[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 51 (Monday, March 25, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1925-S1926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Mueller Report

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday, Attorney General Barr

[[Page S1926]]

transmitted to Congress his summary of the special counsel's principal 
conclusions from his investigation into Russia's efforts to interfere 
in the 2016 election.
  The result of that investigation is being hailed as good news for the 
President, and it certainly is that. But, really, it is good news for 
our entire country. It is good news that our law enforcement 
professionals know much more about Russia's malevolent attempts to 
interfere in American elections, and it is good news that we can 
conclusively set aside the notion that the President and his team had 
somehow participated in those attacks on our democracy.
  According to the Attorney General, the special counsel's indepth 
investigation ``did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone 
associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts 
to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.'' That really says it 
all.
  Further, Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein 
concluded the investigation did not--did not--establish that the 
President engaged in obstruction of justice.
  So after 2 years, thousands of subpoenas, hundreds of search 
warrants, hundreds of witnesses, millions of taxpayer dollars, these 
are the findings: no collusion, no conspiracy, no obstruction.
  What the investigation did produce, it seems, is a deep examination 
of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. The Attorney 
General reports that Russia carried out online disinformation campaigns 
and computer hacking efforts designed to sow discord in our Nation and 
interfere in American politics.
  It is deeply disturbing that the Obama administration was apparently 
insufficiently prepared to anticipate and counter these Russian 
threats. It was hardly a secret prior to November 2016 that Putin's 
Russia was not, and is not, our friend. Yet, for years, the previous 
administration ignored, excused, and failed to confront Putin's malign 
activities both at home and abroad.
  I am glad the special counsel's report will contribute new insight 
and new understanding to our awareness of Russian activities. I look 
forward to the release of more information in the coming days, as the 
Attorney General has said he intends to do, in consultation with 
Special Counsel Mueller.
  I look forward, as well, to the continuing parallel work of our 
Senate colleagues on the Select Committee on Intelligence to study the 
threats that foreign interference pose to our institutions.
  As I said, in any sane political moment, all of this would be very 
welcome news to all Americans--in a normal time. But we know that, 
amazingly, the reaction in some corners of the far left has seemed not 
to be celebration but, rather, disappointment.
  Huge components of the Democratic Party and their media allies have 
spent literally years spinning intricate theories about this Presidency 
and trying to sell the American people on their wild claims. It is as 
if many of our Democratic colleagues are still just unable to process 
the simple fact that, yes, the American people elected this Republican 
President over his Democratic opponent.
  We are faced with new evidence every day that our Republican policies 
are delivering exactly the change that middle-class families voted for 
back in 2016. Yet, even still, many on the left remain convinced that 
only conspiracy and corruption could possibly explain why they might 
actually lose an election.
  Well, here in the real world, the American people hired this 
President to clean up the mess of the preceding 8 years. That is 
exactly what we set about doing, and the results are clear. The Nation 
is clearly better off than it was 2 years ago.
  I sincerely hope that now, at last, our friends on the left will be 
able to put aside their fixation on permanently relitigating their loss 
in 2016 and actually join in the productive work that the rest of us 
have been proudly engaged in for the past 2 years and counting.
  Unfortunately, the events over the last few months have not exactly 
indicated that productive, practical cooperation is what our Democratic 
colleagues have in mind. To the contrary, the Nation has watched as the 
Democratic Party has engaged in a collective headlong sprint--a 
headlong sprint--toward the left, as far to the left as possible, as 
fast as possible.
  They have proposed a massive rewriting of the rules of American 
politics. They have proposed scrapping Medicare, slapping its name on a 
brandnew, one-size-fits-all government insurance plan, and then making 
American families' existing private insurance policies illegal. And, of 
course, they have proposed what the Senate will be voting on later this 
week--the famous Green New Deal.

  My colleagues and I will have plenty more to say on this subject in 
the coming days. Today, I just want to say that I could not be more 
glad that the American people will have the opportunity to learn 
precisely where each one of their Senators stands on this radical, top-
down, and socialist makeover of the entire U.S. economy.
  Middle-class families will get to see if their Senators have been 
wooed by the disjointed contents of leftish daydreams.
  Hard-working Americans in Kentucky and around the country who are 
employed in the energy and manufacturing industries will get to see if 
their Senators support eliminating all fossil fuels and suffocating 
their livelihoods.
  Homeowners who take pride in their hard-earned investment will get to 
see if their Senators are in favor of forcible, DC-directed remodeling 
of every building in America.
  Working-class Americans who have benefited from our growing economy 
and historic job market will learn whether their Senators support 
turning away from free enterprise and implementing a new government-
driven employment system.
  Families who have to budget for household expenses will see which 
Senators vote to increase their electricity bills by what one analysis 
pegs at--listen to this--$300 a month.
  Of course, every American taxpayer will get to learn whether their 
Senator supports saddling our Nation with the astronomical cost of this 
socialist fantasy--tens and tens of trillions of dollars--a tax burden 
that would be certain to hurt not just wealthy Americans but the middle 
class as well.
  On all of these questions, on this whole Democratic effort to rebrand 
all the failed ideas of 20th-century socialism with a little green 
paint, every Member of this body will have the opportunity to cast a 
clear vote this very week. The American people deserve to know which 
Senators can reject this crippling proposal right away and which 
Senators find themselves unable to do that. That is exactly what they 
will learn later this week.