Fox & Friends, the president’s most loyal morning show, on Thursday lauded Attorney General William Barr for opting to hold a press conference hours ahead of releasing the much-anticipated report compiled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The Department of Justice has said that Barr will hold a news conference at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday to talk about the findings of the probe, which investigated ties between President Trump and Russians who meddled in the 2016 election. Officials will hand over the color-code redacted report to Congress on compact discs, between 11 a.m. and noon on Thursday. The report will be posted online for the public at an unspecified time afterward.
“What more can he do?” Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked. “Transparency at its finest, but still the Democrats aren’t happy.”
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She’s right—the Democrats aren’t happy.
Many lawmakers have taken issue with the fact that Barr’s press conference will take place before anyone has had the chance to read the report—thus maximizing the administration’s ability to spin it in advance, and potentially avoid any tough questions.
“Bill Barr sent a letter purporting to summarize Mueller’s conclusions,” tweeted Rep. Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee. “He took it upon himself to reach a conclusion on obstruction. He adopted the President’s ‘spying’ smears. Now, he will spin a report no one has read. My advice: Wait to read Mueller’s words for yourself.
Meanwhile Rep. Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, chimed in: “Attorney General Barr wrote to me on April 1: ‘I do not believe it would be in the public’s interest for me to attempt to summarize the full report.’ I agree. So why is the AG holding a press conference tomorrow morning to go over the Mueller report?”
Back on the curvy couch, Judge Andrew Napolitano at first complained about the delay but then said: “It’s been two years, we can wait a few more hours.”
“Would I like to be at the press conference? Yeah,” Napolitano said. “Would you like to have read the report before the press conference? This is just his style. I actually give him credit for doing that. Except that I’m here at 5 in the morning here to read this thing and now I find out I’m not going to get it until like 11 or 11:30.”
Ed Henry, filling in for Friends co-host Steve Doocy, added: “But he’s going to testify probably in the next few weeks anyway after everyone’s had a chance to read the report. It seems like it’s just partisanship.
“He’s putting it out there!”
