December 2, 2018

My question is just how many members of the Republican party are compromised right along with Trump? Maybe one of these days we'll get an answer to that question, but in the meantime, Republicans continue to make it abundantly clear that they have absolutely no intention of taking their oversight duties seriously as long as Donald Trump remains in office.

Here's Republican Sen. John Barrasso refusing to admit to Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that maybe it's just a wee bit of a problem that we have a president who has been compromised by the Russians.

TODD: Do you have any concerns at all that if the Russians knew, basically we now know they might have had leverage over this president, they knew information that we in the public did not know, they confirmed it over the weekend. Does that... is that not cause for concern?

BARRASSO: The president is an international businessman. I'm not surprised he was doing international business. Cohen is in trouble for lying to Congress, not anything related to the campaign or Russian influence. But we have a Mueller investigation going on. We need to come to completion on that, and it should be done quickly.

TODD: Is it fair to the Republican voters of 2016 to not know that the president was at least negotiating a business deal with Putin.

BARRASSO: There were so many things involved in the 2016 campaign, it's hard to point to what one thing influenced voters. People were thinking it is time for a change. They didn't want Hillary Clinton. They wanted a new opportunity and they've gotten it in terms of a strong, and healthy and growing economy. Jobs are up. Wages are up. Consumer confidence is at an all time high. I think when people look back to where they were two years ago and where we are today, we're in a much better place Chuck.

TODD: Alright, but should a good economy, trump the concern that we didn't know about this stuff?

BARRASSO: Well, I want to know... I want the Mueller probe to end and I want the American people to see what is in it. There are people that are trying to do legislation. They've been crying wolf for two years that Mueller is going to be fired. Didn't happen. Not going to happen. This is wasted energy to try to do this, and for the previous guest to say maybe we should not fund the government over protecting special counsel Mueller, I think is the wrong way to go.

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