Rep. Denny Heck (D., Wash.) on Monday attempted to downplay Special Counsel Robert Mueller's findings stating the Trump campaign didn't collude with Russia by saying it's "just a headline."
"So when you say though that you stand by the walls closing in, has your committee found anything Mueller didn't?" CNN's OutFront host Erin Burnett said. "Mueller obviously found no collusion with Russia. That's the bottom line. It's very hard to beat around that headline."
Heck avoided directly answering Burnett's question and responded by downplaying Mueller's findings, saying it was "just a headline." He went on to say he would be willing to accept Mueller's conclusion if he was able to read the full report.
"What we got was a four-page distillation by a political appointee of the president," said Heck, referring to Attorney General William Barr.
"You'll pardon me if I don't take his word directly for it," Heck said. "Let us remember that for the last two years the administration has been engaged in a non-stop, hour-by-hour attempt to discredit the reputation of Bob Mueller."
Mueller determined Trump did not collude with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign, but he refrained from making a judgment on whether Trump attempted to impede the investigation.
"The Special Counsel's investigation did not find that the Trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with Russia in its efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election," Barr wrote in a letter to Congress. "As the report states, ‘[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.'"
Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found there was "not sufficient evidence to establish the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense."