Conservative media reacted to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s July 24 congressional hearings by claiming that his “feeble” appearance before Congress was a sign that “he didn’t write [the Mueller report] himself.” 

The suggestion that Mueller did not write the report himself has been floated before -- Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said in June that he doesn’t think Mueller “knows the details of the report.” Now that the hearings have begun, right-wing media figures from “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec to Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace are pushing some version of the claim that the hearing “does raise questions” about whether Mueller wrote the special counsel report.

Fox News anchor Wallace said the hearing “does raise questions about the degree to which” Mueller “was actually in charge of -- in control of this report.” Wallace concluded that Mueller “doesn’t seem very much in control or charge of what the final report was.” 

One America News Network’s Posobiec claimed that “Mueller can’t clearly remember what his report said” because “he didn’t write it himself. Weissman did.” Posobiec also tweeted: “Does the Mueller you see today seem like the author of the Mueller Report?” 

Conservative commentator Buck Sexton suggested that Mueller was “really just a figurehead to give some degree of swamp gravitas to this sham investigation.” 

Fox News host Mark Levin said Mueller is “feeble,” which “underscores that the person who influenced this investigation most was Andrew Weissman, his top lieutenant.”

Conservative commentator Wayne Dupree questioned whether Mueller “was in charge of this investigation” because “he's sitting up there bumbling and asking for questions to be repeated like he doesn't understand the inquiry ....almost like his motor skills are at a snail's pace.” 

The Daily Caller’s Derek Hunter also questioned Mueller’s involvement in the investigation, adding that he “comes off as senile if he's required to say anything more than ‘yes.’” 

The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft wrote that Mueller is “stuttering, confused, doddering, lost,” and “nervous.” Hoft asserted, “NO WAY DID HE RUN THIS THING!” 

Kilmeade said before the first hearing started, “His chief of staff, his longtime aide is going to be next to him. A late request within the last 12 hours. A lot of drama. What's with that? I mean, is it because maybe Robert Mueller doesn't know the report that well?” 

Conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza asked, “Who wrote the report that appears under Mueller’s name? Was Mueller just the ventriloquist doll for Weissman and a Democratic hit team?” D’Souza also asserted, “The telling fact is that Mueller doesn’t seem to know what’s IN his report.” 

The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway suggested that Mueller was “just a figurehead, placed to protect the special counsel from having any accountability or scrutiny.”

National Review’s Rich Lowry asked, “With all due respect, who was running the Mueller investigation?”

Fox News contributor Andrew McCarthy claimed it was “inconceivable that Mueller was involved in this investigation.” 

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro claimed that Mueller spent two years “chain smoking cigars out back” while his team wrote the report. 

Fox News’ Outnumbered guest co-host Tom Dupree said Mueller seemed “disconnected from his own investigation.” Co-host Melissa Francis agreed, saying that Mueller was “struggling” and it seemed like “he didn’t know his own report,” speculating, “Maybe he didn’t put it together.” 

Update (7/24): This piece has been updated with new examples