One of President Trump strongest recent Senate allies came out Tuesday in favor of a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, told reporters that “I would certainly vote for it,” according to Reuters news agency.
But Mr. Graham went a step farther than another key Republican supporter of a bill to protect Mr. Mueller from politically motivated firing — Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa — in actually calling on the Senate’s top Republican to allow such a vote.
“I don’t see any movement to get rid of Mueller. But it probably would be good to have this legislation in place just for the future,” Mr. Graham said.
The roadblock to such a bill is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, has said it’s not necessary and has refused to allow a vote on the Senate floor.
The Grassley-led Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill in the spring that said Mr. Mueller could only be fired “for cause” and took such determination away from the president.
But Mr. Grassley said he would not push Mr. McConnell on that front.
“Every bill that comes out of my committee, I’d like to see a vote. But whether it comes up will be up to the leader and I’m not going to lobby the leader,” Mr. Grassley also told reporters Tuesday. “If it comes up, I’ll vote on it. And I think it ought to pass.”
Mr. Trump has frequently criticized Mr. Mueller and his probe of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, calling it a trumped-up witch hunt trying to find collusion that doesn’t exist.
Such overt and repeated criticisms have raised fears that he might fire Mr. Mueller.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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