Is Attorney General William Barr thinking of resigning if Donald Trump doesn’t stop interfering in legal matters with his tweets? Several respected info sources (AP, Washington Post, ABC News) are reporting that he is.
If you believe that, let me tell you about a cute, furry rabbit who’ll come into your house on Easter Day and hide eggs.
Here’s ABC’s report:
Just hours after President Donald Trump openly defied his public pleas to stop tweeting about criminal matters in the Justice Department, Attorney General Bill Barr told people close to Trump Tuesday that he is considering resigning over the tweets that Barr had previously said make it “impossible” to do his job, sources tell ABC News.
A resignation by Barr would amount stunning rebuke by a cabinet official long believed to be among the most loyal to Trump, and would indicate an uncertain future for the DOJ as officials have sought to grapple with the president’s increasingly emboldened attempts to intervene in the justice system.
News of Barr’s discussions with people close to Trump was first reported by the Washington Post.
In response, DOJ spokesperson Kerri Kupec said on Twitter: “Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign.”
In an exclusive interview with ABC News last week, Barr had warned Trump that his tweets about the DOJ, in particular the sentencing process of his former long-time advisor Roger Stone, were disrupting his ability to manage the department.
Here’s why it highly unlikely:
(1) This seems more like a way for Barr to soften the image he now has of an Attorney General who is more interested in fulfilling Trump’s dream of his own Roy Cohen than in serving as a normal Attorney General. And, yes, those who held the post often were strong political allies of a given President. However, Barr is making Nixon’s John Mitchell look like Thomas Jefferson.
(2) Barr now ranks as one of the most powerful Attorney Generals in American history. He is arguably the second most powerful person in the United States.
(3) It seems like window dressing aimed to make it appear as Trump is facing some push back.
(4) Barr is a longtime advocate of a unitary executive form of government. Trump is letting him do what he wants (and what Trump wants).
If Barr resigns I pledge to eat an entire pizza from URBN (New Haven style) Pizza in San Diego. I will post the photos here on The Moderate Voice. That’ll teach me.
Some suggest this is not window dressing.
Axios: “Between the lines, per Axios’ Jonathan Swan: Barr has made clear to Trump, both publicly and, repeatedly, in private conversations, that he can’t do his job if the president keeps publicly commenting on Justice Department criminal cases. Trump chose to ignore that warning on Tuesday, and a source familiar with the situation said it made a bad situation worse.”
Barr says Trump’s tweets make it “impossible for me to do my job.” Yeah, right. So is he resigning by sunrise?
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 13, 2020
These are the finals days of AG Barr. He will resign or be further disgraced by the madman @realDonaldTrump the job is either “impossible” or he is destroying America’s rule of law.
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) February 18, 2020
Bullllllllllllllllllshit.
Attorney General Wiliam Barr considering resigning if the president keeps tweeting https://t.co/BE2f602g6W
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) February 19, 2020
I believe that Bill Barr is thinking about resigning to resume his modeling career on the moon. And the moon is made out of cotton candy. And we can all eat it and not gain weight. And it’s good for your teeth.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 19, 2020
Bill Barr has absolutely no intention of resigning. It’s a headfake. Barr hopes that if he keeps stringing this out and pretending he’s not Trump’s stooge, the outrage will die down and the uprising in DOJ will peter out.
Don’t fall for it. Continue voicing your outrage.
— Uncle Blazer (@blakesmustache) February 19, 2020
Maybe Barr is really considering resigning. Maybe he’s just telling people that to try and quell the ongoing internal rebellion. Hard to know, but when other outlets confirm it within minutes of the story breaking, certainly seems it’s something DOJ wants out there.
— Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) February 19, 2020
Image by Paula Wood from Pixabay
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.