"Today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says. | Getty McConnell rejects calls for special prosecutor Most Republicans give President Donald Trump a pass for the sudden firing of the FBI director.

Republicans are giving President Donald Trump a pass for his surprise decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, even though a number of GOP senators appeared uncomfortable defending the president’s timing amid a brewing investigation into his administration’s ties to Russia.

After a flurry of GOP statements Tuesday night criticizing Trump for axing Comey so suddenly, there were no new Republican calls on Wednesday for a special prosecutor or select committee to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections or possible collusion with the Trump campaign. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Wednesday forcefully rejected calls for an independent prosecutor or commission.


Though senators did ask for a fuller accounting of why Comey was fired, Republicans by and large defended Trump against a Democratic firestorm of criticism.

"Today we'll no doubt hear calls for a new investigation, which could only serve to impede the current work being done," McConnell said on the Senate floor, referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee's probe of Russia's election meddling.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, meanwhile, has been silent about thee firing since news of it broke. On Wednesday afternoon, his office was still refusing to provide comment, though Ryan is expected to address the matter during a Fox News interview at 6 p.m.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer led the Democratic Party's calls for a special prosecutor calls and demanded that McConnell call an all-senators closed briefing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reacts to the firing of FBI Director James Comey by President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 10, 2017. | AP Photo

But Republicans GOP are putting their faith in the Senate Intelligence Committee and career FBI investigators to conduct investigations that they say will not be partisan in nature. Comey's sudden dismissal, they said, should not affect the work of the Senate intelligence panel or the FBI.

“How a special prosecutor is selected, no one is going to be content with that process either,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in an interview. “The career folks in the FBI are still the ones running the investigation. Let’s not besmirch all the career folks in the FBI for a transition that’s happening at the top.”

Senators said the Intelligence Committee would begin to produce results more quickly to reassure the public. Numerous reports have suggested that the panel is moving slowly and is understaffed for an investigation of this magnitude, but Republicans say the committee’s progress will soon be apparent.

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“The Intelligence Committee is at a critical stage in our investigation. We’ve made a great deal of progress in the last month. I'm encouraging the chairman to have more public hearings so that that would be evident to the public,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "The public will realize that we truly are following the evidence wherever it may lead.”

The biggest exception to Republicans’ defense of the current investigatory trajectory came from Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who testily repeated the need for a “special committee” when asked about Comey. Asked in an interview why no new Republicans were joining him, McCain replied: “I neither know nor care.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reacts to President Donald Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 10, 2017. | AP Photo

“I’ve seen special prosecutors succeed and I’ve seen them fail. I prefer a select committee. I don't know how many times I’ve had to say it and I’m sorry if I’m a little abrupt with you. I believe we need a select committee. I believe we need a select committee,” McCain said.

McCain wasn't alone. Two vulnerable House Republicans from swing districts, Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) and Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), joined McCain's call for a special committee. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a fierce critic of the president, also tweeted that he was "reviewing legislation to establish an independent commission on Russia."

Centrist Republican leader Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) also suggested he was open to a select panel.

“Director Comey always struck me as a decent and honorable man who was put in an extremely difficult situation," Dent said. "His firing by President Trump is both confounding and troubling, and it is now harder to resist calls for an independent investigation or select committee."

Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and John Thune (R-S.D.) all expressed alarm at the sudden dismissal of Comey, which blindsided almost everyone in the Capitol. But most Republicans emphatically rejected Schumer’s suggestion that the Trump administration could be trying to cover up damning results of the Russia investigation.

"It's a phony narrative that [Trump] did this somehow to squelch the investigation into Russia,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). “If you assume that, this strikes me as a lousy way to do it. All it does is heighten the attention given to the issue.”

Most Republicans joined the White House in blaming Democrats for crying foul after piling on Comey for his handling of the 2016 election and probes into Hillary Clinton’s emails. They said it was Trump's prerogative to fire Comey and praised him for doing so given the bipartisan criticism of the former director.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Comey's "days were numbered," while Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) praised Trump for acting "decisively."

“He’s said in order to maintain confidence in the FBI, we needed a new director. And I would say that would be as nonpolitical of a decision you can make,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) said of Trump.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., quickly reacts to questions about FBI Director James Comey's firing by President Donald Trump early Wednesday on May 10, 2017. | AP Photo

Democrats started to retaliate to the firing on Wednesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Democrats would invoke an obscure rule that bans committees from meeting for more than two hours after the Senate goes into session, though the hearing adjourned before she could do so.

Republicans said Democrats were contradicting their own previous criticisms of Comey by lighting into Trump and inhibiting the Senate's work.

“We can argue about when it should or shouldn’t have happened, but clearly there was bipartisan support for it. We have Democrats in the past who have called for this,” Thune said.

But some Republicans admitted that they probably would be reacting far differently manner had President Barack Obama sacked Comey under similar circumstances.

“That might be true,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).

“Role reversal is a way of life around here,” conceded Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)

Rachael Bade, John Bresnahan and Elana Schor contributed to this report.