Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) offered some rather peculiar thoughts Tuesday morning regarding the fate of Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign. It would be “suicide” for President Trump to fire Mueller, he said, but Mueller might not mind.

“I think that maybe Mueller [is] coming to a dead end as far as collusion of Trump with Russia in this election,” he said on Fox Business Network, “and it looks like a dead end. Maybe Mueller would appreciate being fired so he would have an excuse for getting out of it, and the Democrats would have a good issue in this upcoming election.”

Grassley may believe the investigation is coming up to a “dead end,” but so far, the special counsel has publicly initiated criminal proceedings against 19 different people, including five Americans. Several of those individuals have even pleaded guilty, and attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced to 30 days in prison.


In a previous statement about the possibility of Trump firing Mueller, Grassley said, “As always, it’s important to let our legal system run its course.” A strident defender of the President, he also said last year that whatever the Russians might have on Trump doesn’t matter because it’s “improbable” it would actually end up hurting him politically.

Republicans have consistently resisted legislative efforts to protect Mueller’s position.