President Donald Trump is "panicked" over Special Counsel Robert Mueller's continuing investigation, and Congress must make it very plain that the the former FBI director's probe will be protected, Sen. Tim Kaine said Tuesday.
He also told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he's concerned about the president's state of mind and the current crisis with Syria.
"I just want Director Mueller to have the runway to finish his job," the Virginia Democrat, who ran as Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016, said.
"I don't want him to be fired. I don't want him to be limited. I don't want Democrats jumping to the end point before the job is done. . . it's also the story on future elections."
Trump has been calling the investigation a witch hunt, adding to his criticisms on Monday after the news that the FBI had searched the office and hotel room of his personal attorney, Michael Cohen.
"I think the president is panicked," said Kaine. "That became obvious to me about the time of the State of the Union. He's been more and more panicked by Mueller's work and Mueller's not going to stop nor should he. Congress needs to make very plain that the Mueller investigation will be protected."
If Trump attempted to either fire Mueller or preemptively pardon people, Kaine continued, "we would view that as the president pushing the nation into a constitutional crisis, and we would need to respond, as the Article 1 branch, that we would need to protect the country."
Kaine also spoke about the president's vow to take action following a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria over the weekend.
"The president currently does not have any deal authority to wage war against nation states, missile strikes against Syria for example, without coming to congress," said Kaine.
"But our committee chair, Sen. Bob Corker, has announced that he will take up military action against the nonstate actors. ISIS, al-Qaida, the Taliban shortly. I have been working very significantly with Sen. Corker to try to come up with a proposal that will limit rewrite and limit the 2001 authorization and put more constraints on the when, where and who we are fighting against."
That authorization, he added, "is a complete blank check to the president, and it's long past time that we impose some reasonable limitations."
Kaine pointed out that he voted in August 2014 that the United States should take military action against Syria for gassing its own citizens, but he said a president just can't decide on his own what to do without Congress.
"If we let President Trump unilaterally initiate a military campaign against Syria, what's to stop him from doing it against North Korea or Iran or some other nation, particularly when he's so stressed out and rambling and worrying about domestic investigation into the legitimacy of his presidency?" said Kaine.
"This is exactly the reason that congress needs to quit acting like an Article 2.5 branch and start acting like an Article 1 branch again."
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.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.