Thread by @HoarseWisperer

William Barr testifying before the Senate over his blatant obstruction of justice in defense of a corrupt president.

Open thread of my live coverage and occasional primal screams into the abyss.

1/

Lindsey Graham opens the hearing. My desire to throw my coffee at the screen is already spiking.

Graham in a fairly muted tone:

1) offers a weak, toothless defense of the utterly debunked fiction that Mueller cleared Trump
2) falsely claims “no obstruction” was a fair finding

MSNBC breaks into Graham’s fiesta of bullsh** to point out that he’s lying.

Graham now pivoting to talking about............. Hillary Clinton.

Senator Graham, it is incumbent upon you at this juncture to go f*** yourself for the remainder of eternity.

I hate this a**hole.

Graham is now reading private texts between the two FBI agents, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, as if they prove the pumpkin-faced putz isn’t a bloviating sack of criminality.

Graham reads on live TV: “He’s a fu**ing idiot.”

This is already a clown show.

I do not endorse violence in any circumstances.

I would be lying if I said I’m not fantasizing about punching Lindsey Graham in the face right now though.

Again, violence is bad. Imaginary Graham-punching is allowed.

Graham wraps up his moronic opening and yields to Dianne Feinstein.

The Lioness of the Senate goes right for the jugular by replaying the timeline of Barr’s felonious obstruction and lying to Congress.

Game on.

Gnaw his bones to the marrow, Senator.

Rend his garments to tatters.

Burn his homestead.

Salt his fields.

Leave nary a blade of grass.

One important viewing note:

Dems know far more than they are letting on.

Listen with a keen ear for questions asked to put Barr on the record about his knowledge, decisions and conduct.

This hearing isn’t just about Barr’s prior lies to Congress; it will also elicit more.

“If you are a corrupt, lying buffoon, please raise your hand.”

Barr now reading an opening statement offering a long, irrelevant replay of the work to prep Mueller’s report while:

1) Falsifying the conclusions of the report
2) Misleading the public
3) Lying to Congress
4) Lying to the American people in his unprompted press conference

Barr now alleging that Mueller told him he wouldn’t have charged Trump with obstruction regardless of DOJ guidelines.

Mueller’s report flatly debunks that fiction.

Mueller explicitly cites DOJ guidelines as a preventive which removed the possibility of indicting Trump.

Barr uttered the first of what will be the soundbites of his lying under oath.

Claims it is his job to determine “was there a crime or was there not a crime?”

That is explicitly false. The AG’s job is to pursue triable offenses - not independently acquit or convict an accused.

Attorney General Barr had a moment of not parsing his words carefully enough and caught himself.

Before tripping over his words, he acknowledged that he independently robbed the criminal justice system of its rightful role in weighing Trump’s criminality.

Barr is fumbling a bit in even his early remarks and answers to Graham.

He is in a position of needing to perfectly finesse word choice to describe his blatantly impeachable conduct as reasonable.

I don’t think he can pull this off today.

This is going to be a long day for him

Barr fumbles again by acknowledging an underlying crime is not required to charge someone with obstruction... which was the basis of his legal theory which he cited as the basis for his decision to clear Trump of obstruction.

Important reminder:

Today’s hearing is the layup. This one is in the Republican-controlled Senate under Chairman Lindsey Graham.

Tomorrow’s hearing in the House under Rep. Nadler will be infinitely more grueling.

If Barr struggles today, he’s screwed tomorrow.

Feinstein nails Barr simply and elegantly.

Asks if asking someone to lie to the government is a crime.

Barr says yes.

Feinstein asks what the charge would be.

Barr says “Obstruction”

Feinstein points to Mueller’s report outlining exactly that conduct by Trump.

Barr now dissembling in a long, rambling attempt to get out from under the simple truth he just acknowledged.

Asking others to lie to the government is obstruction. Trump obstructed.

Barr is spinning like a top.

Saying many words. None are working.

Barr has now backed away to a safer refuge for *him* but not for *Trump*.

Moves the goal posts to now saying he concluded that he didn’t think obstruction “could be *proven* beyond a reasonable doubt.”

That’s a remarkable backtrack from “no obstruction” to “not convictable”.

Barr just issued yet another inelegant description of his false legal theories which he used as a smokescreen for corruptly clearing Trump.

Says there is “no malign intent, that is, the President was carrying out his constitutional duties”.

Meaning “The President can’t obstruct justice by firing someone he’s allowed to fire.”

That is wholly false.

Barr’s house of sand is falling down as he melts under the scrutiny of having to defend it unscripted.

I have to say, I am surprised at how badly Barr is doing at what so far has been a fairly benign line of questioning.

He is doing a poor job at merely reiterating his own prior script.

He may settle down (and I expect he will) but so far, he seems surprisingly rattled.

In his prior congressional appearance, Barr had a haughty, arrogant, disrespectful disregard for the proceedings. An aloof air of imperviousness.

He seems tentative, uncertain and self-conscious today... and we’ve only heard from Grassley and Feinstein.

Wait until Kamala...

Side note: Grassley is not additive to these kinds of proceedings.

Asks subjective questions that elicit opinions and characterizations.

Utterly useless in a hearing closer to a prosecutorial cross-examination.

Replace him or have someone else write his questions.

Senator Leahy asks the million dollar question:

Why did Barr claim he didn’t know how Mueller felt about his false representations when he very much did.

Barr dissembles, rambles. Won’t answer.

Barr “Mueller never told me that my expression of the findings was inaccurate.”

Mueller’s letter laid out specifically that he believed Barr was inaccurate about the context and SUBSTANCE of his findings.

Barr just perjured himself again.

Leahy now nailing Barr for the blatant lie of claiming Trump fully cooperated with an investigation when he (Barr) was in possession of a report detailing the myriad ways he obstructed it.

Nailed. Barr left with nothing but a rambling “I don’t see the conflict btwn those things”

John Cornyn up now.

I would rather slam my head in a car door than listen to this a**hole.

He should be one of the first passengers on a shuttle to the sun.

Opens by implying Rosenstein gave Barr the legal basis for his obstruction.

MSNBC cuts in.

Nicole Wallace: “I’m not going to dance around this. He’s lying.”

I’m flipping to uninterrupted coverage but since I’m typing and not reading others’ takes, gratifying that others are hearing what I am.

This testimony is an historic act of ongoing perjury.

Cornyn wasting his time talking about Hillary.

Falsely claims “We now have confidence Russia took no steps to undermine the American people.”

Utterly moronic.

The first 145 pages of the Mueller report and myriad indictments prove otherwise.

So dumb

Side note: Beto O’Rourke is not helping me, you or anyone else in this country by running for President instead of running to unseat John Cornyn and flip a vital Senate seat.

Regardless of how you feel about Beto, we should all be calling for him to turn his attentions there.

Beto could be a rising star as a Senate candidate or a fading star as a distant trailer for president.

Cornyn needs to go.

I seriously hope Beto reverses course there.

Dick Durbin nailing Barr for his lies about not knowing Mueller disagreed with his representations.

Durbin: “There’s an old adage among lawyers: You don’t write a letter and you don’t throw one away. [...] If Mueller wrote a letter, he clearly had serious concerns.”

Durbin picking up on Patrick Leahy’s line of crucifixion.

Grilling Barr over the absurdity of claiming Trump fully cooperated when he obstructed, suborned perjury, refused to voluntarily testify... all of which was in the report Barr falsely claimed proved Trump’s cooperation.

Durbin putting Barr on the record as to whether he opposes Don McGahn testifying.

Barr slips in that the White House hasn’t waived executive privilege.

That directly contradicts both the White House’s past statements and the legal reality that privilege re: McGahn is dead.

Senator Mike Lee now using his five minutes to demonstrate that it is indeed possible for a limber, morally un-spined human being to lodge his head entirely within his own ass.

Thank you, next.

Were I offered the chance to smack Mike Lee open-handed, I’d first dip one hand in olive oil and the other in balsamic vinegar so he looked like a caprese salad after a one-two cheek-reddening.

The Senate soon to break for votes on unrelated matters.

Sen. Whitehouse closing the morning session by putting Barr on the record about receiving Mueller’s letter of objections on 3/28 and failing to provide it or reflect its existence in his 4/10 testimony to Congress.

Barr: I wasn’t interested in putting out summaries.

Whitehouse: We can split hairs all we want but Bob Mueller, who we can agree has credibility, described YOUR memo as a summary.

Barr: (veers off topic. basically says he was allowed to do that - not that he was truthful.)

Barr: “I assumed there was no OLC opinion [in making my decision to clear Trump].”

This is perhaps his most blatant lie of the day.

Mueller’s entire report was clearly and explicitly written based on Mueller having been guided by the opinion Barr alleges played no role.

That was also the most bizarre of his perjurious statements this morning.

Mueller’s report says “I HAD TO take this route because of the DOJ’s guidelines.”

Barr essentially says “What guidelines? Gosh, I didn’t even think about them.”

A bizarrely absurd lie.

We’re now on break until sometime after 1:00 ET.

Will likely start a new thread then.

Summing up the morning, Barr got battered without effectively explaining away even a single question.

Remarkably poor performance. Almost shockingly inept. He’s flailing and failing.

I am really surprised by how badly Barr did.

His failures weren’t easily soundbited but he was remarkably bad at even the act of filibustering through damaging questions.

The longer his answers, the less they held up.

His act when unscripted is transparent and incriminating.

Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) on MSNBC sums up her takeaway:

“Rod Rosenstein was the copilot on the plane that was being landed for the President... and we’re looking at the pilot.”

Yes and yes.