Paul Ryan laughs off Trump's attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) continued his pattern of complicity when he laughed off Trump’s recent barrage of attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigation.

At a press conference Tuesday, a reporter asked Ryan whether he agrees with several of his fellow Republicans “that the president needs to stop attacking the special counsel.”

Before the reporter could finish her question, Ryan began to laugh.

“Would you support measures to protect his investigation?” the reporter added.

“The special counsel should be free to finish his investigation through to completion without any interference, absolutely,” Ryan said. “I am confident he’ll be able to do that, I have received assurances that his firing is not even under consideration.”

Trump spent most of this past weekend attacking Mueller. His personal lawyer publicly called on the Justice Department to end the investigation.

It was only after a handful of Republican lawmakers spoke out against the attacks that another Trump lawyer released a damage-control statement containing the “assurances” Ryan references.

Those “assurances” are directly contradicted by Trump’s own words, by his history of firing leaders who are directly involved in investigating him, and by the fact that Trump actually did order the firing of Mueller last year, an order that his White House counsel refused to carry out.

It is difficult to fathom what Ryan could possibly find funny about Trump attacking the man who is investigating Russia’s attack on our democracy and has already indicted over a dozen people for that attack, and secured guilty pleas from senior Trump advisers.

Some Senate Republicans have at least suggested they might stand up to Trump if he were to fire Mueller. But Ryan continues to be the weak link in any attempt to hold Trump accountable. That will only change when Democrats take over the House, and Ryan is no longer in a position to cover for Trump.