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.”
The Democrats are TERRIFIED!
Their JIG IS UP!
They’ll be wearing orange jump suits and making small rocks out of big rocks Real Soon Now!
I cannardly wait!
AG Barr is gonna lower the boom on all of them!
The crime was telling the truth and not putting up with Marxist Bullcrap.
"The Walls are closing in..."
Blumenthal tried to force Barr into a Jeff Sessions. Barr didn't fall for it:
Blumenthal also asked Barr if he would recuse himself from those investigations.
“No,” was Barr’s terse response.
https://ctmirror.org/2019/05/01/blumenthal-presses-barr-to-recuse-himself-from-investigations-into-white-house/
This is getting into “alternative universe” territory.
They are completely irrational.
There’s a Shiftz storm coming and I don’t hunk the know it. Notice how pencil neck has been quiet. He was a prime leaker. There’s GOPe involved too. Crying Ryan and others. Blood is in the water and Barr is circling. DJT can declassify the obits. I ain’t saying it’s a done deal but we’re getting closer. IMO
“All of these knuckleheads are guilty of obstruction of justice since they want to stop Barr from prosecuting”
Hopefully, they will be driven to committing corrupt actions to obstruct, while investigators are watching for it. The coverup can be more damaging than the crime.
So far, it seems that it will be more like a putt than a drive, to get the Dems to cross the line of criminality - they are just so accustomed to it.
Spread the nets wide.
Dems are going for In Your face Obstruction
Barr is over the target and the democrats knoww it. If he didn’t know this was a fight to the political death, he does now.
We’ve reached ludicrous speed.
If they impeach him while he’s investigating, isn’t that obstruction?
When I’m called off, I got a sawed off
Squeeze the trigger, and bodies are hauled off
How about fraudulent elections in 2018 could be they are up to their eyeballs in voter fraud!!!
Barr for VP!
Barr is everything I had hoped Jeff Sessions would be. It took the President a while, but he finally found a cabinet member willing and able to do an excellent job and be a stand-up guy.
Why aren’t they mad at Mueller?
When?
they will start a civil war then escape in their private jets and wait it out.
We are actually witnessing something extraordinary. Barr as U.S. AG now has a ‘price on his head’ placed there by the biggest organized crime outfit in history, the dem party. Boss Tweed wasn’t a republican.
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