Bennet, DeGette call for AG Barr to resign
Denver’s most powerful members of Congress are calling for U.S. Attorney General William Barr to step down, saying he mischaracterized special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“I agree he should resign,” U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, a Denver Democrat, told CBS on Thursday as he announced his candidacy for president.
The senator, who worked in the Justice Department during President Bill Clinton’s administration, said Barr is not properly leading the “serious and committed patriots” of the Justice Department.
“To see the attorney general of the United States behave not like the leader of the Justice Department, but like the president’s criminal defense lawyer, is shameful,” Bennet said.
Rep. Diana DeGette, another Denver Democrat, made similar criticisms Wednesday, saying all attorneys general must enforce the law evenly and equally. “Attorney General Barr has shown over and over that he is either unwilling or unable to do that when it comes to evaluating the actions of the president and, for that reason alone, he should resign immediately,” DeGette said.
Barr’s handling of the Mueller report into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been heavily scrutinized by Democrats and defended by Republicans in the days since it was revealed that Mueller wrote a letter to Barr criticizing the attorney general’s summary of his report.
Barr was grilled on Capitol Hill on Wednesday and declined to attend a Thursday hearing that promised to be more of the same. Mueller is also expected to testify in the coming weeks.
“I think Mueller should testify,” Sen. Cory Gardner, a Yuma Republican, told KOA Newsradio. “I’m fine with that. But I think the (Barr) testimony really revealed what we’ve seen in the (Mueller) report that’s been released and I think it’s important that we focus on the findings of that report.”
Calling for the resignation of Barr has become a litmus test of sorts among the 21 Democrats running for president in 2020. It has also become a common refrain from Democrats running for U.S. Senate in Colorado next year against Gardner.
Andrew Romanoff, Mike Johnston and Dan Baer, three prominent Denver area candidates in the Senate race, called on Barr to resign this week. So, too, did candidate Lorena Garcia.
“It is now clear that the attorney general deceived Congress and the American people in order to protect President Trump,” Romanoff said. “He deliberately mischaracterized the special counsel’s findings not only in a press conference but also under oath before the U.S. Senate.”
Baer said Barr should not only resign but also be disbarred. “I really hate how this administration has made me miss Jeff Sessions,” he said, referring to Trump’s previous attorney general.
Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat and member of the House Judiciary Committee that Barr declined to testify before, said the attorney general should be held in contempt of Congress for showing “disrespect and disregard for the constitutional mandate for checks and balances.”