House GOP lawmakers expressed confidence Republicans prevailed during the Mueller hearings on Wednesday and argued it’s time for Democrats to “turn the page” and move on from the investigation.
Following former special counsel Robert Mueller’s roughly six hours of testimony on Capitol Hill, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — joined by House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), House Oversight and Reform Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) — said he doesn’t believe the president has done anything wrong.
{mosads}“For more than two years, Democrats have obsessed over the Mueller investigation, going so far as falsely claiming they have evidence of collusion, which we found not to be true today,” McCarthy said at a press conference.
“What we heard today only helped to reinforce the facts – that there was no collusion and no obstruction. It is well past the time to put this country first. The Democrats are more focused on bringing down the president than they are in building up America.”
Collins argued the committee needs to refocus its priorities, citing Mueller saying “no” when asked if his investigation had been curtailed.
“Someone asked me yesterday, how did you prepare for the Mueller hearing? Didn’t have to worry about it because it’s all the committee talked about for seven months — it’s all we talk about,” he said. “And everything we’ve come up with is show hearings, dog and pony shows, running out old people from the Watergate era, and what have we found? That the American people have been footing the bill for a continuation of the 2016 election they [Democrats] don’t like.”
Jordan argued the focus needs to shift to investigations into alleged FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) misconduct.
“It’s definitely time to move on. The second thing I would say is the investigation that matters, and I said this in today’s hearing, or the two investigations that matter most now — the one that Mr. Horowitz is going to have completed in a couple of months and of course the one that the attorney general has tasked John Durham the U.S. attorney to do which is how this whole three-year saga began that our country has lived through,” he said. “I look forward to hearing from that, but let’s stop the continuous investigation into something that we’ve already spent three years on and let’s focus on those issues that really matter to the American people.”
McCarthy, who met the president at the White House to discuss policy issues earlier in the day, said Trump was “in a very upbeat mood.”
The lawmakers’ comments came in the wake of the president — who praised the GOP lawmakers on Twitter for their remarks — claimed victory following the hearings.
“This was a very big day for our country,” he told reporters. “This was a very big day for the Republican Party. And you could say it was a great day for me, but I don’t even like to say that. It’s great.”
Democrats pushed back on the notion the hearing exonerates the president.
“I do believe that what we saw today was a very strong manifestation — in fact, some would even say indictment — of this administration’s cone of silence and their cover-up,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said. “This is about the oath we take to protect and defend the Constitution.”