After questioning William Barr @senkamalaharris: "This Attorney General lacks all credibility and has I think compromised the American public's ability to believe that he is a purveyor of justice."
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 1, 2019
Q: "Should he resign?"
Harris: "Yes." pic.twitter.com/hh8rBVHBjj
[Senator Kamala Harris stops to talk to reporters and laughs about how they're waiting for her, before agreeing to quickly answer some questions]Harris is referring to the exchange in which she straightforwardly asked Barr if he reviewed all the evidence before deciding to clear Trump of possible obstruction of justice charges and he admits that he did not.
Female reporter, offscreen: You finally got [Barr] to sort of narrow down— Quick question on exactly what you wanted to hear: Do you feel like there's a huge conflict of interest now for him moving forward in any sort of capacity?
Harris: I do, I do believe that. And I believe that what was, I mean, absolutely enlightening and should be deeply troubling to the entire American public is that he made a decision and didn't review the evidence! No prosecutor worth her salt would make a decision about whether the President of the United States was involved of an obstruction of justice without reviewing the evidence. This Attorney General lacks all credibility and has, I think, compromised the American public's ability to believe that he is a purveyor of justice.
Male reporter, offscreen: Should he resign.
Harris: Yes. [walks away]
Barr also admitted, under questioning from Senator Dick Durbin, "that he had already been working on decision saying Trump did not commit obstruction — before receiving the Mueller report or having anyone look at it."
Barr was, in sum, a total disgrace, managing to undercut even my rock bottom expectations.
But all of the Democratic Senators running for president who are on the committee — Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Cory Booker — did an outstanding job nailing Barr's ass to the wall.
Harris and Klobuchar were particularly great, which is the value of having prosecutors on your senate committee. (And, as Joy Reid noted, they were both demonstrating "what having a prosecutor on stage debating Trump would look like.")
Here is Klobuchar, backing Barr into a corner where he is unable to answer the simplest question about whether Donald Trump's actions, as detailed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, meet the Constitutional requirement that the president uphold the law:
Klobuchar asks if "the president's actions as detailed in the report are consistent with his oath of office." Barr responds with a verbal shrug. pic.twitter.com/m3wmu3Hry3
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 1, 2019
Barr: ...as have other officeholders.In other words, the answer is no. Donald Trump's actions have not been consistent with his oath of office. We didn't need the Attorney General to confirm that, but there it is.
Klobuchar: Okay, last question: Are the president's actions detailed in this report consistent with his oath of office and the requirement in the Constitution that he take care that the laws be faithfully executed?
Barr: Is what consistent with that?
Klobuchar: I said: Are the president's actions detailed in the report consistent with his oath of office and the requirement in the Constitution that he take care that the laws be faithfully executed?
Barr: Uh, well, the, the evidence in, in the report is conflicting and, and there's different evidence, and they, they don't, they don't come to a determination as to, uh, how they're coming down on it.
Klobuchar: And so you made that decision.
Barr: Yes. And, and as, as, yeah, if it's, if—
Lindsey Graham: All right, we got two minutes left.
Klobuchar: Okay.
Perhaps because nothing about this shitshow has the ability to surprise me anymore, the thought that I couldn't shake watching the proceedings was this:
Evidently there is literally *no one* before whom Barr doesn't want to embarrass himself by looking like a goddamn ethics-free fuckclown, not a single person in his personal or professional life who will judge him negatively for this performance, as equally asinine as traitorous.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 1, 2019
I just cannot imagine behaving the way the Attorney General of the United States is behaving, not only because of my own principles, but because I would piss off and alienate literally every single person in my life about whom I care, because they are principled patriots, too.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) May 1, 2019
The problem is not just that Trump himself is surrounded by unethical, sadistic, civically disloyal sycophants who abet his behavior, but that each of them is surrounded by their own gang of unethical, sadistic, civically disloyal sycophants who abet their behavior in turn.
It's a toxic bubble which decency cannot penetrate. And it's going to consign us all to a terrible fate, unless we can find a way to pop it. Fast.
Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.
blog comments powered by Disqus