After the Senate Judiciary’s Committee hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr, President Donald Trump was interviewed on the phone by Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan where he applauded Bill Barr for doing “fantastic job” in his testimony before Congress. The Fox Business host then asked him about Democrats calling on Barr to resign, to which he responded, “It is so ridiculous, he’s an outstanding man he’s an outstanding legal mind. I heard he performed incredibly well today.”
President Trump called out the 2020 presidential candidates on the Senate Judiciary Committee for their smears against the Attorney General, saying that they were seeking to score “political points.” These include Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). Trump went on point out “three of them are running, three of them, they’re not doing very well, but three are running for a particular office. I think, maybe you’re talking to the person right now. You have three of them running against me and they are up there ranting and raving. You know, like lunatics, frankly.” Trump also said, “the American people see through it so easily, it’s so easy to see through.”
Trump was then asked about Senator Harris in particular, as she stood out in her interrogation of Barr. Trump, in response to that moment, said Harris’ attitude was “probably very nasty.”
Senator Harris had asked AG Barr, “Has the president or anyone at White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no please, sir.” Barr responded, “Yeah, but I’m trying to grapple with the word suggest. There have been discussions of matters out there—that they have not asked me to open an investigation, I wouldn’t say suggest.”
Harris then questioned on Barr’s March 24 summary of the Mueller report, asking if he personally reviewed all of the underlying evidence. Barr said that he accepted the statements as they were, saying, “We accepted the statements in the report as the factual record. We did not go underneath it to see whether or not they were accurate. We accepted it as accurate and made our...” Harris then she interrupted him, trying to confirm if he had accepted the report as evidence. Barr later commented, “this is not [a] mysterious process, in the Department of Justice we have cross memos and declination memos every day coming up and we don’t go and look at the underlying evidence.”
The Democrat Senator, a former California Attorney General and career prosecutor, delivered some of the sharpest of rounds of questioning directed at the sitting Attorney General. She asked, “If any attorney’s office around the country, the head of that office, when being asked to make a critical decision, about in this case the person who holds the highest office in the land, and whether or not that person committed a crime, would you accept them recommending a charging decision to you if they had not reviewed the evidence?” Bill Barr responded, “That’s a question for Bob Mueller. He’s the U.S. Attorney, he’s the one who presents the report.”
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