Posted on 05/02/2019 2:47:36 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Democrats outraged over Attorney General William Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report are increasing their fire, threatening to hold him in contempt and even suggesting they could seek his impeachment.
The cries for Barr’s head exploded on Thursday after the attorney general skipped a House hearing one day after his testimony before a Senate panel shed new light on his differences with Mueller, the ex-FBI chief who led a two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Democrats left an empty chair for Barr as they opened a hearing that would go nowhere. Afterward, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) led her press conference by accusing Barr of committing a crime.
“He lied to Congress, and if anybody else did that it would be considered a crime,” she said. “Nobody is above the law; not the president of the United States, and not the attorney general.”
Pelosi did not rule out jail time as a potential punishment if Barr is later found to have broken the law.
“I really lost sleep last night after watching over and over again this testimony of the attorney general of the United States,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi’s harsh denunciation of Barr reflects the real anger of rank-and-file Democrats, who see him as a political operative seeking to protect President Trump at all costs.
But the political theater — Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) showed up with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken at the early-morning hearing to make a point about Barr’s lack of courage — obscured the fact that in focusing their ire on Barr, Democrats were not focused on impeaching his boss, a more divisive issue in the party.
Asked about the status of the Trump impeachment effort, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) acknowledged the scrutiny, at least this week, has veered elsewhere.
“I'm hearing about the impeachment for Bill Barr,” Khanna said. “I think he needs to resign, and he's been probably the most guilty of obstructing an investigation.”
Democrats have long been wary of Barr, who had raised eyebrows last year in arguing that Mueller had no basis for investigating Trump for obstructing justice. But the Democrats’ reservations with the attorney general have mushroomed this week after revelations that Mueller was frustrated with Barr’s initial framing of the investigators’ findings — and had expressed that agitation directly to the attorney general.
Mueller’s concerns consumed much of the oxygen during Barr’s appearance Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Democrats hammered Barr to explain testimony he gave last month, when he suggested Mueller’s team had no problems with Barr’s summary of the report.
Multiple Democrats called for Barr to resign or be impeached, including Reps. Eric Swalwell (Calif.), Veronica Escobar (Texas), Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Maxine Waters (Calif.).
Swalwell accused Barr of prejudging the special counsel's report, accusing the FBI of lying, lying to Congress and refusing to comply with a subpoena “all to protect the president.”
“There's only one thing left to do. Impeach him,” tweeted Swalwell, a member of the House Judiciary Committee who is running for president.
“He has abdicated on his responsibility. He has lied,” Waters, the House Financial Services Committee chairwoman, said of Barr on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes” Tuesday night.
Another Judiciary Committee member, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), called for Barr to resign and endorsed the idea of holding him in contempt of Congress.
“He has proven incapable of obeying the oath of office to uphold the Constitution of the United States,” Demings said.
Republicans rushed to Barr’s defense, accusing House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) of making unreasonable demands on Barr’s appearance.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered a speech on the Senate floor blasting Democrats for allowing Cohen to mock Barr.
“You tell me whether or not the chair of that committee is actually serious about the subject when you've got a guy eating fried chicken in place of where they wanted Attorney General Barr to be,” Tillis said as he stood by an enlarged photo of Cohen eating the chicken.
“This guy didn't even have good enough sense to have Bojangles chicken,” Tillis added.
Democrats are vowing to press on, although some suggested a focus on ousting Barr might be a waste of time, since Trump would likely choose a replacement with similar legal views.
“The illusory thing about resignation as a remedy is the suggestion that somebody better might come back later. I hold out no hopes for that,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a former constitutional law professor. “But he certainly should resign if he has any professional self-respect left.”
Under the U.S. Department of Justice, a special counsel is only appointed under unusual circumstances. In most cases (like the Mueller appointment), it is done when a senior DOJ official overseeing the department or a serious matter has a concern about a conflict of interest.
This idea that a special counsel should be appointed just to give us some kind of catharsis is both ignorant and ultimately counter-productive. The U.S. Department of Justice is perfectly capable of handling this matter on its own -- with the right people in charge.
Look at what has been happening over the last few weeks, folks ...
1. The Mueller investigation is over.
2. Mueller's report exonerates Trump (as some of us believed would be the case for two years now).
3. William Barr is the new U.S. Attorney General, having taken on this role after a 25-year career outside government.
4. He has adamantly refused demands by Democrats to recuse himself from anything and everything under the sun.
5. He has testified under oath that the FBI was spying on the Trump campaign.
6. The Democrats and their media partners have been fabricating sh!t about him for the last 48 hours in a desperate attempt to destroy his reputation and completely undermine him.
The appointment of a special counsel is exactly what the Democrats want -- because they know damn well that it would be some feckless fool like Ken Starr who would be a perfect punching bag for them.
The Democrats are unraveling because one thing has become perfectly to them over the last few weeks:
WILLIAM BARR IS THE SPECIAL COUNSEL.
To me it appears Barr is way out ahead of the Democrats and he’s enjoying toying with them as he lines up the dominos to come crashing down.
Nice. I was looking for that yesterday.
I saw Pelosi giving a press conference earlier today, and it looked like she either had a stroke last night, or she seriously “tied one on”. Her hair wasn’t even brushed. She looked like the cat had dragged her in. lol
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I saw that a few minutes ago. She looks really scary. She knows the democrats are about to get flattened.
If push comes to shove, the republicans will bail on Barr just as they have on Trumph.
It just makes sense that the FBI was no only spying on Trump but on all the Republican candidates.
LOL. Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart. If Barr truly "uphold(s) the Constitution of the United States”, a lot of very familiar names are going from Deep State to deep doo doo...
The Party of Fraud is furious with Barr, not because he lied, that would make him one of them, no... because he refused to lie, to somehow save their doomed, idiotic, and incompetently led coup d’etat. These creatures squirm like worms on a hot sidewalk.
Ok when the leftists run into any bump blocking their agenda to impliment their globalist totalitarian plans they go into full destroy mode.
These people need to be taken out of power.
It just makes sense that the FBI was no only spying on Trump but on all the Republican candidates.
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One could guess that they were spying in 2012, also.
Sounds JUICY, we will find out soon enough, I can guarantee we will know before it comes out of the DOJ office or possibly the IG report!!! I am just so sick to death of thinking time after time that this is it, they are finally going to get justice, only to have ZIP, NADA, NOTHING they ALWAYS land on their feet!!!
“WILLIAM BARR IS THE SPECIAL COUNSEL.”
I agree that he is at this point, but that is also why he is under attack from the Democrats. The only reason I have mentioned a special counsel is because the Democrats need to be held to the same level of obstruction of justice that they tried to push on Trump. If we let them, they will continue to try to destroy Barr. The only advantage of a special counsel would be the inability to claim it was all partisan. That said, the Democrats would claim that anyway, so what does it matter..
His crime was mocking them.
“They know Barr is the vehicle of their destruction.”
And he’s got to get on it ASAP, and benefit from the momentum that has built over the last couple of weeks. They’re determined to take him down, so he has to be as effective as possible as soon as possible or nothing will change.
Important point that few are making.
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