Mitch McConnell knew

| 11:15 pm EDT May 9, 2019
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Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor and emphatically declared that the investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal is now finished, Donald Trump and everyone have been completely exonerated, and the whole thing is “case closed.” Then just one day later, it was revealed that a key Senate leader in McConnell’s own party has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr to testify about the Trump-Russia scandal.

The whole thing looked bad for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell as it was. Based on initial appearances, it looked like McConnell didn’t know what was going on under his own roof, couldn’t control his own people, and thus couldn’t sell his phony narrative. But today NBC News reported that Donald Trump Jr was actually served the subpoena a few weeks ago, which means that McConnell knew about it before he gave his “case closed” speech.

In other words, McConnell was giving this speech with the full knowledge that not only did House Democrats consider the Trump-Russia investigation to be ongoing, at least one influential Senate Republican felt the same. McConnell wasn’t merely trying to convince Americans to move on from the scandal; he was trying to push back against the actions of one of his own people.

Fascinatingly, someone leaked the news about the Donald Trump Jr subpoena right after Mitch McConnell’s speech, apparently in order to take McConnell’s legs out. We don’t know who leaked this story; it could have come from one of the Democrats on the Senate Intel Committee, as opposed to being leaked by Richard Burr. Either way, the Republican Senate is in danger of tearing itself apart – and thus neutering itself – even as the House Democrats move forward in dismantling Donald Trump.