Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the attorney general “diligent” and said the “nation is fortunate to have an experienced leader” like him. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo congress ‘Game over’: Republicans rejoice after Mueller concludes But Barr said the special counsel found 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump.

Republicans have one message following the conclusion of Robert Mueller’s probe: Move on.

With no criminal charges against the president, many GOP lawmakers on Thursday gleefully watched Attorney General William Barr repeat their oft-repeated lines of “no collusion” to a national audience.


Even before the formal release of Mueller’s 400-page report — which contained damaging information about President Donald Trump — congressional Republicans celebrated the end to a nearly two-year investigation that has hung like a dark cloud over Trump’s presidency. And they’re ready to turn it into the first day of their 2020 election.

A picture tweeted out by Trump, set to a “Game of Thrones” style backdrop, summed it up: “Game over.”

"Democrats want to keep searching for imaginary evidence that supports their claims, but it is simply not there," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement. The House's No. 2 Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), added that Democrats "ought to apologize to the American people."

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a key Trump ally on Capitol Hill, added in an interview that the lack of charges from Mueller's team should put an abrupt end to Democratic investigations on Capitol Hill.

“Prosecutors have one job, and that’s to prosecute and indict,” Meadows said.. “And if Bob Mueller in two-and-a-half years of investigation — which includes both the FBI and special prosecutor’s time — doesn’t bring charges, I don’t know how much longer we need to be talking about collusion and obstruction.”

Many Senate Republicans, however, were far less eager than their House counterparts to jump to conclusions about a report that was still damning for the president’s attempts to meddle in the Russia investigation. The majority of them said they were eager to review the report and were hopeful that when they did, it would validate the more reflexive statements by GOP lawmakers saying it’s already time to move on.

"I will not be commenting on the substance of the more than 400-page report until I have carefully reviewed it," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is up for reelection in 2020.

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 4 GOP leader, said that he did not believe the episodes examined by Mueller regarding obstruction of justice would ultimately be problematic for the president or his party. He was “neutral” on whether Barr should testify to Congress, but he wanted to make sure he could read the Mueller report himself before explicitly stating that the president is in the clear.

“I have no reason to question what the attorney general or the deputy attorney general thought was the right way to deal with that material,” Blunt told reporters. “If those conclusions are justified by the report and I believe they will be, I personally think that the report should close that chapter.”

The more cautious approach from Senate Republicans reflects the different power dynamics between the upper chamber and the House, where GOP lawmakers are playing defense against an onslaught of Democratic probes and potential impeachment push.

Still, after months of echoing Trump’s cries of a “witch hunt” and a conspiracy, top Republicans feel the White House has finally been cleared — and that their allegiance to the president has paid off.

"This sad chapter of American history is behind us," Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, wrote in a statement. "It would be a shame for the onslaught of misguided politicized investigations to continue."

Senate Republicans were more cautious about the report’s conclusions, though they heaped praise on Barr’s handling of the matter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the attorney general “diligent” and said the “nation is fortunate to have an experienced leader” like him. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 GOP leader, also praised Barr’s “commitment to making public as much of the special counsel’s report as possible.”

“I applaud Attorney General Barr for his commitment to transparency and keeping the American people informed, consistent with the law and our national security interests,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said his committee is reviewing the report.

Democrats, meanwhile, made clear Thursday they had no plans to quietly walk away from Mueller’s findings, which identified 10 instances where Trump may have obstructed justice and painted an unflattering portrait of how the president responded to the special counsel's probe.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) formally announced Thursday that he plans to bring in Mueller to testify, with plans to hear from Barr, as well — a series of high-profile hearings that will once again consume Washington and force the GOP to go on the defense.

Republicans plan to rebuff Democratic cries of a conspiracy or cover up by noting Barr said that the White House did not assert executive privilege over the report, while Mueller assisted with the redactions.

“No cover up when there’s nothing to cover up,” Rep. Doug Collins (Ga.), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter.

Collins also pointed out that no one outside of the Department of Justice viewed the unredacted report. Trump’s personal lawyers did read a final version of the redacted report before it was publicly released, which Barr said was “consistent with the practice” under current law.

The GOP is also seizing on the fact that not a single American — let alone a member of Trump’s campaign — was involved in conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, according to Barr.

Yet Trump, his family and his aides will still face months of investigations from multiple panels in the Democratic House. The 10 potential areas of obstruction of justice, which are expected to be laid out in detail in the report, are likely to be seen by Democrats as a critical area for further investigation.

In his public remarks on Thursday, Barr said “there was no evidence of Trump campaign ‘collusion’ with the Russian government’s hacking.” And he noted that he “disagreed with some of the Special Counsel’s legal theories” involving obstruction of justice — raising further questions about whether he was looking to protect Trump.

Still, Republicans see Thursday as a significant turning point for Trump’s presidency. In fact, some of them are feeling so confident that they are ready to turn the tables on Democrats and deepen their own probes

Meadows, like Trump and other Republicans, said the issue now is why the Mueller investigation began in the first place.

“What we do need to be talking about it why this started in the first place,” Meadows added. “Why was [Intelligence Chairman] Adam Schiff and his colleagues allowed to perpetrate a narrative on the American people that was not justified by the evidence?”

John Bresnahan contributed to this report.