McConnell: Mueller ‘seems to need no protection’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday dismissed Democratic calls to take up bipartisan legislation aimed at shielding Robert Mueller from being fired, saying that the special counsel "seems to need no protection."

McConnell told reporters that he sees no imminent threat to Mueller's job from President Donald Trump, who has publicly aired frustration with the special counsel's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion with Trump campaign allies. Senators have pitched two bipartisan bills designed to prevent Mueller's firing by Trump, but efforts to combine them have stalled as the GOP professes a continued lack of urgency.


At the moment, McConnell told reporters, "I’m unaware of any effort, official effort, on the part of the White House to undermine the special counsel. And so I don’t feel any particular need to reach out to protect someone who seems to need no protection."

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Democrats forcefully disagree with that assessment, particularly given last week's revelation that Trump ordered Mueller fired in June.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that Democrats "very much would like" to add Mueller-protection provisions to budget negotiations but "our Republican colleagues have thus far resisted."