SAY NO TO TRUMP ON FBI
Schumer: Block any nominee Demands special Russia probe prosecutor
DEMOCRATS SHOULD refuse to vote on President Trump’s pick for the next FBI director unless a special prosecutor is named to take over the investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Sunday.
Schumer, the Senate minority leader, spoke in reaction to Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey last week amid the bureau’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by people tied to Trump’s campaign.
“There are a lot of Democrats who feel that way. We’ll have to discuss this as a caucus. But I would support that move,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I think it will get some broad support in our caucus.”
The Democrats would need a few Republicans to join them because they would not have enough votes to torpedo an FBI director nomination on their own. “The key here of course is getting some of our Republican colleagues to join us. We’re hoping, we’re waiting, we understand it’s difficult, but I think patriotism and the needs of this country demand it,” Schumer said. “To have that special prosecutor, people would breathe a sigh of relief because then there would be a real, independent person overlooking the FBI director.” Comey’s replacement, he said, “should be not a partisan politician, not part of either party.” Democrats and Republicans both agreed that Trump will have to turn over any recordings of his conversations with Comey to Congress, if such tapes exist. Trump seemed to suggest as much in a tweet Friday, saying, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”
The White House has not explained further.
“If there are tapes, the President should turn them over immediately, of course. To destroy them would be a violation of law,” Schumer said. “If there are no tapes, he should apologize to both Jim Comey and the American people for misleading them.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence committees, both said they’d “absolutely” move to subpoena the tapes if they exist.
“If they exist, Congress needs to get them. If they’re not provided willingly, Congress should subpoena them,” said Schiff.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told “Fox News Sunday” that “it’s probably inevitable” that Trump would have to hand over the tapes if they exist, adding that for Trump to record the conversations was “not necessarily the best idea” to begin with.
“If there are any tapes of this conversation, they need to be turned over,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” adding he doubts they exist. “You can’t be cute about tapes.”
Graham, who opposed calls for a special prosecutor, also said Trump should “back off” and refrain from talking or tweeting about the probe.
“The President needs to back off here and let the investigation go forward,” he told NBC.
He agreed that the next head of the FBI must not be a politician — ruling out Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who Trump is reportedly considering. Graham said the senator from Texas would have been a “superb” choice at a different point in history.
“It’s now time to pick somebody that comes from within the ranks (of the FBI) or is of such a reputation that has no political background at all,” Graham said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tillerson said it’s been “well documented” that Russia meddled in the presidential election but defended not bringing the issue up in meetings during Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Washington last week. “I don’t think there’s any question that the Russians were playing around in our electoral processes,” he said on “Meet the Press,” insisting the Trump administration is not giving the Russians a “free pass” on their actions. Lavrov has said the issue of election interference was not raised during last week’s talks. “I think we have such a broad range of important issues that have to be addressed in the U.S.-Russia relationship,” Tillerson said. “I think we have to look at this relationship in its broadest contours, and there are many, many important areas which require our attention if we are to bring it back to a relationship that we believe is necessary for the security of the U.S.”