House and Senate Republicans have maintained that the most crucial thing in the special counsel’s investigation is transparency for them and the public. Now, suddenly, things have changed, leaving them in an awkward predicament.
President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans repeated over and over that the full report from Robert Mueller would be available. They all promised that Mueller should and would testify to the House and Senate. They even promised Attorney General Bill Barr would answer questions before the House and Senate, but he fell short of the commitment.
Sunday, Trump tweeted that he didn’t want Mueller to testify before the House or Senate, a new kink in the president’s lists of promises made and promises kept.
….to testify. Are they looking for a redo because they hated seeing the strong NO COLLUSION conclusion? There was no crime, except on the other side (incredibly not covered in the Report), and NO OBSTRUCTION. Bob Mueller should not testify. No redos for the Dems!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2019
It put the president into a self-imposed exile on an island away from his party. Republicans in the House demanded in April that Mueller testify “immediately.”
Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) demanded Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) call Mueller to testify immediately.
“If you see both transparency and for the American public to learn the full contours of the Special Counsel’s (sic) investigation, public testimony from Special Counsel Mueller himself is undoubtedly the best way to accomplish this goal,” he said in a statement.
It’s putting Republicans in an awkward position to contrast with the leader of their party.