GOP Sen. Cotton Says He Doesn’t See Bills To Shield Mueller ‘Going Very Far’

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) on Sunday said he does not expect legislation to shield special counsels from political influence to progress much.

“First there was the vote on sanctions, which the President did not like with respect to Russia. Also in the Senate you took measures to make sure there were no recess appointments. And finally there are a couple of bipartisan efforts to make sure that the President can’t fire the special counsel,” CBS News’ John Dickerson asked on “Face the Nation.” “Seems to be Congress is trying to constrain the President.”

“Well, those are all very different kinds of actions,” Cotton replied.

He said he supported the sanctions legislation and said Senate scheduling to prevent recess appointments “is something that goes back to the Obama administration.”

“That’s simply Congress taking its responsibility seriously to provide advice and consent to all nominations,” he said.

“Finally, on those two pieces of legislation,” Cotton added, referring to proposals to shield special counsels from influence, “I don’t see them going very far.”

Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) on Thursday introduced a proposal to allow any special counsel to challenge their termination in court, as did Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), whose proposal would subject any action by the attorney general to fire a special counsel to judicial review.

Cotton nevertheless said Congress has for decades “ceded too much authority to the executive branch.”

“We have an executive branch in which the power of all the departments and all the agencies reports to the single elected member of the President,” Cotton said. “We should exercise our constitutional responsibilities seriously and with vigor.”

.@SenTomCotton on legislation to protect Special Counsel Mueller: “I don't see them going very far.” pic.twitter.com/vM1eIVLGCP

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) August 6, 2017