GOP strategist: Trump ‘looks like he’s hiding something’ and ‘cowering’ from Mueller interview

President Donald Trump's rejection of interview terms sought by special counsel Robert Mueller created political optics of a cover-up, conservative MSNBC analyst Elise Jordan explained on Wednesday.

"Is there any political fallout, if at the end of the day the president refuses to sit down with Mueller and Mueller has to figure out a way to conclude his investigation without talking to the president?" MSNBC anchor Craig Melbourne asked. "Will there be any sort of fallout?"

"If Donald Trump does not sit down with Robert Mueller, he looks like he's hiding something," Jordan noted.

"He looks like he isn't up for the challenge of being interviewed and forthright on what happened and so that creates the impression that he is indeed hiding something," she explained.

"And Donald Trump does not want us to be seen as cowering from a fight," Jordan added. "If anything, we know his style throughout the entirety of the presidential campaign, and to this date, is to attack back and always keep pushing forward."

The MSNBC contributor and co-host of the Words Matter podcast with Steve Schmidt offered a poignant example to illustrate the legal jeopardy Trump's defense lawyers are seeking to avoid.

"Just for some back history, when fellow MSNBC contributor Tim O'Brien wrote the book Trump Nation and reported on Donald Trump's finances and Donald Trump sued him for $5 billion for irreparable harm to his reputation, then they got Donald Trump in court -- when he sat down for depositions -- he told about 30 lies and he said his income fluctuated based on how he was feeling," Jordan reminded.

"That's the kind of performance that Donald Trump lawyers certainly want to avoid," she concluded.

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