When it comes to Donald Trump and Russia, congressional Republicans just can’t win.

The GOP needs the president to sign off on its agenda, so Republicans on Capitol Hill are still brushing off calls for an independent investigation into communications between Trump’s team and the Russian government, despite the drip-drip of new revelations.


But Republicans readily acknowledge that the investigation chatter is quickly engulfing any legislative momentum they gained after their resounding victories last November.

“Our agenda is full,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) said in an interview. “So anything that’s added as a result of the storyline that’s evolving with Russia intrudes on the ability to pursue the agenda that we set out for us: regulations, Obamacare and the tax code.”

As Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) put it, “We’re talking about this and not something else.”

“We need to figure out a way to get it behind us,” Corker said Wednesday. “We’ve got important things to do for our country right now, and they’re expecting us as a country — not as Republicans, not as Democrats, as a country — to move ahead and solve much of what is ailing us and build on the things that we’ve got good foundations for. But this is disruptive.”

But the pandemonium that spread across Capitol Hill on Wednesday is unlikely to ease anytime soon. On the heels of Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser for misrepresenting his calls with the Russian ambassador, The New York Times reported that Trump’s campaign engaged in communications with Russian officials throughout the 2016 campaign.

The back-to-back stories had Democrats ramping up their calls for a more expansive Russia probe. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) wants two independent investigations: one by Congress and the other by the executive branch. Democrats are also pressuring new Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a top Trump supporter during the campaign, to step aside in favor of an independent counsel.

“Our agenda is full,” Sen. Jerry Moran said in an interview.

But most Republican lawmakers defended their current approach: routing the investigations through the Senate and House intelligence committees. The chairmen of those panels have promised a rigorous and expansive probe into the Kremlin’s meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections.

“We’ve said we’re gonna go anywhere the intelligence leads us,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) said Wednesday following the new reports of the Trump campaign’s contact with Russian officials.

Numerous other Senate Republicans said they’re confident in the Intelligence Committee probe, as has California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a key voice on intelligence matters among Democrats. Democratic lawmakers on the intelligence panel are as protective of their jurisdiction as Republicans are, and will call for a broader probe only if they believe Burr’s investigation is stalling, senators said.

Burr’s counterpart in the House, however, defiantly rejected calls for a separate select committee investigating potential Russia ties.

“There is not going to be one; I can tell you there is absolutely not going to be one,” House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said in an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday. “And I am not going to be lectured by people who are speaking out of both sides of their mouths.”

Indeed, House Republicans have all but buried the matter — a risky strategy that may backfire should intelligence and law enforcement officials find evidence of collusion between Trump’s team and the Russian government. Democrats are almost certain to make the matter a campaign issue next fall and accuse Republicans of failing to heed red flags about Trump’s Russia connections.

Instead of calling for an expanded probe or select committee, Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and other top Republicans have simply noted that Nunes is continuing his ongoing investigation.

In 2014, House Republicans created a select committee to investigate the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. A year later, it launched one to probe Planned Parenthood. Democrats are aghast that Republicans haven’t acted accordingly in the case of Russia and Trump’s ties to it.

“There is not going to be one; I can tell you there is absolutely not going to be one,” House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said of a potential investigation. | AP Photo

Democrats are warning that Republicans will pay a price for their resistance to a full-fledged independent investigation.

“Let me put it this way: Unless an independent special counsel is appointed, and takes over an impartial, objective investigation, this issue will continue to fester and preoccupy the Congress with nothing else getting done,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Wednesday.

GOP senators have been more willing to raise concerns about Russia. But even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview that he is still limiting his calls for a select committee to center on Russia’s influence on the election — not the Trump White House’s connections with the country.

Republicans are betting that the story won’t gain much traction outside the Beltway bubble. Their calculation: If they antagonize the administration with a flashy probe, they can kiss their own legislative to-do list goodbye.

Trump is, after all, their only shot at getting Obamacare repealed and enacting tax reform — priorities they’ve campaigned on for years but have been unable to move.

“We have a window to get big things done here,” said one House Republican source who asked not to be named. “It makes no sense to start nit-picking. If he’s a success; we’re a success. So a circular firing squad won’t help us.”

In the Senate, rather than reacting to every twist in the Russia story, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has tried to be a “steady hand,” as one source familiar with his thinking put it. His focus has been on confirming as much of Trump’s Cabinet as possible before next week’s recess.

McConnell’s top deputy, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), dismissed notions that the Russia-fueled controversy surrounding the White House was hampering the GOP’s ability to get stuff done.

“Obviously, there are a lot of folks with other agendas that want to distract us from our work, and we just can’t let that happen,” he said. “We know we need to get the president’s Cabinet confirmed … then we’re also beginning to roll back the regulatory overreach of the administration. And I think that very quickly you’ll see us move to health care and tax reform.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who drew criticism on Tuesday for saying Republicans shouldn’t investigate Republicans, clarified in an interview that he meant the matter should be left to law enforcement. A congressional investigation, he said, could become a “political witch hunt” and derail the GOP’s policy agenda.

“If every kerfuffle comes up [and] people disagreeing becomes an investigation,” he said, “we will distract from doing things like Obamacare repeal.”

