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Robert Mueller Saying ‘I Take Your Question’ At His Congressional Hearing Has Inspired A Hilarious Meme


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Wednesday was the day of Robert Mueller’s much-anticipated Congressional hearing, when he would be grilled, live on television, about his two-year investigation into Russian wire-tapping and any possible collusion with then-presidential hopeful Donald J. Trump. It wasn’t the fireworks event many had hoped for, in part because Mueller is low-key, withholding, and, arguably to a fault, subtle. But there were some moments ripe for memes, particularly his exchange with Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Gohmert, from Texas’ 1st congressional district, used his five minutes not to ask questions but to lay into Mueller, screaming at him about “injustice,” of the importance of “credibility,” and of the innocence of Trump. Mueller calmly took it all, then responded with a masterpiece of understatement and brevity: “I take your question.”

Mueller has already been criticized for being too dry, for being evasive, for being low-energy, and for simply not making it loud and clear, in language everyone can understand, what he thinks Congress and the Senate should do about a president he says was certainly not exonerated by a massive and ambitious investigation into his alleged actions. There’s still a chance it could lead to nothing, perhaps because Mueller did not take too hard a stand.

But for now, this simple exchange — whose timing was kind of ruined due to chaos in the room — has been deemed badass enough to inspire a good old fashioned Twitter meme.

It reminded some people of another classic line.

It also seems to have become an instant classic retort, reminiscent of “I’d prefer not to” from Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener.

So the next time you need to shut someone down with a simple mic drop, you know what to say.