Susan Collins: ‘It Would Not Hurt If We Passed Legislation’ To Protect Mueller To Send a Message to the White House

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Susan Collins, senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Do you agree with that assessment of the Steele dossier?

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), ME: It’s too early to tell. Mr. Steele has refused to cooperate with the Senate Intelligence Committee, so we’ve not been able to interview him. It will have to be Bob Mueller who gets to the bottom of some of the allegations in the report that Mr. Steele compiled.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don’t think he’ll be able to.

COLLINS: I don’t. I think it’s going to take the special counsel’s ability to do so. I would note that it is — does raise questions about the sources of the information that Mr. Steele relied upon, because they were Kremlin sources. And we know that the Russians wanted to sew the seeds of division in our country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Disinformation at every level.

COLLINS: Exactly.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And — and — and does Robert Mueller need protection from the Senate?

COLLINS: I would think that it would not hurt if we passed legislation to send a message to the White House that we want the investigation to continue. But the fact is that the president is never going to sign that legislation. And there are some legitimate constitutional concerns about it. But having the discussion in Congress helps send a very strong message that we do not want Mr. Mueller’s investigation interfered with in any way.

STEPHANOPOULOS: I think you’re — you’re — you’re certainly right. The president would not sign that legislation. So are there other steps the Senate could take to protect the integrity of the investigation?

COLLINS: Well, I think it’s important to note that even if somehow Mr. Mueller were fired — and remember, only the deputy attorney general can fire him — that the investigation (ph) is still going to go on. So it would not spell the end of the investigation. If a new deputy attorney general were nominated by the president, I cannot imagine the Senate confirming that individual without a clear commitment to appoint a new independent counsel.