SEATTLE — President Trump is claiming the redacted Mueller report clears him of colluding with the Russians and obstruction of justice. But Democratic members of Congress from Western Washington disagree.
Rep. Adam Smith represents Seattle, “Well look, the president lies like most people breathe.”
Democrats say Attorney General William Barr has mischaracterized the report.
For example: Barr said, "The White House fully cooperated with the Special Counsel's investigation."
But Special Counsel Robert Mueller writes, "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders..."
Washington Sen. Patty Murray said, “There are tremendous discrepancies between what AG Barr said and what the prosecutor Mueller has said in his report. So, Congress needs to get to the bottom and investigate.”
Trump unnecessarily made the investigation about him, says Rep. Smith. “This was about investigating the Russians and instead the president took this and tried to block it at every turn and even to this day he cannot acknowledge what the Russians did in terms of interfering in our election and I think as the chairman of the armed services committee this puts our national security at risk by not directly addressing a very real threat.”
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Asked about impeaching President Trump Senator Murray responded, “Impeachment is a tremendous step. I've been through it before with (former) president Clinton. And there are tremendous reactions and implications on impeachment. It needs to be done, properly if it is done. with the right amount of information.”
“I am mindful of the fact that impeachment and removing the president is a huge step. I'm simply talking at this point about making sure we have transparency, we know what happened we know what the Russians are up to we know people in the U.S. who might be cooperating with them so that we can protect this country,” said Smith.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal said, “I am troubled by Donald Trump’s handpicked Attorney General’s apparent protection of a president who could not be exonerated by the Special Counsel on at least 10 counts of obstruction of justice… Barr should be acting as the nation’s Attorney General not Trump’s personal attorney.”
Republicans want to move on. “Hopefully now that this report is out now that we know there is no collusion we can move forward and actually get to work running the country,” said Washington State Republican Chair Caleb Heimlich.
Cox Media Group
