Vice President Mike Pence's call to end special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the 2016 presidential campaign is "inappropriate," but also part of a larger strategy, Weekly Standard editor at large Bill Kristol said Friday.
"If you are vice president of the United States and the Justice Department is investigating someone or a set of people, and some people have been indicted or pleaded guilty, you say "I'm not commenting on an ongoing investigation. Period," Kristol said during a MSNBC's "Morning Joe" group discussion. "That's what you say. It's utterly inappropriate for Pence to say this."
However, the comments are part of a larger strategy, said Kristol, "to keep building the pressure and legitimizing the notion that this has gone on too long, and to get the Republicans on the hill and the conservatives on Fox News to keep attacking Mueller and so forth."
During an interview airing on Thursday's "Today" show, Pence called on Mueller to wrap up his investigation.
"It's been about a year since this investigation began," Pence said. "Our administration's provided over a million documents. We've fully cooperated in it. And in the interest of the country, I think it's time to wrap it up. And I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion."
"I think Mike Pence likes to keep himself in the dark about things he feels it's better not to to know something about," said Kristol, but I come back to what Joe [Scarborough] is saying, the inappropriateness of the vice president saying it's time to tend the investigation."
Meanwhile, Kristol said he does think the strategy is working among Republicans, as there is an "erosion of confidence" against the special counsel.
"At the beginning, when Mueller was appointed, Newt Gingrich and others said we can't criticize Mueller," said Kristol, noting the former FBI director had impeccable credentials and had served under President George W. Bush.
"Now it's a free field to slander Mueller and attack the FBI, so I think it's having some effect," Kristol said. "I think there has to be pushback and there needs to be a serious effort by Congress to protect Mueller."
Kristol also weighed in on reports that lawmakers have a "Plan B" to protect information gathered by Mueller, after their first plan for a bill to protect his job fell through when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to forward their bill for a Senate vote after it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 14-7 vote.
"That's okay?" he said. "The Senate majority leader says 'I choose not to bring it up? It passes the Senate Judiciary Committee with the support of the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, and we're now living in a congress where one guy says I choose not to bring it up?" said Kristol. "I have to say, they're kind of pathetic, 'Mitch Mcconnell is not bringing it up, we're working on Plan B.' Make more of a ruckus about Plan A."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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