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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not allow legislation to prevent popular vote loser Donald Trump from firing special counsel Robert Mueller.
“I am the one who decides what we take to the floor,” McConnell said. “That’s my responsibility as majority leader. And we will not be having this on the floor of the Senate.”
Because, McConnell says, it isn't necessary as he believes Trump won't fire Mueller. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider a bipartisan measure this week from Democratic Senators Cory Booker (NJ) and Chris Coons (DE) and Republicans Lindsey Graham (SC) Carolina and Thom Tillis (NC) that would "let the special counsel seek an expedited judicial review of any dismissal, which must be for 'good cause.'" Since McConnell has issued this autocratic edict, there's no word on whether the bill markup will go on as planned. For his part, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is urging the committee to go forward with it. "It's a mistake not to pass legislation to protect the investigation," he said in a statement following McConnell's remarks. "We ought to head off a constitutional crisis at the pass, rather than waiting until it's too late. I hope the Judiciary Committee moves forward with a bill and that members of Senator McConnell's caucus push him to reconsider."
Here we are again, with McConnell protecting Trump. Or maybe McConnell is not wishing for the Mueller investigation to continue. Perhaps because McConnell wants his role in strenuously fighting President Obama's efforts to more fully warn the public about the extent of Russian election hacks and their partisan, Republican-backing intent to remain unexamined.
McConnell knew as early as 2015 that Russia was meddling, hacking into the Democratic National Committee. He was briefed in the summer of 2016 about the CIA's belief that the Russians weren't just meddling to meddle, but to help Donald Trump. And in September, when it still wasn't too late for the public the learn what was happening, intelligence officials had a secret meeting to get leadership behind a "show of solidarity and bipartisan unity" publicly condemning Russia for interference. What happened? "McConnell raised doubts about the underlying intelligence and made clear to the administration that he would consider any effort by the White House to challenge the Russians publicly an act of partisan politics."
Maybe McConnell would just as soon this investigation be called off, one way or another.