Sen. Susan Collins on Thursday ripped President Donald Trump for slamming Russia special counsel Robert Mueller in an interview with The New York Times.
Sen. Susan Collins on Thursday ripped President Donald Trump for slamming Russia special counsel Robert Mueller in an interview with The New York Times.
« It would be catastrophic if the president were to fire the special counsel, » the Maine Republican told Jake Tapper on CNN .
Trump told the Times in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Mueller’s investigation would cross a red line if he delved into his family’s finances and slammed legal team for their contributions to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
« I would say yes, » the president said. « I think that’s a violation.
« Look, this is about Russia. »
However, Trump told the Times that he did not plan to order the Justice Department to fire him.
Tapper also talked with three other Republican senators on background — « because they didn’t want their concerns to evolve into a food fight with President Trump » — and they attacked Trump for criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to the Times for recusing himself in March from the Justice Department’s Moscow probe.
« I’m very disturbed that the president would throw Jeff Sessions under the bus, » Tapper quoted one senator as saying. « Sessions did the right thing ethically and the right thing legally.
« To undermine the attorney general is very bad form for the president. »
