Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought to rally House Democrats behind closed doors Tuesday morning in the aftermath of special counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month investigation.
"Be calm. Take a deep breath. Don't become like them. We have to handle this professionally, officially, patriotically, strategically," Pelosi said during a closed-door meeting with House Democrats, referring to Republicans.
"Let's just get the goods," she said of Mueller's report.
Pelosi's comments came after the chairs of six key committees demanded that Attorney General William Barr hand over Mueller's entire report by next Tuesday, a formal request that followed a four-page memo from Barr summarizing Mueller's findings. According to Barr, Mueller was unable to establish that Trump associates conspired with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign, and he left unresolved the key issue of whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice.
"The president was not exonerated," Pelosi told Democrats, referring to Trump's claim on Sunday that Mueller's report amounted to a "total exoneration."
Democrats are demanding that Barr turn over all of the underlying evidence that Mueller uncovered so that they can use it as part of their own wide-ranging investigations, which focus on obstruction of justice, abuse of power, corruption and foreign influence.
"If any of us have foreign governments approach us with information about our opponents, we should go straight to the FBI," Pelosi joked, according to Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), who recounted Pelosi's remarks to POLITICO. It was a reference to Russian outreach attempts to Trump campaign officials during the 2016 election campaign.
She also projected optimism, telling lawmakers: "Some people are viewing it as the glass half empty. I think it is half full."
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have suggested that the panel would move to issue a subpoena for the Mueller report if Barr refuses to turn it over by next Tuesday. Lawmakers said on Tuesday that they expect Barr to send Congress a heavily redacted version of the highly anticipated report.
They also highlighted the fact that Barr declined to recommend a criminal prosecution against Trump for obstruction of justice, noting his previously held view that a president could not obstruct justice.
"We have not seen the report. We've only gotten a summary that was created by a man who was appointed by the president, who clearly said before his appointment that he didn't believe a sitting president could be charged, if you will, with obstruction of justice," said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Mueller's findings on Trump-Russia collusion in particular rattled Democrats who had been claiming for the past two years that the president or his associates conspired with the Kremlin.
"There are some Democrats who are disappointed," Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) acknowledged. "And I've said to five or six of them, the fact that the president of the United States is not in a criminal conspiracy with a foreign enemy is cause for celebration, not for disappointment. And if you get your head into a place where you think it's a bad thing that the president is not a traitor, you've got to reorient your head."
Sarah Ferris and Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
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