Former Republican congressman-turned cable news host Joe Scarborough savaged Attorney General William Barr on MSBNC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday morning, less than an hour before Barr is scheduled to hold a press conference on the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Scarborough called Barr a “political hack,” rather than a “respected legal mind” and warned journalists and Americans that Barr’s presser could likely devolve into another platform to “put forward a conspiracy theory to distract senators and Americans.”
He was referencing Barr’s admission during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee that “spying” on the Trump campaign did occur.
“One thing we do know though is that the attorney general of the United States has forever sullied his reputation. Regardless of what people thought of attorney William Barr over the past 30 years his actions over the past months have been the actions of a political hack and not unfortunately a respected legal mind,” Scarborough said.
“I do feel the need to warn journalists and warn Americans that we could see the attorney general this morning doing a followup to his testimony last week before the Senate where he actually put forward a conspiracy theory to try to distract the senators and Americans from actually looking at the report it,” he added. “He could very well use this 9:30 press conference to talk about investigating the investigators. If that’s, in fact, what he does, he will be remembered as the sleaziest attorney general since John Mitchell, but that is a concern. And I hope reporters are alert to that fact, and those aren’t screaming headlines except on the most sadly pathetic pro-Trump websites.”
Watch clips of the monologues below:
Scarborough calls Barr a "political hack" and no longer "a respected legal mind" pic.twitter.com/fjJAVz03gA
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 18, 2019
Scarborough: Barr might be the "sleaziest attorney general since John Mitchell" pic.twitter.com/sCI9OtmKjT
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 18, 2019
Thank you, Joe Obvious.
Sleazier than Mitchell? Nice burn…
I’ve seen KFC franchises that have less oil than William Barr.
Amazing to me the disdain for the American people these guys have. Barr, Trump, Graham, McConnell…they aren’t even trying to be subtle.
Has anyone seen Mrs. Barr?