Barr Brawl
Now that Attorney General William Barr has both testified and not testified to the Senate and House, respectively, the time for political spin is upon us.
In one corner, we have congressional Democrats, eager to skewer Barr for seemingly lying during his April testimony before the House; admitting he hadn’t actually read the underlying evidence submitted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election; failing to show up at a scheduled House Judiciary Hearing on Thursday; or any number of other potentially disqualifying behaviors—it’s really something of a free for all at this point.
In the other, we have the Republicans, circling the MAGA wagons in order to deflect criticism that Barr seems to be acting a lot less like the head of a federal department and a lot more like the president’s personal attorney.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy emphatically defended Barr. Yes, there is a liar here, McCarthy insisted. But it’s not Barr, it’s House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, whom Barr conspicuously snubbed, leaving Democrats to eat chicken and yell at an empty chair at their hearing this morning.