Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the attention on the president's comments on foreign election helps distract from the legislative agenda at hand. | Alex Wong/Getty Images congress McConnell downplays Trump's foreign election help comments

President Donald Trump's comments on accepting foreign dirt in 2020 may have put some distance between him and Republicans in Congress.

But seemingly not with Mitch McConnell.


Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Thursday night, the Senate majority leader spoke with exasperation over the backlash the president has received for saying he would hear out foreign assistance if offered in the 2020 election. McConnell portrayed the comments as a nonstory, saying Congress had legislative agendas to focus on.

"They just can't let it go, Laura," McConnell said. "I said weeks ago, case closed. We got the Mueller report, the only objective evaluation that will be conducted."

Trump told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview segment published Wednesday that if foreign agents were to offer dirt on an opponent in 2020, he would likely accept it and not report it to the FBI. The remark drew fierce rebuttals from across the political spectrum, with many of the president's Republican allies distancing themselves from his comments.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said taking help from foreign agents would be "probably not a good idea." Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said: "I’d rather just have Americans participate in American elections.”

McConnell said Democrats love to keep bringing up the 2016 presidential election, keeping them from passing any legislation. He also accused Democrats of trying to "harass" the president, borrowing from Trump's own lexicon.

"He gets picked at every day over every different aspect of it," McConnell said of Trump. "But the fundamental point is that they are trying to keep the 2016 election alive and the investigation alive when the American people have heard enough. "