The Patriot Post® · Barr Eats the Democrats' Lunch

“I’m surprised at your lack of respect for a member of Congress,” huffed Pennsylvania Congresswoman Madeleine Dean.

It’s unclear whether Keystone Staters knew they were sending a comedic genius to Congress, but that’s exactly what they did. How else to explain her straight-faced delivery of such a howler, a side-splitter, a spit-takingly hilarious remark?

Dean was addressing Attorney General William Barr yesterday during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. And she, like every other Democrat on the committee, was far more interested in rubbing rhetorical feces on herself than in having a civil question-and-answer session. But that’s understandable, because each time they allowed Barr to speak, he left no doubt about who the adult in the room was.

(For context, this is the same Democrat-controlled House Judiciary Committee on which Rep. Hank Johnson sits — the same Hank Johnson who once questioned a U.S. Navy admiral about the possibility that Guam will “tip over and capsize” due to the deployment of too many troops.)

“The Barr hearing wasn’t very edifying,” wrote National Review’s Rich Lowry, “in large part because Democrats were utterly committed to keeping him from saying anything. One of them would make a sermonette, pause to ask Barr a hostile question, and then angrily interrupt him when he started to answer, accusing him of taking up valuable time. Then, the sermonette would start up again. … It’s a tribute to how good he is that Democrats were desperate never to get caught up in a genuine back-and-forth with him.”

Clearly, the committee’s Democrats were coached up on how to interrupt a thoughtful witness who’s smarter than they are. “Reclaiming my time!” they explained. And explained. And explained. Take a look:

Still, William Barr easily outclassed them. His six-page opening statement is masterful, a synopsis of which we provided yesterday. As for the hearing itself, the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin opined, “He came, he saw, he ate their lunch.”

Throughout the day, one theme kept recurring: Barr’s interrogators doggedly tried to blame him and President Donald Trump for the utter breakdown of law and order in Democrat-controlled cities across our nation. As political analyst John Hinderaker pointed out, “The Democrats are committed to the view that what is happening in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta and other cities is mere ‘peaceful protest.’ Thus, the Trump administration is unjustified in sending in federal officers to protect federal property, like courthouses. And to the extent that anything untoward happens, it is Donald Trump’s fault. This was the main theory that the Democrats tried to advance through their ‘questioning’ of Attorney General Barr.”

Can we blame them? As a recent Harvard CAPS/Harris poll indicates, 77% of registered voters say they’re concerned about rising crime in our nation’s cities, while 46% said they’re concerned about rising crime in their own communities. So law and order is a campaign issue, and no one in their right mind views the Democrats as the law-and-order party.

(Quick: Name a Republican-controlled city or town that’s currently under nightly siege by antifa or Black Lives Matter. We’ll wait.)

“Excuse me, Mr. Barr, this is my time and I control it,” snapped Washington’s Pramila Jayapal in a typical exchange. “You are aware of certain kinds of protesters, but in Michigan, when protesters carry guns, and Confederate flags, and swastikas, and call for the governor of Michigan to be beheaded and shot and lynched, somehow, you’re not aware of it.”

Setting aside the difficulty of lynching someone after they’ve been beheaded, Jayapal was being thoroughly dishonest in trying to compare more than 60 straight nights of very real leftist rioting in Portland to a couple of hours of peaceful afternoon protesting in Michigan. In the former instance, a federal courthouse is in danger of being torched; in the latter, a thin-skinned Caitlyn Jenner-looking governor’s feelings are in danger of being hurt.

Somewhat lost amid all the rancor were the other issues covered during the hearing. Our friends at Daily Signal lists six highlights here, including Barr’s revelation of a separate probe into the Obama administration’s unmasking of former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and others connected with the Trump campaign, and the disgraceful comments of Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen, who blamed Barr for the jailhouse death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and then hung the threat of impeachment over the AG.

Also lost was an ongoing issue that seems obvious and yet isn’t being discussed: the relentless assassination by Democrats and their media henchmen of Barr’s good name and character. This concerted effort, it seems, is modeled after the Clinton administration’s treatment of Whitewater Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr: Destroy the messenger, and you’ll destroy the message.

One day in the future, Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham will deliver a report on the findings of the criminal inquiry into the phony Russia investigation and all its components. And that report won’t reflect well on the Obama-Biden administration.

If yesterday’s Barr hearings reminded us of any one thing, it’s that we’ll have a clear choice to make in the upcoming election: a choice between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. So when you see antifa hoodlums and Black Lives Matter thugs wrecking our cities, think “Biden voters.” Because that’s what they are.

On November 3, it’s President Trump or the Mob. That’s the choice.