By Seung Min Kim / The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday laid out his case to move on from investigations into President Trump and his 2016 campaign, calling the matter “case closed” even as Democrats intensify their probes into Trump’s conduct.
McConnell, R-Ky., who faces reelection next year, argued that Democrats are continuing to re-litigate an election result that is now more than two years old — deriding it as a “Groundhog Day spectacle” — and made a detailed argument in a floor speech Tuesday morning to insist that the matter was finished and that lawmakers should now focus on legislation.
“Remember, Russia set out to sow discord, to create chaos in American politics, and undermine confidence in our democracy,” McConnell said Tuesday morning. “But on that front, given the left’s total fixation on delegitimizing the president — the president Americans chose and shooting any messenger who tells them inconvenient truths, I’m afraid the Russians hardly needed to lift a finger.”
Declaring “case closed,” McConnell added: “This ought to be good news for everyone but my Democratic colleagues seem to be publicly working through the five stages of grief.”
McConnell spent a substantial portion of his speech on the Russian interference portion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which ended with him concluding that there was not enough evidence to establish conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Moscow. McConnell invoked comments from former president Barack Obama during his 2012 reelection campaign dismissing warnings from then-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney — now a senator from Utah — that Russia posed a major geopolitical threat.
Somewhat sarcastically, McConnell noted that it was “heartening to see many of my Democratic colleagues and the media abruptly awaken to the dangers of Russian aggression.”
But he barely spent time discussing the obstruction-of-justice portion of Mueller’s probe, which has been the larger focus for Democrats as they continue their own investigations.
Indeed, the majority leader’s forceful rhetoric comes as the fallout from Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Separately, regarding McConnell’s call for a focus on the legislative agenda, the Senate has spent much of the last few months on nominations and little time on legislation. A key House committee plans to vote Wednesday on holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena, as the conflict continues to flare over releasing Mueller’s unredacted report and Barr’s testimony before the House.
Barr declined to appear before the House Judiciary Committee last week under conditions demanded by Democrats who control the panel. In his speech, McConnell defended Barr as a “distinguished” public servant who accommodated Democrats as much as possible.
Tuesday is also the deadline for Donald McGahn, the former White House counsel, to hand over three dozen types of documents to the House Judiciary Committee as part of its own investigation into Trump.
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