House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to reassure restive Democrats Tuesday that the House will seek the full contents of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report apparently clearing President Trump of colluding with the Russians ahead of the 2016 election.
In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, Pelosi, D-Calif., urged Democrats to “handle this professionally, officially, patriotically, strategically, and told them to “be calm” and “take a deep breath,” according to a source in the room.
She added, “Let’s just get the goods,” referring to the full Mueller report, which is still cloaked in secrecy while Attorney General William Barr determines how much of it will be made public.
Pelosi’s remarks followed the angry and surprised reactions from many Democrats to the four-page summary of the Mueller report provided to Congress by Barr.
Democrats, including Pelosi, are skeptical of the summary, and they instead want to read the entire report to mine it for wrongdoing by Trump that did not meet Mueller’s threshold for prosecution.
Barr was confirmed by the Senate along a party-line vote. Democrats objected because of his refusal to promise full disclosure of the Mueller report and because he authored a memo questioning the Mueller investigation.
“We have to see the report,” Pelosi told Democrats. “We cannot make a judgment on the basis of an interpretation by a man who was hired for this job because he believes the president is above the law. And he wrote a 19-page memo to demonstrate that.”
Pelosi sought to calm disappointed Democrats who believed the Mueller investigation would help them oust Trump from office.
Pelosi reminded Democrats of the indictments and convictions against Trump associates, although none of them are related to Russia collusion or directly tied to the president.
“Some people are viewing it as a glass half-full, glass half-empty,” Pelosi told Democrats. “I think half-full.”
