Seven Republican senators and one GOP congresswoman have been in Russia, meeting with Russian officials, since June 30. On Tuesday, they sat down with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. "We come here realizing that we have a strained relationship, but we could have a better relationship between the U.S. and Russia," Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told Lavrov. "We are competitors, but we don't necessarily need to be adversaries." Shelby added that he hopes the July 16 summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin "will be the beginning, maybe, of a new day."

WATCH: Russian FM Lavrov and US Sen. Shelby exchange views during a meeting between Russian officials and US congressional delegation in Moscow on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/y2tyGajJQ8 — NBC News (@NBCNews) July 3, 2018

Oddly, the Republican lawmakers were extending an olive branch to Russia on the same day the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee released a report accusing the Kremlin of working during the 2016 election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Trump win. Most of the senators, scheduled to return July 5, posted patriotic Fourth of July images to their Twitter accounts Wednesday — Shelby, John Kennedy (R-La.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) — with no mention of where they were spending America's Independence Day. But Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) posted three photos of him and his wife in Washington, proclaiming it a "treat to be in DC to celebrate the 4th and watch some great fireworks!"

Hearing the sound of fireworks all around us, celebrating freedom! pic.twitter.com/s7C6pyTdWu — Steve Daines (@SteveDaines) July 5, 2018

Several people noticed this "really weird" discrepancy, and producer Robert Schooley proposed two explanations:

Two possibilities here: either he bailed on Moscow early and high tailed it back for a photo op or the fact that his 4th of July tweets don’t specifically say THIS 4th of July, he think it’s cool. — Schooley (@Rschooley) July 5, 2018

It's probably the former, but the whole thing is pretty strange. Peter Weber

Update July 5, 3:30 p.m.: Business Insider has confirmed that it was indeed the former: "Daines departed Russia earlier than his colleagues and returned to Washington before trekking back to his home state of Montana, where Trump is holding a campaign rally [Thursday] night. An aide to Daines confirmed the trip details to Business Insider." Mystery solved!