(CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has long believed he does not need to respond in real time or react to every controversial tweet or other action by President Donald Trump, according to people close to the senator.

While he has complained before about the abundance of tweets, he's withheld revealing publicly the depths of his concerns.

That was the case this weekend when reporters pressed his staff for a response to Trump's slamming of special counsel Robert Mueller that caused many Republicans to worry the President might fire the man heading the Russia investigation.

McConnell's staff would only refer reporters back to a January statement from McConnell when he said he didn't think Mueller needed any special protection because he didn't think the President would fire him. The aide said McConnell's position had not evolved since then.

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