Mueller investigation ‘really unfair for the midterms,’ president says
President Trump said yesterday that the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is not only bad for the country, it’s “really, really unfair for the midterms.”
Trump said the inquiry should have been wrapped up a “long time ago.” Asked about the investigation, which he has repeatedly denounced as a “witch hunt,” Trump reiterated his insistence that there was no collusion between anyone on his presidential campaign and the Russian government. He said it was long past time for the investigation to have ended.
“We have to get it over with. It’s really bad for the country. It’s really unfair for our midterms. Really, really unfair for the midterms,” Trump told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One. “This thing should have been over with a long time ago.”
Trump has portrayed the probe as a waste of time that has lasted too long and been a distraction for the country. He again argued that the case was being prosecuted by partisan Democrats, even though the head of the investigation, Robert Mueller, is a lifelong Republican.
The president spoke to reporters in the midst of a two-day campaign swing through states where Republicans hope to expand their narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate by knocking off vulnerable Democratic Sens. Jon Tester of Montana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
Trump was flying from Montana to North Dakota to attend a fundraiser for Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer, Heitkamp’s opponent, when he spoke to reporters accompanying him on the trip, part of an intense campaign schedule Trump has planned through the Nov. 6 elections.
Asked if he would consider allowing a government shutdown before the elections, Trump said, “I would do it because I think it’s a great political issue.” But he said some Republican lawmakers would “rather not do it because they have races, they’re doing well, they’re up.”
The president told Fox News in an interview broadcast earlier yesterday that a government shutdown “is up to me, but I don’t want to do anything that’s going to hurt us or potentially hurt us because I have a feeling that the Republicans are going to do very well.”