After over four hours of hearings and statements following the phrase “move to strike the last word”—a House shibboleth implying that the person speaking means to offer an amendment when they don’t really mean to offer an amendment—the Judiciary Committee has yet to actually vote on the motion to hold Barr in contempt. But it’s coming. Really.
To this point, the committee has voted on the recommendation to accept the report on Barr’s citation for contempt, and an amendment to condemn Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege over the Mueller report and related materials. Both of those votes went along party lines.
Another amendment was offered by Republican Matt Gaetz. Republicans spent much of their testimony saying that, in subpoenaing the report, the House was “asking Barr to break the law.” Gaetz glared at Democrats gleefully, telling them that they would vote against his amendment requiring that they state they weren’t asking Barr to do anything that broke the law. Then Republicans pulled out their next sheet of talking points and prepared to pounce.
But committee Chair Jerry Nadler knocked them all for a loop by supporting the amendment, which actually passed unanimously. This led to a ten-minute session in which Republicans actually tried to talk to Nadler, shuffled through their notes for what to do next, and admitted that the positions they had been thumping their chests about all morning were “50-50.” Along they way, Republican leader Doug Collins also insisted that Trump’s use of privilege was a “50-50” thing … which isn’t a massive example of certainty.
As usual, Republicans were playing from the same guidelines, which made for very repetitive and very boring speeches. On the Democratic side, there were at least a couple worth looking up—in particular Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond, who summed up the need for this action as well as anyone.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 8:35:52 PM +00:00
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Mark Sumner
After a long hearing in which Republicans brought up a series of amendments and attempted to derail proceedings over the issue of grand jury testimony, the House Judiciary Committee voted 24 to 16 along party lines to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt.
Thanks for sticking with this. And … that’s a wrap.
And now … here we go on the final part of this session.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 6:53:26 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Former police chief Democratic Representative Val Demmings hitting Barr as someone who is a disgrace to the law enforcement community. Trump’s actions “part of a pattern of criminal and corrupt behavior,” going through Trump’s obstruction actions and Barr’s efforts to support Trump by distorting the report. She brings up Mueller’s letter, which is something that should have happened more during this hearing.
I’m not sure how many people haven’t spoken at this point.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 6:55:05 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Democratic Representative Louis Correa does something no one else has done today: He calls this a good debate and points out this is how the committee itself is supposed to work. Then moves on to explaining the role of congressional oversight.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 6:59:26 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Now it’s former judge and Democratic Representative Sylvia Garcia to hit Barr over role in “cheating” the American public. Nice analogy in saying that Catholics don’t go to confession and confess to 92% of the things they’ve done wrong.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:08:17 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Democratic Representative Lucy McBath getting her crack at the afternoon session. Again pointing out what Republicans should be willing to admit—Trump’s actions are making it impossible to conduct oversight. Keeps it brief.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:13:43 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Republican Mike Johnson arguing that the subpoena is in conflict with the amendment saying that there’s not intention to get Barr to break the law.
Nadler refuses to issue a new subpoena. Says they will go to court for the grand jury material. Nadler suggests that the subpoena is part of a “dialog” with Barr.
Johnson claims that the subpoena would require Barr to surrender the grand jury material. Johnson passes off to Buck, who says that a subpoena is a “demand” and not a dialog.
Nadler denies that he ended the discussion with Barr, saying that Barr refused to negotiate in good faith.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:18:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Mucarsel points out that the Mueller report includes details of Russian attempts to directly alter the outcome of the election by attacking basic election infrastructure. Nice comments after Republicans have slipped in several comments like Sensenbrenner saying that Russian “bought a couple of pop up ads.”
Mucarsel also points out that she can work on healthcare, immigration, gun safety … and still defend the constitution.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:21:33 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Collins back to attempt to open a gap between the subpoena and the amendment that there would be no violation of law … because they’re still pretending that asking for grand jury material is a violation of the law. Republicans are going to continue to claim that Democrats are trying to force Barr to “break the law.” Collins also also stating that every possible legal precedent, because they’re not this specific case.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:27:13 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Nadler says Republicans are “beating a dead horse.” He asked the DOJ and Barr to begin a dialog before the report was even released. They refused. He offered a compromise to Barr five times. Barr refused. Goes back to the Eric Holder situation that Republicans keep bringing up to point out that over that period Holder kept supplying more material, which Republicans ultimately decided was not enough.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:30:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Democratic Representative Joe Neguse up again to recap the findings of the report and the importance of reviewing the underling evidence to keep it from happening again.
“I’m particularly frustrated today. This is not an unreasonable request.” Points out that the request they’ve made matches one made by Devin Nunes.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:39:28 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Hank Johnson draws a laugh talking about Republican attempts to “sweet talk” the American people about grand jury materials.
Johnson comes within a whisker of accusing Republicans who have seen the full report of telling people to do anything to stop it.
Joe Neguse comes back to make it clear that if Barr’s concern was about “6E” grand jury material, he could have negotiated at any time how to handle that material. He didn’t. He refused to work with the committee.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:50:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Dean says she is “encourage” that in the last 30 minutes at least two Republicans admit that they’re concerned about Russian interference. Then she brings up the obstruction and the letter from 700 prosecutors saying that Trump should have been indicted “Where is your outrage on that? … Will you argue on the behalf of a president who cares nothing about our government?”
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:52:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Escobar also says she’s delighted that it only took Republicans six hours to admit that they are concerned about Russian interference — and points out that, despite all the Republican “under Obama” this interference is ongoing. “Let’s see it all, so that we can hold those who should be held accountable, accountable. Let’s see it all.”
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 7:59:59 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Where Republicans are going is a Catch-22. They want to claim that Barr doesn’t have to seek grand jury material, and that a request to Barr to hand over the full report is illegal … because he’s being asked to turn over material he can’t be compelled to seek.
Armstrong’s amendment seems to be just a legal opinion that he wants to tack on.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 8:05:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Nadler says Armstrong’s amendment is “totally irrelevant.” And Nadler is ticked by a mention of negotiating in “good faith” with Barr saying that Barr refused to make any offer until he knew the contempt proceeding was moving ahead.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 · 8:20:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner
Jackson Lee says the ability to negotiate with the DOJ saying that the letters from from Barr threatening blanket executive privilege came while she and Nadler were still trying to negotiate. Jackson Lee details more of the events around Eric Holder.