had committed the offense as described in the mueller report, they would charge that individual with multiple counts of obstruction of justice.

i think it will be very powerful to hear it come from mr. mueller himself. >> julian? >> well, congressman, in '98 when we were effectively defending president clinton, it was easier to play defense than it was for the republicans to play offense when public opinion shifted against impeachment as it had done here. seems like the republican playbook is careful to stick with the bottom line conclusions of mueller, which is there is no underlying criminal conspiracy and that he will continue to remain noncommittal on the question of obstruction as i think he probably has to. it seems to me the game you have to play is to get him to commit to the idea that i wasn't really making a final judgment on some of these legal questions. i was deferring it to congress and then you kind of have to get into what are going to be some very graphic details. it's true there wasn't evidence of conspiracy but that doesn't mean there was evidence of collusi collusion. there are dozens and dozens of

examples of the trump campaign meeting, discussing, encouraging and benefits from criminal russian interference and it seems like the job of the democrats is to pay -- is to illustrate those and similarly on obstruction, there are a number of kind of important questions you can ask that can illustrate without forcing mueller to commit on the question of obstruction that can illustrate that the activity was obstruction. how do you intend to do that? things do you intend to key on? >> well, i think, you know, we will look at specifically the obstruction of justice offenses that there are five of them in which the special counsel found that all three elements were satisfied. so i think our focus will be principally on those. you'll hear questions about volume one about the trump campaign and contacts with the russians welcoming help and not

sufficient to establish aconspi see them benefitting from interference reminding people who what is at stake is the security of the democracy and this was an take on american democracy and followed by the effort to cover up and inpamped the investigation. you'll see us go through the elements of the offense, the conduct of the president i think you'll hear a lot of questions what did you find the president did here? did you find the president say here? again, the mueller report comes to life by it contents. the four corners of the document are damming and disturbing and substantial evidence of wrongdoing and our only mission is to bring that report to through robert mueller. we don't need to add anything. we need the american people to understand what he found. >> appreciate your time.

we'll continue the conversation after a short break. thomas freed man from "the new york times" and the president's remarks about him after the op ed column called him racist and democrats that want to win the white house next year, ahead. let's see, aleve is proven better on pain than tylenol extra strength. and last longer with fewer pills. so why am i still thinking about this? i'll take aleve. aleve. proven better on pain. crabfest is back at red lobster with 9 craveable crab creations. from the new ultimate crabfest trio with three kinds of wild-caught crab to the return of crab lover's dream! grab your crab crew, hurry in or order it to go!

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each one. do you get the sense they are not going to be able to get him to answer the biggest question, which is whether or not mueller would have charged the president with obstruction of justice if he was not anyone but the sitting president? >> yeah, i think the congressman who was just on, i think he even conceded that point. all indications up until today were that bob mueller was not going to answer that question, although, there were some sort of, you know, out lying hope that maybe he would, maybe he would go beyond what was written in the actual report. i think that letter that came from doj tonight putting the nail in the coffin, he's not going to answer the question. so then the question becomes what can they elicit from him? from the facts described particularly in volume two, obstruction which is what the committee is most concerned with and the congressman sounded awfully optimistic to me and i'm afraid that it's overly optimistic because bob mueller doesn't want to tell a story. he's a reluctant witness.

he didn't want to do this hearing. he doesn't want to be there. he doesn't want to be there to give the narrative and tell the story and all he's going to need is prompts from the congressman and launch into it. they will -- it's going to be really challenging for these members to elicit the information they want as opposed to asking him a question and he just gives the most concise possible limited answer that he can. >> yeah, julian, do you -- you know, the congressman said he doesn't expect members of congress who are doing the questioning on the democratic side to be making long statements as often most of them seem to want to do for whatever reason that may be, whether it's getting on the local news or just making a statement and being seen. do you believe that they will be able to resist that urge and really just get to questioning because the time is pretty short on this. >> the time is pretty short. this is a be careful what you wish for moment for the democrats because they will have

two unsatisfying answer with the criminal conspiracy and second, on trying to get mueller to come hit on the obstruction issue, which i just don't think he'll commit on. i think they have to limit the opening statements and get to -- there is a rich story here about the extent to which the trump campaign communicated and encouraged and benefitted from a legal russian intelligence interference here and there is a rich story to tell and a rich story on some of the elements. the question is, you know, are they going to be able to persuade anyone. when john dean testified before the house judiciary committee or the senate watergate committee in 1973, 80 million people watched. my guess is 15 million people will be watching on wednesday. only 21% of the public right now supports impeachment of the democratic caucuses divided. the question is will the democrats be able to get into a rich bounty of material on collusion, which was short of conspiracy, on obstruction, even

if mueller won't commit on it and kind of tell a story about really odo really odious contact. is anybody listening? can they change any minds? my guess is probably not and i think we're nearing the end of the impeachment question now. i don't think that's really viable now. >> interesting. just days after robert mueller testifies, democratic candidates for president return to the debate stage as testimony could become one of the hot topics but up next, thomas freedman tells us why the 2020 field needs to refocus and maybe a reset. we'll be right back. (vo) the insurance institute for highway safety rates vehicles for safety, and some reach a level of top safety pick. but only a select few of the very safest vehicles are awarded

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next week 20 take the stage in detroit for two nights of livecnn. they could be teeing up in easy reelection for president trump. in the latest piece, freedman shares when he thinks would be a better strategy and force several contenders to change their message but the president blasted freed mman for the colu

and suggested freed man kiman kp to him during a phone cuall tha night. thomas freed mman joins me now. >> i want to give you a chance to respond to what he had to say about you.i want to give you a respond to what he had to say about you. >> the president tweeted about a private conversation we had and lob in a few insults. my response i put on twitter is, you know, i was encouraged by a friend of his to speak to him after the downing of the american drone because i thought it was wise that we not retaliate and i thought he was wise not to retaliate and this friend of his wanted me to encourage him in that because he was evidently agonizing a little over that not retaliating. and i did that. i began the conversation by saying that i disagree with you, mr. president, on many things but i think you did the right thing on this.

he talked for about four minutes. we also talked about china and left it at that. i believe that when you speak to the president, you should be respectful. i would encourage him to do that, as well, when he speaks about other people but the main point was that for me understanding it's not about him or me. it's about america. and that's why on issues where i've agreed with the president on china for instance or on not retaliating on iran, i have no problem saying that and where i disagree with him violently on issues like labeling four american congresswomen basically as aliens who should go back to another country where three of them were born here, i will speak out as strongly as i can about that and so that is what it's about. >> it's interesting. on the issue of the four

congress women and all the things the president said, it's hard to know exactly how to kind of day after day focus, report on it because in someways, there is some strategy involved in his mind. much of it is sort of temporary strategy or just something he says and then it seems to be working for him in his mind and he continues with it but i just from a reporting standpoint, it's an interesting way how not to fall into the trap of just following every tweet that he says and yet at the same time, not ignoring racist language or things which are clearly racist or just many of the things the president of the united states now routinely says. >> it is a real challenge. i think there is kind of a political response and media response. my political response after denouncing this kind of bald face racism by the president of the united states, which is

really vile, denouncing the people in that audience who were shouting send her back s, once u do that it's important to use his energy and leverage against him. if i were the democrats, i would have announced a telethon the next day to raise $100 million to register a million new democrats in every swing state and every swing district in america and every hour i would have sent the president a thank you note that his energy, his vile energy we turned into something positive and we registered a million new voters are. if you get into the fight with him where he does his thing and democrats and critics in the media just say you're bad, that just doesn't work anymore. it's clear his supporters have made they are peace with who he is. they know who he is. the republican party has completely rolled over for him. we're not going to -- there is no new information we can give anyone. i think the only thing you can

do is build your leverage to change the one thing that will be totally differentiatindiffer anderson, that's removing donald trump from the presidency, the way he came in by a popular mandate of the american people. that's all i'm focused on right now, and -- >> you wrote a really interesting column i wanted to talk to you about because you have a lot of people coming up to you saying he's going to win again, isn't he? i have a lot of people saying that to me over the last two years constantly. and you're arguing that the democratic candidates are not really getting it right, that now is not the right time for a revolution. >> you know, i think we have to start with the fact how did the democrats win the house back in 2018? they won the house by winning congressional seats in districts that donald trump won, carried in the presidential election and they did that by appealing to independents, moderate

republicans and suburban women for different reasons had become totally alienated for trump. to win the presidency, you got to hold those very same voters while also engiergizing the bas. i get that. when you listen to the democratic debates and i think when i drill down at people and say why do you feel trump will win, i keep bumping up against the democratic debates when they heard people talking about decriminalizing people who enter the country illegally that act and i personally think you should have to ring the doorbell when you come into our country. >> that was the position julian castro -- >> right. and many people seem -- some people seem to agree with. i don't think giving away health care to illegal immigrants is an automatic thing. i think it's something really better be thinking about when you consider the health care needs and demands of americans like veterans, you know, for instance. i think taking away the private health care of 250 million

americans who are one way or another covered by that and replacing with medicare and a good ultimate goal, that's something you want to build up to. i think that just shocked a lot of people. it shocked a lot of moderate democrats and certainly, it was probably a real shock to some of those independent, moderate republicans and suburban women you need to win. my main point is you want a revoluti revolution, i'll give you a revolution. four more years of donald trump and this behavior, four years in which he would likely appoint two more supreme court justices under the age of 40. four more years of republicans rolling over for him when he will be unconstrained by any need to be reelected. that will be a revolution. in fact, i think it would leave our country, our norms, values and institutions in a tatter that i'm not sure would be recoverable for. >> tom, stick around. there is question democratic voters are likely asking

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back with thomas freedman, "thank you for being late."

there is an opening for a unifier. how much of an opening is there? we've seen and we're currently seeing there certainly remains an opening for a divider. >> yeah, i, you know, just judging from the feedback this column got, i think there is a lot of people out there who really want someone to keep it bay s basically simple and the symbol is democratic messages, i think national unity. there are a lot of people around the country, anderson, earning for someone that will pull the country together. i think there is a lot of people feeling like we're heading for civil war political civil war. there is a huge yearning for that. i would say to focus on good jobs, real jobs, jobs that come with benefits where someone can actually sustain a middle class lifestyle, you know, a family of four with rising aspirations. i would keep it very simple around those two things.

that doesn't mean if a democrat wins they shouldn't pursue these other agendas but i think if you really get yourself tied up in these other things, there is a real danger that in this world with this guy donald trump who is very effective at smelling out people's weaknesses, going after it, i think you can get tied up in knots. i keep it very simple. national unity and good jobs. >> the president does have an extraordinary ability to kind of zero in on a weakness or a perceived weakness and just kind of start needling into it and opening it up deeper and deeper. >> well, i think the one way to get it his weakness is to say you're a chump. wait a minute, you? you moved the embassy, the u.s. embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem and got nothing for it? no. no, don't tell me that. you gave away one of the prime diplomatic assets we could use

to sweeten leverage in the israeli palestinian deal and you gave it for free? exactly have you gotten from north korea other than a seize fire? i mean, trump the chump does fall off the tongue fairly easily and there is a lot of evidence for it. >> it's interesting, though, because the kind of candidate you're talking about with not focussing on revolution, a green new deal, medicare, you know, taking away private health insurance, those -- you look advise president biden on that debate stage the last time, he couldn't come up with an argument to defend himself against kamala harris on his record. there is a lot of people looking at that saying well, let's see how he does the next time. if he can't push back on democrats to his left or to his right, how is he going to do anything with donald trump? >> i worry about that. the thing i fall back on, anderson, those debates are so

awkward. so weird. you're up there with, you know, a dozen people or however many. you have four seconds. people are trying to butt in all the time. i know i wouldn't do well there. and i think i just want to give this more time. i think it's -- my bet is you're going to see someone like kamala harris move to the middle now. i think some of the stuff revealed in the last weeks, how democratic voters felt. there is a big opening in the middle. i think she'll try to differentiate herself from sanders and warren. i find a lot of people liking how buttigieg talks like -- i like the way he talks about his faith. i like the way he talks about abortion with sensitivity. i like the way he can call out evangelicals for supporting trump. which part of the bible justifies this behavior? he's an interesting character. he comes from a very small town but, you know, there is people in there i think that in time

could really start to i think differentiate themselves. i want to give it time. i don't want to write anybody off yet. >> do you see any candidate now who at this stage knows how to run against donald trump? i mean, he eliminated an incredible field of republicans the last time around. he's willing to go to places that no one else is willing to go, i don't mean geographical locations but places, racist places, he has no shame in that regard in terms of how low he might take the debate. do you see any democrat who actually really you think knows how to run against him? >> i see two, anderson. but neither is available. one is called bill clinton and the other is called barack obama. but right now i don't but i think it's really early. when you're focused on democrats against him in a single race,

and so i want to give that time. >> but you would take lessons from how bill clinton got elected, how barack obama got elected? >> yeah, you know, bill clinton and obama both had that possibility to hold the base, appeal to the center and reach to the other side and also were both quick. they had whit and a tinkle in their eye and they also knew when someone was speaking crazy stuff in a debate, just how to raise their eyebrow and say like where did you learn to talk that way? >> done freedman, good to have you. up next, more on the breaking news involving robert mueller and the tale of the tape mueller appeared dozens of times. how he conducts himself and what we can learn about the upcoming testimony when the heat is on. [alarm beeping]

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back to our breaking news, a letter from the justice department which says it was sent at robert mueller's request reminding him not to go beyond the boundaries of his public report when he testifies on wednesday. former special counsel is going to have to navigate claims of congressional privilege versus those of oversight. ran randi kaye. >> when robert mueller testifies, he's laser focused, never saying more than he has to, never claiming to know more than he does. >> do you have any idea about the percentage of members of let's say ms-13, because that's in the news lately, might be here illegally? >>ism do n is do not. i'd have to get back to you on that. >> reporter: at his fbi director

nomination hearing, he showed a rare moment of light heartedness when asked about fbi managers being required to take polygraph tests. >> i have already taken that polygraph. >> the only reason i asked that question is because i knew you had and i think it's important for people to -- how did you do? >> i'm sitting here. that's all i can say. >> we just have a good examiner, that's all. >> reporter: muller has testified dozens of times over the years. it's all preserved and catalogued online by c-span. we reviewed more than 10 hours of it. while he's most often precise and polite, he does not like to be pushed around. that was evident in 2013 when he testified about the boston marathon bombings. >> why did no one go to the mosque and say who are these guys? they may attend here. why was that not done since such a thorough job was done? >> reporter: nor does he like to be interrupted. >> your facts are not

altogether -- >> point out specifically. >> may i finish -- >> if you're going to ount ot specifically -- >> we went to the mosque prior to boston as part of our outreach efrpts. >> were you aware those mosques were started by al amoudi? >> i answered the questions. >> reporter: even when things get heated, he's calm and cool. >> you're asking questions about the detail about the investigation. >> that took prior to the investigation being starred. >> may i finish, please. i'd be happy to get back to you and answer those questions that i can. >> reporter: in 2007, mueller was questioned about a conversation with john ashcroft, the topic, a controversial wire tapping program run by the nas

security agency. he stood his ground protecting privacy conversations. >> i'm asking you to tell us what the conversation was. >> i don't think there's a privilege and i don't want a conversation. what's in your psyche? that's not a conversation. that's a state of mind. >> to the extent i follow through on the state of mind, it is a conversation. i would resist getting into that conversation. >> reporter: despite his rigidness, mueller has also shown humility, like during this 2013 exchange about surveillance and smartphones where he admitted he hadn't prepared properly for the questioning. >> it's terribly disappointing to come and talk about something in the headlines of every newscast, i gave the questions in advance. >> they noted that i would be asked on that, i might add. so it's my fault. >> reporter: humility from a man-hours away from what he hopes will be his last hearing on capitol hill. >> a lot of experience. joining to discuss robert

mueller's career and someone who worked under him at the fbi, john pistol. >> i think the piece that randi too teed up, those are examples where he'll be factual, responsive to the question, perhaps succinct in those responses and some may even find that to be terse in terms of short, to-the-point responses, but i think he will try to also refer back to the written report as much as possible so much he doesn't elaborate on that with his opinion or recommendations or things beyond the scope of the report. >> do you see him actually ending up kind of reading from the report itself? >> i could see him doing that if

members ask him questions that are directly answered in the report, i can see him say, well, i've apr i've addressed that, the special counsel team has addressed that in the report. if he is pressed too much, he may even say, for example, on page 67 you'll find a specific answer to that and then he may pull that out and read it, perhaps just to delay that or extend the timing of his answer so limiting other questions and things like that. we'll see about that. >> it seems like the democrats on the committee would be fine if he is just reading from the report. it seems like what they want is, you know, robert mueller on television even if it's him reading. they feel people will learn something they didn't otherwise know because most people have not read the report. >> well, that's right. i saw something on the weekend that said those surveyed, perhaps only 2% to 3% of people

have read the entire report. it understandable. it is somewhat dense in places. if you don't have a legal or investigative background, i can see how people could get bogged down. the key would be if the democrats are focusing what are the big takeaways from volume one and volume two and then in totality, what are the conclusions. even if they had him read some of the conclusions in the report, that would be the first time if many people, if not most people, have heard that specific language. >> i appreciate you being with us, john. thank you very much. >> you bet. >> up next, we'll devote our entire next hour to robert mueller's testimony, what his report said, what president trump said about it and the political implications of it. a big day on capitol hill breaking down the key points made in the mueller report. smart bed you can both the0 adjust your comfort with your sleep number setting. so, can it help us fall asleep faster? yes, by gently warming your feet.

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chris cuomo is off tonight. welcome to a special edition "360." we were devoting the hour to an upcoming testimony of robert mueller. tonight the justice department sent him a letter laying out guidelines for his testimony, including a remind eer not to g beyond what's in his report. first, why what happens on wednesday may be so significant starting with something that may be overlooked. not everyone has read the