It could be said, if one were petulant, that Senate Republican Leader Mitch “Root ‘n Branch’’ McConnell’s strongly worded support for Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election provides an example of an old, blind sow finding a truffle every now and again.
After all, McConnell, of Louisville has in recent years raised placing party over country into an art form, barring a perfectly qualified U.S. Supreme Court nominee from getting so much as a hearing and essentially blocking former President Barack Obama from issuing a warning about Kremlin meddling in the U.S. electoral process, a mortification that should have cost him his job.
But the concept of giving the devil his due holds fast in this particular instance. McConnell spoke glowingly of Mueller this week despite the buffoonish decision of President Trump (OMG!) to hit Twitter and nibble at the investigator’s heels, apparently concerned about what might turn up regarding his campaign’s relations with his BFF, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Bob Mueller should be allowed to finish his job,” Root-‘n-Branch told reporters at his weekly news conference. “I think it was an excellent appointment. I think he will go wherever the facts lead him and I think he will have great credibility with the American people when he reaches the conclusion of this investigation. So I have a lot of confidence. This is a thoroughly credible individual, I think it was an appropriate appointment, and we all anticipate his finishing the job and telling the American people what they need to know about this episode.”
Robert Mueller
For good measure, McConnell slyly rapped the knuckles of the president from his own party for calling to congratulate Putin for his recent re-election victory through a decidedly less-than-kosher political process.
“The President can call whomever he chooses,” McConnell said. “When I look at a Russian election, what I see is a lack of credibility in tallying the results I’m always reminded of the elections they have in almost every communist country, where whoever the dictator was of the moment, always got a huge percentage of the vote. So, calling him wouldn’t have been high on my list.”
It isn’t often that McConnell takes the opportunity to voice thoughts that likely won’t sit well with the 71-year-old enfant terrible presently ensconced at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Even when the Trumpster is at his most clownish, events that unfortunately occur several times a day, the GOP leader makes it a habit to either chuckle or shrug his shoulders and then move away from the subject as if nothing happened.
But this time ol’ Root-‘n-Branch’s political antennae, always fine-tuned, appears to be telling him that Trump and his cartoonish behavior could create real havoc, something for which there is no real political solution. His statement, as Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, of New York, accurately noted, was “a shot across the bow,’’ warning Trump that it’s time to straighten up and fly right on the Russia enquiry and ix-nay on any thoughts of giving Mueller the boot.
Trump has made no secret of his displeasure – he rarely does – with Mueller’s ongoing investigation which already has led to the indictment and guilty pleas of several of the president’s campaign operatives. Like the child he is, Trump keeps bellowing “NO COLLUSION. NO COLLUSION,’’ seemingly unaware that part of the investigation is meant to determine whether the Russians and his campaign were, indeed, a little too close for comfort.
There exists growing concern in some circles that Trump intends to force a premature end to the Mueller probe. Last week he issued a tweet asserting that the investigation “should never have been started and there was no crime.” He then went on to question the impartiality of the process.
Then on Wednesday, the day after McConnell’s remarks, he vented yet again using his favorite form of communication, one that doesn’t show him frothing at the mouth.
‘Special Council is told to find crimes, whether crimes exist or not,’’ Trump tweeted, drawing quotes from an article penned by Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. “I was opposed the selection of Mueller to be Special Council, I still am opposed to it. I think President Trump was right when he said there never should have been a Special Council appointed because…there was no probable cause for believing that there was any crime, collusion or otherwise, or obstruction of justice!’
Sen. Mitch McConnell
And a few days beforehand, one of Trump’s lawyers, John Dowd, was quoted in The Daily Beast as saying he hoped the FBI and the Justice Department would “bring an end to alleged Russia collusion investigation,” which he charged was “manufactured’’ by James Comey, the former FBI chief fired by Trump.
Given Trump’s churlish nature, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he will set in motion the process for showing Mueller the door, thus lighting the fuse on a constitutional crisis. Critics of McConnell’s statement maintain the GOP leader should have pledged support for legislation ensuring the independence of the Russia investigation, thus removing it from the hands of the executive branch and assuring its continuance.
McConnell stopped short of taking that path, telling reporters, “I don’t think Bob Mueller is going anywhere.’’
In this instance his instincts are probably right. Little is to be gained from embarrassing Trump, something the president manages to do for himself on a moment-by-moment basis without any assistance from outside kibitzers. Forcing the investigations down his throat would likely send him into a tizzy to the benefit of no one.
McConnell’s words were themselves the warning, advising Trump that he might want to lay low on any talk of firing Mueller. Should that occur, given this week’s statement, McConnell would face little choice but to act accordingly, either moving to reinstate Mueller or, as has been suggested, prevail upon the House to institute impeachment proceedings.
All of which is not to say that Trump won’t ultimately give Mueller the heave-ho. The president is as compulsive as a three-year-old, a member of the ready-fire-aim school of logic. If something sticks in his craw – and he must have a very tiny craw along with small fingers because everything gets stuck in it – he’s going to do something stupid.
If Trump is focused on firing Mueller as suspected, and if McConnell had expressed support for legislation prohibiting him from doing so, what would have stopped him from having the special counsel fired before the legislation could be enacted? By dismissing the possibility of legislation, at least, McConnell might actually be buying time to permit Mueller to continue the task uninhibited until the next presidential blow-up, and that ain’t a bad idea.
The NKyTribune’s Washington columnist Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.
