Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he has no plans to watch the high-profile hearing with former special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing the country has moved on from the years-long investigation.
“The Americans have got a pretty full picture of it. I believe the Mueller report came out sometime back. No, I don’t intend to be watching it,” he told reporters during a weekly press conference.
Pressed if there was anything he wanted to hear from Mueller when he testifies Wednesday, the Senate GOP leader maintained that the country has already heard from the former special counsel, who gave a brief public statement in May.
{mosads}”I don’t know how many times we want to see this movie again, but … I think the American people have moved on past this,” McConnell said.
Mueller’s testimony before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees is expected to dominate the news cycle on Wednesday.
The Justice Department is asking Mueller to limit his testimony before Congress to the four corners of his public report on Russian interference and possible obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump.
“Any testimony must remain within the boundaries of your public report because matters within the scope of your investigation were covered by executive privilege, including information protected by law enforcement, deliberative process, attorney work product, and presidential communications privileges,” Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer wrote.
Both Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) reiterated this week that they didn’t intend to call Mueller to testify in the upper chamber.
Senate Republicans, instead, are doubling down on their plans to investigate the start of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.
Graham said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that he plans to call former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos to testify as part of a “deep dive” into the early stages of the FBI probe into Russia’s election interference.