Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s floor speech Tuesday declaring the Russian collusion “case closed,” did nothing to convince Democrats.
Shortly after McConnell, R-Ky., concluded a speech calling for Democrats to stop trying to relitigate the concluded investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, the Democratic leader arrived on the Senate floor and accused McConnell of attempting a Watergate-sized cover-up.
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“So our leaders says let’s move on,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “It’s sort of like Richard Nixon saying let’s move on at the height of the investigation of his wrongdoing. Of course he wants to move on, he wants to cover up.”
McConnell declared the two-year probe “finally over” and said Democrats can’t accept the results because they had pinned their hopes on findings that showed Trump colluded with the Russians.
“What we’ve seen is a meltdown, an absolute meltdown, an inability to accept the bottom-line conclusion on Russian interference from the Special Counsel’s report, which said the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
Democrats want the report’s author, special counsel Robert Mueller, to appear before the Senate for questioning about the report, but the GOP-led body is not planning such a hearing. Mueller did not report a finding on obstruction and Democrats believe the 400-plus page report shows evidence Trump tried to interfere with and even stop the probe.
Schumer also called on McConnell to take up an election security bill as well as Russian sanctions legislation.
“He wants to run away from these awful facts that relate to the wellspring of our democracy,” Schumer said. “Foreign interference in our elections and a president who is lawless. That’s what he wants to push under the rug.”
[Related: FBI Director Wray: We expect Russia to try and ‘generate chaos’ during the 2020 campaigns]
