McCarthy says Democrats are "more interested in subpoenas than solutions"
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy denounced congressional Democrats for their myriad of investigations into President Trump and his administration, accusing them of being more interested in issuing subpoenas than offering legislative solutions.
"This is a time that the country wants to move forward. We want to move forward. We've got health care, we've got trade, we've got a crisis on our border. The Democrats are more interested in subpoenas than solutions," McCarthy said on "Face the Nation" Sunday.
Joining other Republicans in Congress, the veteran California lawmaker criticized the decision by the Senate Intelligence Committee to subpoena the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. The unexpected move by the Republican-controlled panel, considered one of the last bastions of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, has splintered McCarthy's caucus, with some Republicans defending the committee's work and others accusing it of capitulating to the political goals of Democrats.
McCarthy said a second round of congressional testimony by Trump Jr. would not change the "outcome" of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation — which concluded in March.
"Donald Trump Jr. has already testified for more than 27 hours," he said. "If you want to bring him back in because something [Michael] Cohen has said when he is in jail for lying and talking about a meeting he wasn't even in? No, I don't think that's right."
The minority leader said congressional Democrats would not be able to replicate Mueller's nearly two-year probe — which he alleged found "no collusion" and "no obstruction." While Mueller did not establish the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 election, Mueller did not reach a decision in his obstruction of justice probe, which analyzed more than 10 instances in which Mr. Trump tried to impede the investigation.
Although he said "it's time to move on," McCarthy indicated he supported a probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, which Mr. Trump and his allies have constantly called for. He said it's "appropriate" for Attorney General William Barr to look into it.
"Was there obstruction? No. Was there collusion? No. But why did we even get to this point? Why did the dossier get to that point? What were the communications? You've got an IG report coming in?" McCarthy said. "That's going to be very important, but you never want America to have to live through this again."
"You don't want to have a president on any side of the aisle have to go through what we just went through again," he added.