Nicolle Wallace's panel makes the case that Mueller wants Congress to act: 'It's not rocket science here'

MSNBC's panel of legal and political experts gathered with host Nicolle Wallace to explain that it's clear special counsel Robert Mueller wants Congress to act on the president's obstruction of justice.

Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Mike Schmidt said that Mueller's comments aren't all that different from the report.

"The interesting thing here is we saw the power of it being done by him live on television. And you can see where the Democrats, sort of galvanized at least some of the candidates running for president, saying they want to move forward with impeachment proceedings," The New York Times reporter said. "You can see the Democrats on The Hill saying 'there was an eight-minute statement by Mueller today, look at how far it sort of moved the ball.' Imagine what we could do if we got him for an hour or so."

He noted that the funny thing was that at the end of Mueller's statement he told Congress not to call him because all he can say is what is in the report.

Associated Press reporter Jonathan Lemire recalled that they've been reporting for weeks that Trump was "terrified" of Mueller testifying.

"He is someone who knows that Robert Mueller hasn’t spoken publicly on camera in two years and America would want to tune in to watch and to hear him speak. And those words would carry a lot of weight," he said.

"Today it’s like [Mueller] took a sharpie to his 'no collusion. No evidence of obstruction, no evidence of collusion'" comments, said Wallace.

MSNBC's John Heilemann said that one of the big problems with Mueller is that he's speaking in legal language.

"He’s a careful man and takes pains to not appear political," Heilemann said. "Sometimes frustratingly so to those of us who wish he would speak in plain language because if he did, today he would have said, 'anyone who read my report and says no collusion, no obstruction, anyone who says that is a big, fat liar.'"

He went on to cite specific components of the Mueller report that confirms his point.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance explained that if Congress would examine volume two of the Mueller report it would look like obstruction of justice by the president.

"It’s just that simple," she said. "There’s an effort to obstruct, it’s related to ongoing proceedings, and it’s done with a corrupt intent. The corrupt motive that prosecutors talk about to influence the outcome of those investigations. So it’s not exactly rocket science here."

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