McConnell: No one tells Burr how to run Intelligence panel

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sidestepped tensions within the caucus over Sen. Richard Burr’s (R-N.C.) decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr., arguing that senators weren’t trying to tell the Intelligence Committee chairman how to do this job.

“None of us tell Chairman Burr how to run his committee,” McConnell told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the tensions within his caucus over the subpoena.

“I asked him to undertake this investigation into Russian collusion a couple of years ago. He’s indicated publicly that he believes they will find no collusion and we are hoping that we will get a report sometime soon.”{mosads}

Pressed on President Trump’s statement earlier Tuesday that the subpoena of his son was “unfair,” McConnell again dodged. 

“I gave the responsibility of this investigation to Chairman Burr two years ago. He’s indicated publicly that they will find no collusion and we anticipate getting that report sometime soon,” he said.

Trump said earlier Tuesday that he thought it was “very unfair” for the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee to subpoena his eldest son.

“It’s really a tough situation because my son spent I guess over 20 hours testifying about something that [special counsel Robert] Mueller said was 100 percent OK,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

McConnell’s statement comes amid lingering tensions among Senate Republicans over Burr and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner’s (Va.) decision to subpoena Trump Jr. as part of the panel’s investigation into the 2016 election and Russia’s election interference.

Burr has come under high-profile criticism, including from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is plotting his own probe into the 2016 election. Graham argued that Trump Jr. should comply with the GOP-led panel’s subpoena, but said the president’s son should plead the Fifth and refuse to testify.

“You just show up and plead the Fifth and it’s over with,” Graham told reporters, referring to the amendment that protects citizens from self-incrimination, according to The Washington Post. Calls for Graham to resign began trending on Twitter Tuesday morning following his remarks. 

But McConnell has tried to downplay the tensions sparked by the subpoena, saying last week that Trump shouldn’t worry about the current fight between Trump Jr. and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I know the president’s upset about that, but I think he ought not to worry about it. The chairman of the Intelligence Committee has already said the committee, when it reports, will find no collusion,” McConnell told WHAS, a Kentucky radio station.