Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) read part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the 2016 election from the Senate floor on Tuesday, formally putting portions of the report into the Congressional Record.
Warren, who is competing for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, read part of the report as she rebutted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) declaration of “case closed” on the Russia investigation.
“Since the majority leader has pronounced his judgement here on the Senate floor, I’d like to spend some time reminding him of exactly what the report said,” Warren said from the Senate floor.{mosads}
Warren proceeded to read passages from Mueller’s report detailing Russia’s election meddling, saying she was “shaken by the evidence.” The senator was the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for President Trump’s impeachment in the wake of the report’s release last month.
She homed in on several passages in which Mueller detailed Trump’s calls for White House staff to get rid of the special counsel, including his demand that former White House counsel Don McGahn remove Mueller, his talks with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) about firing Mueller and the “episodes” Mueller outlined about potential obstruction.
“On the first call, McGahn recalled that the president said something like, ‘You got to do this. You’ve got to call Rod,’ ” Warren said, referring to outgoing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who long oversaw the special counsel probe.
“The special counsel’s report states ‘substantial evidence’ indicates that in repeatedly urging McGahn to dispute that he was ordered to have the special counsel terminated, the president acted for the purpose of influencing,” she added.
Democrats have pounced on McConnell’s floor speech Tuesday in which he accused them of having an “absolute meltdown” over the Mueller report. Democrats argued that the GOP leader was trying to “whitewash” the investigation of Russia’s election meddling and the Trump campaign.
Warren, hitting back at McConnell, said they both took an oath to defend the Constitution.
“We must act to fulfill that oath. There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution. If any other human being in this country had done what’s documented in the Mueller report they would be arrested and put in jail,” she said.
Warren, who is competing against several Senate colleagues for their party’s presidential nomination, was the first White House contender in the Senate to call for the House to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump, helping build pressure on other candidates to move toward backing impeachment.
Warren added on Tuesday that “this is not a fight I wanted to take on, but this is the fight we have in front of us now. Begin impeachment proceedings now against this president.”