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.”
How many articles has the biased HILL going to publish?
Where the heck were they when John Solomon was working his tail off, getting substantive articles.
The HILL is worthless.
The Dems are obstructing Justice by trying to intimidate Barr.
What exactly is this so-called “lie.” I haven’t heard any of the insane clown policy tell us what Barr said that is a “lie.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3746381/posts
It wasn’t during the hearing yesterday. Instead, it was a comment Barr made last month (April 19) during a House hearing:
[article snippet begins]
Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla.: Reports have emerged recently, general, that members of the Special Counsel’s team are frustrated at some level with the limited information included in your March 24th letter ... Do you know what they are referencing with that?
Barr: “No, I don’t. I think I think, I suspect that they probably wanted more put out, but in my view I was not interested in putting out summaries.”
[article snippet ends]
Pretty weak tea IMO. Their angle is that Barr knew of the Mueller team’s frustrations because at that point he had received Mueller’s letter yet he answered the question in the negative (sort of).
Their problem is the minor detail that Barr would soon release the entire report in lightly redacted form that people could read and give their own analyses of, making the point basically moot. And on top of that, before Barr released his initial summary he asked Mueller if Mueller wanted to go through it and make any changes and Mueller declined.
I read someone say that Weismann is the one who leaked the letter to the press. That sure seems like a good bet. He leaked it to trap Barr in a “lie” so the Democrats could do their standard dishonest histrionics.
“What, exactly, are these vile Dims accusing Barr of lying about???”
Who the hell knows? They don’t even know.
“”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””
He really thought he was sending a message? I hope his constituents got the message that they sent a dolt like that to DC to represent them. He doesn’t need to do ANYTHING to call attention to himself - he’s enough of an embarrassment even when he’s not DOING anything!
A White Congressman with a majority African-American district should probably stay away from “fried chicken” jokes.
More trash spewing from “the Hill” of trash.
That’s whatI was wondering. When are some of these people going to begin leaving the country?
If Barr is successful in rooting out the spying and corruption of the previous administration and the democrat machine.... it will make Watergate look like a jaywalking offense in comparison.
These stupid asses are losing it. They are angry at Mueller for not finding Collusion, They can’t do anything against him so they are going against Barr.
The dems had better not harm one hair on Barr’s amply haired head. This would be it.
I think Barr was on point. I would not characterize the Mueller letter as frustration. They wanted the executive summaries put out before the entire report and Barr wanted it all to go out at once. He said that in his answer. And to Mueller’s moan, didn’t that provide the most “context” of all?
Wait and watch...there will be some republicans join the dems in calling for Barr to resign. #1 suspect is Romney.
The Wrap Up Smear.
All of the RATs are just pi$$ing into the wind! When the first indictments come down in the next few months, they will go wild! When a Political Party has no platform other than the removal of the opposing Party’s President, its over for them! And for really the first time, the RAT Party has shown us in excruciating detail what they really want to do TO the country if they are ever given the chance again. Their “curtain” has been drawn back completely!
...if Barr starts digging, like he promised, he will turn up some unpleasant facts about the Obama presidency.
___________________
That ship has already sailed. POTUS released that campaign video that let everyone know he KNOWS the buck (give or take a few billion) stopped w/zer0.
The Page/Struck texts make it crystal clear.
Errata: the Barr *lie* is that Mueller determined POTUS is not guilty of obstruction. (IMO. I don’t think they have actually articulated the charge.
Soon, they will start in on Mueller. Declass will take care of all that.
Why? Because he didn’t agree with the MSM and (D)’s???
They could form a new tasteless rock group - the Dead McCains.
I hope Barr’s WIFE doesn’t get intimidated!! She’s BEST friends with Mule Face’s wife!
Mueller investigated thoroughly and presented a set of facts resulting from that investigation. The facts are insufficient to sustain a charge of obstruction as Barr has written. Unable to overcome the presumption of innocence he found Trump innocent.
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