Indiana Republican Mike Braun walks the Trump tightrope

Republican Senate nominee Mike Braun warmly embraced President Trump’s agenda on Sunday even as he distanced himself from the commander in chief’s provocative rhetoric.

Is special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and possible collusion with Moscow by Trump or his associates, a “rigged witch-hunt?”

“That again — it would be his choice of words,” Braun said. “I would say it is gone to where it’s a distraction for all the other stuff that needs to be done and that if they can’t put up, they ought to shut up, and get the thing done, because it’s dragged on too long — without doing anything that points to the original reason that the Mueller probe was started.”

Is it fair to label the media the “enemy of the people?”

“Those are not words I’d use,” Braun said. “I would use: ‘Don’t editorialize if you’re in the press, report it.’ I’m trying to think where I see that. It looks like it’s gotten to where it’s more op-ed than it is, here’s the news.”

But any hint of separation with Trump stopped there, as Braun made clear in a wide-ranging discussion with the Washington Examiner just before walking the parade route through Jasper, his hometown, for the annual “Strassenfest” festival celebrating the Southern Indiana community’s German roots.

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