Mitch McConnell wants to stop Americans from seeing the Mueller report

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) doesn’t want Americans to be able to read the Mueller report.

On Monday, he blocked Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) nonbinding resolution that called for Mueller’s report to be made public. As Schumer said on Twitter, what are they trying to hide?

McConnell’s not shy about making bad-faith arguments when it comes to the Mueller report. He believes that the public shouldn’t get to see the report any time soon because the president had to wait two years for the investigation to complete and “it’s not unreasonable to give the special counsel and the Justice Department just a little time to complete their review in a professional and responsible manner.”

That argument might hold water but for the fact that Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, only took 48 hours to review 22 months of work in order to determine that Trump should not be charged with obstruction of justice.

If Barr can review all of that material and come to a complicated legal decision so swiftly, then surely he’s able to release the entire report equally swiftly.

In a surprise to no one, McConnell is also trying to say that Russian interference is Obama’s fault. He went on the floor today to fault Obama’s administration for being “apparently insufficiently prepared to anticipate & counter Russian threats.”

This is rich, even coming from Mitch, who refused to agree even to sign a statement condemning Russian interference back in 2016. And when Congress did finally let state election officials know about cybersecurity concerns, McConnell made sure that the language was “dramatically watered down.”

Now, though, McConnell finally seems to think that the Russians interfering with American elections is problematic. After Barr’s letter on Sunday, he said that Russia does pose a threat, but he wouldn’t go so far as to say that his party will actually do something to stop them from interfering again in 2020.

McConnell has always gone out of his way to make sure the GOP and Trump remain in power. He’ll do whatever it takes, including making sure the Mueller report never sees the light of day, to keep propping up Trump.

Luckily, McConnell doesn’t control both bodies of Congress. Over in the House, the chairs of six different committees have called for the full report to be provided to them no later than April 2, and there’s no way Mitch can stop them, much as he might want to do so.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.