MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews on Thursday praised the leadership of House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.), blaming former special counsel Robert Mueller for not being an effective witness.
Nadler appeared on MSNBC's Hardball to discuss Wednesday's hearing before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Matthews pressed Nadler about if and when the Democrats will move towards impeaching President Donald Trump.
At the end of the interview, Matthews commended Nadler for his leadership and said his fellow Democrats did a great job asking Mueller questions about his Russia investigation.
"I just want to congratulate you, sir, because I thought you—especially as chairman and all the members of your committee, I thought, the Democratic members did a really good job," Matthews said.
Matthews went on to echo several members of the media who criticized Mueller, citing his "slowness."
"Whatever slowness there was on the part of the witness was just, you know, life. I think you really did a good job in those questions you put to him, and I think he did—if you listen to the highlights yesterday, you got the payload. It happened. You got the proof. This president should go," Matthews said.
Matthews has been an outspoken critic of Trump and said earlier in the week the Mueller testimony was the last opportunity for Democrats to push for impeachment.
Mueller received intense scrutiny following the hearings for being "boring" in the eyes of the media, according to a Washington Free Beacon video compilation:
MSNBC's Chuck Todd said it was a "disaster" in "optics" for Democrats, and MSNBC's Ari Melber said Mueller's showing ultimately didn't "land" the way Democrats wanted.
Former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne said on MSNBC that Mueller was "frustrating" in his refusal to answer certain questions and she "did not think it went well."
MSNBC analyst Jeremy Bash said Mueller "sucked the life" out of his own report and panned him as "boring," "lost at times" and unwilling to put up a defense of his investigation.
ABC legal analyst Dan Abrams called the first hearing a "bust" for Democrats, and ABC's Terry Moran declared "impeachment's over." CNN analyst David Gergen said Democrats performed solidly but the prospects of impeachment declined because of the hearing.
Yahoo reporter Michael Isikoff said on CNN that Mueller's performance was "uninspired," "confused at times" and he didn't persuade anybody.