CNN's Cuomo Calls Out Republican Leadership For Their Silence After Trump “Moved To Stop” The Russia Investigation

David Gregory: “Republican Leaders Are Not Standing Up. And It's Unclear To Me Who Is Going To Fight For Democratic Institutions.”

From the May 12 edition of CNN's New Day:

Video file

CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): Do you hear that? Do you know what that is? The sound of Republican leadership standing up and talking about what we just heard in this interview with the president. Crickets. They were asked to come on this show this morning. We ask them on a regular basis. Nobody has said anything meaningful about what to do in light of these obvious allegations that the president didn't like what was happening with the Russian investigation and moved to stop it. To A.B. [Stoddard's] point -- put up the timeline, because it really smacks you in the face what this was really about. On [January] 26th, [former acting Attorney General Sally] Yates comes, and by the way, she wasn't alone. She came with a senior official to give some heft to the message she was communicating. The next day is the Trump-Comey dinner where Trump seemed at a minimum unduly curious about his exposure to what was going on with this Flynn and larger Russian investigation. A few days later, three, Yates is fired over the travel ban. But now you have to ask, was it really just about the travel ban? Or what she had started in the mind of the president and his people around him about exposure in Russia? And then you start to get this chronology of things moving along about what was known and what wasn't. And, of course, the pivot point, David Gregory, was that Washington Post article that made all this public, and then it wound up precipitating some action. So, again, we're back to where we started. What happens now? Who stands up? What can be done? 

DAVID GREGORY: Well, congressional leaders are not standing up. Republican leaders are not standing up. And it's unclear to me who is going to fight for democratic institutions and an appropriate way to protect the system. I will say that those on the Senate intelligence committee, Richard Burr [R-NC] and Mark Warner [D-VA] are working hand in glove together, and, I think, are showing a lot of integrity in how they're pursuing the investigation. I don't think you're going to get a wider investigation. Look, we have to say something else, that President Trump is bringing the same intellectual rigor to this Russia hacking investigation that he brought to the birther lie that he perpetuated into national prominence against President Obama. He has this blind spot, this conspiracy minded thought that all these investigations are a way to delegitimize him and him winning the presidency, and that they're all after him. And that President Obama personally wiretapped him. It's nonsense, it's all nonsense.

Previously:

Trump Lied About Why He Fired Comey, And Right-Wing Media Helped Him Sell It

Trump Just Admitted He Did What He And Right-Wing Media Freaked Out About Last Summer

These Are The Candidates Right-Wing Media Are Floating To Head The FBI