GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) blasted President Trump’s Wednesday tweet calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to end special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“I think it’s highly inappropriate and intemperate. …It would be far better if the president just refrained from commenting and Mr. Mueller proceeds with his investigation, which after all has already resulted in more than 30 indictments … and has lead to a trial that is ongoing even as we speak,” Collins told reporters.
Trump called on Sessions to end the probe into the 2016 election, including potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow “right now.”
Multiple White House officials said after Trump’s tweet that he was expressing an opinion, not giving the Justice Department a direct order.
{mosads}But Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed out that Sessions can’t fire Mueller because he recused himself from the investigation last year.
“I don’t think there’s any chance at all that Mr. Mueller is going to be fired,” she said.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Mueller’s probe calling it a “witch hunt.”
But GOP senators, while signaling they think Mueller should start wrapping up the investigation, have not endorsed it being forcibly ended.
“I think everyone understands that if Mueller were to be terminated chaos would ensue here, and I don’t see that happening,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) separately told reporters.