WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) today joined MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller and working with President Trump.

“Frankly, the very day that President Trump forced the resignation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general he also, again, denounced Mueller's investigation as a hoax and tweeted that he could fire Mueller at any time. Why that's not enough of a warning for the majority leader, for our colleagues, I don't know, but the statements that Matt Whitaker the acting attorney general made on CNN when he was a commentator give me grave concern. I think we ought to take responsible bipartisan action here to prevent what would otherwise be a constitutional crisis. We can take this up and pass it easily today by unanimous consent,” said Senator Coons.

Video and audio available here.

Excerpts from the interview:

Sen. Coons on the border: I’ve got someone on my staff, Lieutenant Brendan Mackie, who served in this exact mission when our National Guard unit got deployed to the border a number of years ago. When they are forward deployed at the border, it's difficult duty and in this particular instance given as Senator Flake said that they are sitting 90 miles from the border and given that active duty military troops really aren't needed to block some caravan that we have got months of advanced notice of, the border guard is fully capable of handling them, I would have to look them in the eye and say thank you for your service and I regret that our president is using you as a political stunt.



Sen. Coons on the Mueller legislation: You know, frankly, the very day that President Trump forced the resignation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general he also, again, denounced Mueller's investigation as a hoax and tweeted that he could fire Mueller at any time. Why that's not enough of a warning for the majority leader, for our colleagues, I don't know, but the statements that Matt Whitaker the acting attorney general made on CNN when he was a commentator give me grave concern. I think we ought to take responsible bipartisan action here to prevent what would otherwise be a constitutional crisis. We can take this up and pass it easily today by unanimous consent.



Sen. Coons on working with President Trump: We can't spend our time worrying about the next election, we have to focus on solving the problems that face the American people. What I heard up and down the state of Delaware in recent weeks is that folks really want us to work together. One of the reasons I'm grateful for the service of Senator Flake is the things we've been able to work together on overseas and here at home. I think if we show that we are willing to step forward and put on the table strong real bills to address infrastructure, to address apprenticeships and jobs in the building trades, to deal with the cost of health care and challenge the president to work with us in a bipartisan way, and solve people's real problems, that will end up having a positive effect in the next election, but that shouldn't be the reason to do it. Folks in our country have elected a Republican Senate and a Democratic House and they want us to work together. That's what we ought to get busy doing.



Sen. Coons on the Fed: Let me mention one other thing Jeff and I have just done on a bipartisan basis. President Trump directly challenged and criticized the chairman of the Fed in the run up to the election, we have both been to Zimbabwe a number of times, that's more the sort of thing you expect to see in a country ruled by a dictator than in a free and open society like ours. The president shouldn't be interfering with the Fed and their decisions and we sent a joint letter to the president urging him to stop that bad behavior.

###