The appointment of a special prosecutor to oversee the Russia-U.S. election probe is "good news" for Congress, letting it get back to work on a GOP agenda that's been sidelined by White House controversies, political commentator Charlie Sykes said.
In comments Wednesday to MSNBC's Greta Van Susteren, the former conservative radio host and current editor of "Right Wisconsin" said "Congress now can take a deep breath."
"This is bad news for the White House," Sykes said. "But it's clearly very, very, very good news for Congress. … They can now deflect the questions and the obsession on the issue and say, 'look, you know, we trust the independent… counsel'"
Sykes said Republicans "from the beginning should be asking for this so that it's not hanging over their heads."
"So this does in effect unshackle Congress," he said. "Maybe it will allow the Trump administration to get some more momentum on its agenda because right now they are absolutely, completely dead in the water."
Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger also hailed the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller.
"After you see the reaction from some of the left that yell 'impeachment,' some on the right that yell 'fake news,' it became obvious to me that we have to detox this," Kinzinger said of reactions in the wake of the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and his memo claiming President Donald Trump asked that a portion of the FBI probe be shut down.
"We have to take the politics as best we can out of it. We've got to give the American people confidence we're going to get to an answer, and they frankly don't have confidence it could be done in the current situation. … Robert Mueller is a fantastic person. … and this is the right move."
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