On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed Attorney General William Barr’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report as “condescending” and “arrogant.” She insisted that the Mueller report might not clear President Donald Trump of alleged collusion with Russia, regardless of Barr’s insistence that it does. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) condemned these remarks as beneath the dignity of Pelosi’s office.
“I think that was really beneath the speaker,” Graham told Neil Cavuto on Fox News’s Your World With Neil Cavuto. “I mean, do you really believe that Bob [sic] Barr would give us a summary about key findings and it not be supported by the report?”
“Give me a break. I mean, this whole Oliver Stone approach to the Mueller report by Democrats is getting a bit old,” Graham added, referring to the liberal filmmaker who called Trump “Beelzebub,” a demonic figure in the Bible.
The senator insisted that the full Mueller report will become public, and that it will back up Barr’s summary.
“So the attorney general is going to take out grand jury testimony because that’s required by law. He’s going to talk to prosecutors who have other cases to make sure they are not undermined and he’s going to go to the Intelligence Community and say, ‘Is there anything in this report you think would hurt our national security?’ Once that’s done, he is going to give it to the Congress, starting with the Senate, and he will come and testify, sometime in April, I think,” Graham predicted.
Graham responded to Pelosi’s comments saying she needs to see the full Mueller report before making a judgment about Trump-Russia collusion.
“I have said, and I’ll say again, no thank you, Mr. Attorney General, we do not need your interpretation, show us the report and we can draw our own conclusions,” the speaker said.
As for Barr’s summary, Pelosi said, “We don’t need you interpreting for us. It was condescending, it was arrogant, and it wasn’t the right thing to do. So, the sooner they can give us the information, the sooner we can all make a judgment about it.”
Barr’s summary was necessary if the American people were to know the results of the Mueller report before the entire report could be made public. The attorney general was not being “condescending,” he was letting Americans know that Mueller did not find evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. This is an important public service, and if Barr were lying, he would lose all credibility.
Pelosi was just stalling for time, using her leadership in the House of Representatives to unfairly cast doubt and suspicion on Barr’s report. Graham is right — that’s beneath the dignity of the Speaker of the House.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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