House Republicans on Thursday heaped praise on Attorney General William Barr for his handling of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, calling on Democrats to put “their emotions and opinions aside” for the good of the country.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the redacted publication of Mueller’s findings from his 22-month-long investigation failed to unearth any evidence to substantiate allegations of collusion between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
“Notwithstanding the partisan echo chamber to do otherwise, I fully approve of how Attorney General Barr has balanced legal requirements with the public’s need to know in handling the release of the report. He complied with the law by protecting grand jury material, classified information, and the integrity of the investigative process. Democrats want to keep searching for imaginary evidence that supports their claims, but it is simply not there,” the California Republican wrote in a statement. “It is time to move on. Americans deserve better than this partisan quest to vilify a political opponent and I urge our Democratic colleagues in the House to put their emotions and opinions aside, and instead use that passion to come to the table and work on real solutions for all Americans,” he said.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise added Trump had been absolved of any obstruction of justice accusations, imploring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “and her liberal lieutenants to stop harassing the President and his family” and instead focus on improving healthcare, growing the economy, and mitigating immigration issues being experienced at the southern border.
“Democrats who have been running around for the last two years making outlandish claims about the President and his family ought to apologize to the American people for misleading them and the press about this smear campaign. While Washington Democrats hoped for the special counsel to deliver a collusion conclusion, this report instead delivered a death blow to their baseless conspiracy theories,” the Louisiana Republican said.
Scalise also hinted at a congressional push “for accountability with the bad apples in our intelligence agencies.”
House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Jim Jordan, the top House Republican on the House Oversight panel earlier Thursday praised Trump for his transparency after Barr’s press conference, which preceded the report being made public. They additionally released longer statements following the uploading of the document to the Department of Justice’s website.
“Democrat Members of Congress should take a deep breath and read the Special Counsel’s report before jumping to conclusions,” Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote. “It would be a miscarriage of justice to use cherry-picked bits of information from the report to sow further divisiveness and spread conspiracies that serve only to undermine our democratic institutions.”
