Flake vows to oppose judges unless Mueller bill gets vote
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday that he won’t vote to confirm judicial nominees unless GOP leaders hold a vote on legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.
Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware went to the Senate floor on Wednesday and tried to bring the legislation up for a vote. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected. McConnell has said that the legislation is unnecessary because he doesn’t think Mueller will be fired.
Flake and Coons called for the vote in the wake of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ departure. President Donald Trump pushed Sessions out last week and temporarily replaced him with a Flake Coons
loyalist, Matt Whitaker, who has criticized the Mueller investigation.
“This is not a moment for our leadership to be weak or irresolute or compromised in any way,” Flake said, adding that “the president now has this investigation in his sights and we all know it.”
Flake, who retires in January, said he won’t vote to confirm judges on the Senate floor or to advance them out of committee until there is a vote on the Mueller bill. He said he’ll continue to come to the Senate floor to call for one.
McConnell objected without comment. But he said earlier Wednesday that he’s never heard anyone at the White House suggest shutting the investigation down.
“I think it’s in no danger, so I don’t think any legislation is necessary,” McConnell said.
The move by Flake and Coons comes more than a year after the bipartisan legislation was introduced. Trump has repeatedly called the probe a “hoax” and leveled personal criticism at the former FBI director.
Whitaker is now overseeing the probe, which had been overseen by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
Several other Republicans have said they would vote for the bill. They include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Maine Sen. Susan Collins and the legislation’s GOP co-sponsors, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis.