House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Sunday that special counsel Robert Mueller should wind down the Russia investigation if there is no evidence of collusion between President Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
“Let them walk through their investigation. But if there is no collusion, it’s time to wind this down,” McCarthy told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
McCarthy, who is a favorite to be the next Speaker of the House after Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) retires, said that he is most concerned about the collusion allegations.
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“They can go on with the investigation. What I am concerned most about, like most Americans, was there any collusion? There was no collusion,” McCarthy said. “This has gone on for more than a year. It’s been investigated in so many different manners.”
Trump has also called for the investigations to end and has repeatedly said that there was no collusion with Russia.
The White House has said it is cooperating with the investigation, but Trump’s lawyers have been unwilling to agree to Mueller’s request for the president to be interviewed.
Mueller is reportedly considering subpoenaing the president.
After Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week” that the president “probably” has the power to pardon himself, McCarthy said that Trump should abstain from doing so.
“The president is not saying he is going to pardon himself. The president never said he pardoned himself,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think a president should pardon themselves.”
Whether Trump could pardon himself became a top of discussion after a report that the president’s lawyers sent a confidential, 20-page letter to Mueller in January arguing that Trump had the authority to, “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”