WASHINGTON
— They are a disparate foursome: the chamber’s leading Republican
centrist, a minister who embraces public service as a calling, a
seasoned dealmaker and a high-profile presidential contender.
These four Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Marco Rubio
of Florida — are emerging as a bloc integral to the Senate Intelligence
Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016
presidential election.
The
investigation is widely considered the premier inquiry, the one with
the necessary jurisdiction and the best chance of producing a credible
outcome. These four senators loom large as a crucial element in getting
there.
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Russia’s role in the 2016 election: the special counsel, Robert Mueller,
and four influential Senate Republicans.
Despite
early skepticism about the Republican-led panel’s commitment to the
investigation, the four have made it clear that they are determined to
see it through to a conclusion that would satisfy the public and their
colleagues in both parties. To get there, they will have to slog through
thousands of pages of raw intelligence held by the C.I.A. and devote
untold hours to grinding committee work behind closed doors.
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“This
is not about the president, this is about the presidency,” said Mr.
Lankford, who was a longtime Baptist youth minister before he entered
politics. “This is about where we are as a nation.”
This
is not to say that other members of the panel aren’t engaged. The
committee’s seven Democrats are certainly interested in finding out
whether Russians colluded with the Trump campaign and helped to elect
him.
Senator Richard M. Burr, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the panel,
has shown an increasing zeal for pursuing the question after an
uncertain start. He and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the committee’s
ranking Democrat, have forged a solid working relationship.
Three
other Republicans are also playing a role: John Cornyn of Texas, who as
the No. 2 Senate Republican brings a leadership perspective to the
investigation, Jim Risch of Idaho and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
But
it is notable that the other four have quietly coalesced into something
of an informal working group within the Intelligence Committee, pushing
the investigation forward and consulting not only with each other and
Mr. Burr, but also with Mr. Warner.
“We
are working very hard and we talk a lot with one another, as well,”
said Ms. Collins, who said the investigation would “take as long as
required.”
“This
is a complex investigation, and as you pull the threads, you find that
it is connected to a whole lot of other threads in this tapestry that we
are not yet seeing the whole of.”
Here is a look at the four and what is driving them:
Susan Collins
Although
she is known as the Republican centrist voice in the Senate, another
role she has held in Washington may be equally important in this case:
senior Senate staff member.
Ms.
Collins was a top Senate aide and served in other executive posts
before running for office. She is experienced in both conducting and
overseeing inquiries.
“I
really want to know the truth no matter who is implicated, no matter
where the evidence leads,” she said. As a 21-year-old in 1974, she was
an intern for Representative William S. Cohen, a freshman Republican
congressman from Maine who helped draw up the articles of impeachment of
President Richard M. Nixon.
James Lankford
His colleagues say it would be a mistake to underestimate this junior member of the Senate.
Mr.
Lankford showed surprising political strength in a 2014 primary fight
in a special Senate election in Oklahoma after compiling a conservative
record and rapidly raising his profile during two terms in the House.
He objected sharply to recent reports that the Senate inquiry was understaffed and moving at a plodding pace.
“If
you make a big staff, they get less access to the real documents for
intelligence that you need,” he said. “You need to keep it with
high-level folks in as small a pool as possible and give them the time
they need,” he said.
Roy Blunt
Very
few members of Congress make it into the leadership ranks; hardly
anyone makes into leadership in the House and in the Senate.
Mr.
Blunt, the former House majority leader and a savvy inside player, is
now the fifth-ranking Republican in the Senate. He has been adamant that
Congress pursue the investigation into Russian meddling — both to find
out what happened and to allow Congress and the White House to move
beyond it.
“Everyone would benefit if we do this job in the right way and do it not faster than we can, but as fast we can,” he said.
Mr.
Blunt has been a consistent voice that the committee must be thorough.
“When we are done, we need to have talked to everybody a reasonable
person would think we should talk to and have seen everything a
reasonable person would think we should see,” he said.
Marco Rubio
After his failed presidential bid,
he almost didn’t return to the Senate, but a change of heart has thrust
him into the middle of an inquiry surrounding the election of his
Republican primary race rival.
In
a recent appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Rubio suggested
that committee work would not just lay out for the public what the
Russians did, “but how they did it and what it means for the future and
what we should be doing about it.”
A
proponent of a hard line with Russia, Mr. Rubio dismissed Mr. Trump’s
complaint that he was the victim of a witch hunt. “We are nation of laws
and we are going to follow those laws,” he said. “The president is
entitled to his opinion.”
There
is no doubt that political conflict will erupt as the inquiry advances.
These four senators will be crucial in determining whether it stays on
track.
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