Morning Joe Slams William Barr Ahead Of Mueller Press Conference: He Won’t Get His Reputation Back
Joe Scarborough launched a stinging attack on Attorney General William Barr Thursday morning ahead of Barr’s press conference. The Morning Joe host explained that Barr had allowed his reputation to be destroyed and his press conference on the Special Counsel’s investigation would make matters worse for him.
Speaking to Michael Steele, former chair of the Republican National Committee and critic of President Donald Trump, Scarborough outlined how bad Barr’s decisions have been.
” But, Michael, it’s also short sighted. Again, he does something once again that is going to scuff up his reputation. Actually, his reputation is shot,” Scarborough said.
“Here’s a guy that served in Washington for 30 years, had the respect of Republicans – he won’t get his reputation back. It’s shot. It’s sullied, the way he’s handled himself over the past couple of months. And it’s so short sighted. I always accused Donald Trump of being a day trader, well, this is being an hour trader. He’s so desperate to put his spin, once again, on this report that, he knows what he’s doing is wrong.”
“He knows that attorney generals – like, you know, Loretta Lynch gets in trouble for just having a conversation with Bill Clinton for a couple of hours. He has turned over an entire report to the White House. And let them prepare their rebuttal before the American people who paid for this report get to see it first, before the oversight committees in Congress, who have a constitutional duty to review it, have had a chance to see it. And the thing is, it’s not like he’s going to change the facts. This time tomorrow after everybody’s read it, he’s just going to look worse.”
Later in the segment, Scarborough doubled down on his criticism of Barr, suggesting Barr’s behavior could have serious, long-term consequences for the Justice Department.
“He’s [Trump] got some people on the far right wing and also just some sad, pathetic Trump apologists that are trying to make this seem normal,” Scarborough said. “It’s a breach of norms. And Katty [Kay], you know, it’s so interesting. And I think that Barr may be the person ultimately responsible for a change in how we select our attorney generals.”
“We’ve seen the breaching of constitutional norms in the past two years, we’ve seen the breaching of political norms. And it seems bizarre at this point that a president should be able to select their own attorney general, who can decide how the investigations are run against him, who can decide which political enemies gets prosecuted, who can decide which political allies don’t get prosecuted, can decide what corporations don’t get prosecuted.”
“I mean, the fact that – I mean, Donald Trump has shown us actually a flaw, a significant flaw in our constitutional system of checks and balances. This is not the way America is supposed to run.”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
