Sen. Kennedy:
he did voice some discomfort with Barr’s uncertainty on whether or not he would release Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report to the public.
However, any discomfort is easily overcome by the fact that Barr is a Republican,
Barr may be in the process of being set up for an Obstruction of Justice rap.
Your discomfort is duly noted, Senator. Do let us know when it rises to the level of actually doing something.
It’s getting to the point that Republicans need trustworthy assurance that they are not supporting a traitor.
I guarantee you this yokel will vote for Barr regardless. I hear the pearl clutching of Susan Collins in that remark albeit with a drawl and a twang. “Disturbing”. That’s all? Watch. He’ll get over it…somehow if that happens.
Plus Barr is a toady hack so any summary of Mueller’s report he makes will axiomatically be a pack of lies.
Looks like, now that Flake is gone, Kennedy drew the short straw to become the Senate’s new expresser of concerns.
And that’s “trustworthy” in the sense of “plausible”, and “assurance” in the sense of “alibi”.
My only hope is that Barr being more older school Republican will make the calculation that losing a few elections over trump’s impeachment/embarrassing resignation is the right thing for the longer term prospects if the party. He can orchestrate ways to make Republicans in Congress look less bad.
They can take the loss, eat a few cycles while their rotten judges keep progress limited until they come out of the woods.
William Barr is not a honest man. He had to be in coma for the last two years for him no to know what is that Trump expects from the AG and the DOJ in general. Trump has been very vocal about it. Trump would not have nominated him without explicit assurances that Barr is going to protect him.
So either Barr is lying to the president (which could be justifiable given the ciurcumstances) or he is lying to the American people (unacceptable specially that treason might be involved), but lying he is.
“Disturbing?”
He’s the illicit lovechild of Susan Collins and Foghorn Leghorn.
How is it “not Mr. Barr’s fault”? How about “Mr. Barr would only be one part of that particular obstruction conspiracy”?
Barr should be asked for his thoughts about David Laufman’s and John Brennan’s assertions that tRump is a, “Clear and present danger to the United States.”
Vote against sending the nomination to the floor or shut up.
Perhaps he’s angling for some pork, except there’s no pork to be given out right now, because of mitch and don’s shutdown.
We could do worse than Barr as a Trump attorney general. Nonetheless, his dissembling about the 14th Amendment is troubling. Here is a guy who has been a lawyer for a long time, been attorney general of the United States, owns at least one high-priced lawyer suit. And he doesn’t know what the 14th Amendment says. What other parts of the Constitution doesn’t he understand? Did he miss a day in 8th grade civics when it was discussed? The truth is that he knows very well what it says. He just wants to duck the question to avoid upsetting the Republican rabble, who are the key to his confirmation.
Disturbing? Ya think?
Notice he totally danced around the implicit question of whether Barr, in Kennedy’s opinion, after his hearing testimony, is or is not a “Meathead?”
Barr is merely a pawn of both sides of the GOP in this.
The report WILL come out, in one fashion or another. Most of the GOP wants that as much as Dems do, though for different reasons. All Kennedy is doing is letting Barr and others know that’s the case.
This is the beginning of the GOP, particularly Senators, growing concerned about their 2020 chances (and probably for some, thinking about the post Trump era). They lost in 2018 in a huge fashion, and the response of their President was to shut down the government unilaterally over a vanity project that none of them want either, while threatening an “emergency” grab of power, and offering no end game or way out of the shutdown.
That’s a completely unsustainable situation for politicians running for reelection.
Sen Kennedy, is that the meathead moment you talked about earlier? My bet and I don’t expect any takers, is that your affirm vote has already been cast.