Where Was the Democrat Outrage When Obama's 'Wingman' AG Holder Confirmed His Loyalty to the POTUS?
Democrats baying for Bill Barr’s blood might want to back off a bit.
Bitterly frustrated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that essentially cleared President Donald Trump and his campaign of the ludicrous “collusion” charge with Russia, Nancy Pelosi’s party has turned its sights on Attorney General William Barr, claiming he’s acting as the president’s personal lawyer rather than on behalf of the American people.
But if they really want an example of an attorney general who supported his president at the expense of his duties, they might want to start with one who actually bragged about being the president’s “wingman” at the Department of Justice.
Most Americans old enough to vote in 2020 are old enough to remember the name of Eric Holder, the attorney general from 2009 to 2015, and a guy who made no bones about where his loyalties lay.
In a 2013 interview, the then-attorney general was asked if he was going to be leaving the Obama administration any time soon, and Holder made it clear he was in no rush to go anywhere.
He had a duty to the president, you see.
“I’m still enjoying what I’m doing, there’s still work to be done. I’m still the president’s wing-man, so I’m there with my boy,” Holder said, according to Politico. “So we’ll see.”
Imagine for a second what the reaction would be if Barr ever made that kind of a statement in public.
Democrats are already planning a vote to hold Barr in contempt of Congress, possibly within two weeks, according to CBS.
His alleged crime is failing to turn over to the House Judiciary Committee the full, unredacted Mueller report along with supporting documents.
Considering Barr has already made public the vast majority of the report, and that he had help from Mueller in choosing the material that was redacted from the published version, it’s pretty clear he’s not withholding information anyone needs — unless it’s House Democrats who feel the need to keep gnawing at the ends of the “collusion” conspiracy.
Holder, by contrast, was held in contempt of Congress on a bipartisan vote for stonewalling lawmakers over documents that were actually necessary for an investigation into the Obama administration’s “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking scandal, which was linked to the 2010 death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
According to Politico, 17 Democrats crossed the aisle to hold Holder in contempt in that case. The Democrats’ attempt to hold Barr in contempt will be lucky to get one Republican supporter — at least one not named Justin Amash.
And while it seems hard to believe, considering how quickly he’s become a household name, Barr has been part of the Trump administration for less than four months. (He was only sworn in on Feb. 14.)
Holder, meanwhile, had been Obama’s attorney general for four years by the time he made that “wingman” comment.
That means he had been the president’s right-hand man throughout the first term — through Fast and Furious, through the Justice Department “spying” on reporters, through Benghazi and through the IRS targeting scandal.
Through Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
Yet Pelosi & Co. think they can hang a contempt vote around Barr like an albatross?
Even with the selective amnesia of the Democratic Party, and the dishonest disgrace of what passes for political journalism in the United States today, that could be a dangerous road to travel.
Most Americans old enough to vote in 2020 will be old enough to remember the name of Eric Holder — and Trump and the GOP have a year to remind them of what a truly corrupt attorney general beholden to a power-hungry president really looks like.
Democrats weren’t outraged when Holder made his astounding “wingman” statement because they were aware of the rot that was at the heart of the Obama presidency, they just didn’t care because they had power.
That they pretend outrage about Barr now has nothing to do with their fealty to the Constitution. It has everything to do with the desire to return to the ultimate power of the Obama years.
But in the process, there’s a very good chance they’re going to remind millions of Americans of just how dangerous those lawless Obama years were.
Democrats might be braying for Bill Barr’s blood, but they’re barking up the wrong tree altogether.
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