McConnell: "I have complete confidence in Justice Thomas"

• "Justice Thomas has had a 30-year distinguished career on the Supreme Court and nobody's questioned his standards his ethics," McConnell said, adding that "spouses are not members of Congress."
• "The Supreme Court itself decides when it's appropriate to recuse. I have total confidence, not only in Justice Thomas but the other Supreme Court justices to make the decision themselves as to when they should recuse from a case."

State of play: McConnell last month condemned calls by some Democrats for Thomas to recuse himself amid revelations about his wife's activism, calling it a "new and inappropriate pressure campaign."

Go deeper: McConnell pressed on contradiction with Trump and moral red lines