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.”
My belief is that he should flatly call them out on their hyperventilating accusations - “Please SPECIFICALLY state what lie I told and what information I covered up.”. If no specificity is forthcoming, FOAD.
Is his district largely African American? I didn’t know that. WOW!! I know a FReeper from TN who says he’s an embarrassment but didn’t say who/what he represented. Well, maybe he stepped in it and will have to pay for it. One down and how many to go?
Jail is coming, but not for Barr.
That’s why they are going out of their minds.
Of course. We know that. even the progs know that. But they are about to watch the bigs in their party and the media wing of their party go down. This is all theater to allow them to scream blue murder about *political assassination*.
Yes, we all know they themselves were doing exactly that, plus inciting actual assassination.
Proggies gonna prog.
Nadler should be called before the Senate where he would be questioned by the janitorial staff.
She certainly looked liked she did...her bony sunken face, and hair, dirty and stringy, and style less show she probably drank the night away....
She also sounded like she lost sleep...she scrambled from topic to topic in her so called THURSDAY CHAT... her screwy facial expressions are really strange, At 79 she is showing signs that the job is becoming a stressful job and affecting her health.
Then she hopped on a plane, had her lunch served and more drinks, and off to California for the week end...and media never says a word about the wasted money, but sure moan and groan when the Trumps head to Florida.
.
Hope the entire Trump Family hop on the big plane and head to Florida again...God Bless them all...
Any group of people who willingly (gleefully) sacrifice the best chance in 65 years for peace with North Korea and an end to its quest for nuclear ICBMs, simply to gain political power for 2 or 4 or 8 years is more than foolish AND stupid!
They are consummate EVIL and are traitors toward the US and all peaceful, freedom loving nations of the earth.
Yeah, I think his answer is fine but they’re going to parse it to claim he lied when he said he was unaware of the team’s concerns when he had read the letter. I haven’t read the letter and don’t know if what they wrote is accurately characterized as frustration. Barr describe the letter as “snitty” which led him to think it was drafted by someone other than Mueller. “Snitty” suggests a frustrated tone to me but can’t say for sure. Mueller’s displeasure was with the press’s interpretation and not Barr’s summary. To me it all has the feel of Weismann springing a minor trap that’s too insignificant to matter. The fact that people like Pelosi aren’t being specific about the “lie” suggests they may not see enough there there to pursue it seriously.
They are going to huff and puff and . . . Well they will learn that he does not live in straw house. He lives in a house made of Good American Bricks of the Constitution and the right to bear arms.
Why have one Special Counsel, when you can have a large Task Force of US Attorneys, each with a staff of hundreds?
A whole series of giant wolf packs, attacking simultaneously, so that there are not enough resources for all the defendants to get the best lawyers and public relations people. The wolves begin picking off the weakest, and gradually exhausting the strongest. We meanwhile, enjoy popcorn, while watching.
Before the 2020 election?
If what you say is true, the future of our country looks bleak and bloody.
All these anti-American traitors should be sitting in a 6x8' cell with one dim lightbulb and the bare essentials for survival for the rest of their miserable lives. I'd be fine with a good hanging as well. All at once or one at a time. Let them listen to the gallows being built and tested. Thump.
Who cares what the Dems say! They’ve already lost and they know it. This is all just so much noise.
The lie is that Trump is innocent, didn't collude, and Barr made the democraps look like the dumbasses that they are.of course it doesn't make sense, but in dumbass world, truth is a disease and honesty with integrity is a cancer. It must be eradicated.
LOL
I love it.
Yes, it's no longer Mueller time......now time to pay the Barr tab.
I believe we are watching a series of efforts to obstruct justice. When Comey filed an illegal exoneration of Hillary Clinton's email crime, that was the start of it. Attorney General Loretta Lynch should have made the call. The emails on that server would have revealed even more criminal activities tied to the Clinton Foundation. So the tactic was to divert away from any investigation of the Foundation. Trump's candidacy represented a threat to that investigation. They had to concoct the false Dossier to do a three-fold function:
1. Smear Trump just before the election so he would lose, and
2. Get FISA warrents to spy on his activities to get dirt so he would lose the election or destroy him if he won. So the tactic was to wipe the server hard drive and wipe the possibility of a Trump who would expose Hillary's criminal Foundation activities. Both were criminal acts.
3. Set up a special prosecutor to investigate possible Russian collusion. This third obstruction of justice effort was the use of the collusion investigation to distract Trump away from going into investigation mode on the Clinton Foundation. It is the idea that the best offense makes the best defense. The use of the false Dossier to justify the collusion investigation was an illegal act. The recusal by AG Sessions was a big Dem win to destroy any investigation attempts from the Justice Department.
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