Stephanie Ruhle removed any doubt on Tuesday that Attorney General Bill Barr's hearing before the House Judiciary Committee would be a useless exercise in political grandstanding. With the 9:00 hour of MSNBC Live functioning as the network's pregame show, Ruhle welcomed California Rep. Eric Swalwell to hype his past attempts to impeach Barr with Ruhle agreeing that Barr has only gotten worse since.
Ruhle began by tossing Swalwell a softball, "You've called for Bill Barr to be impeached in the past. Are you still pushing for his impeachment?"
Swalwell punted on the question, declaring himself to be in favor of it, but saying it was ultimately a decision for leadership to make. He further added, "I don't think he's got better since I made that call, but again here he is today, and we'll be ready for him."
Ruhle agreed, "He hasn't gotten better, and, in fact, if you look at things that have happened since then, I'm thinking Roger Stone, for example, things have gotten worse." In bringing up Roger Stone, Ruhle alluded to the common media falsehood that the decision Barr made the decision to reduce Stone's original sentence based on President Trump's tweets. Barr recommended against Trump's commutation of Stone's sentence.
As for Swalwell, he accused the feds of using "chemical weapons on peaceful protesters" and engaged in conspiracy mongering by claiming that Trump and Barr's opposition to voting by mail "may be a way the president would refuse to leave office and have attorney general who would go back to work as the new Michael Cohen to file lawsuits to keep the president there."
Ruhle offered no push back on either claim.
This segment was sponsored by Otezla
Here is a transcript of the July 28 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle
9:19 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: You've called for Bill Barr to be impeached in the past. Are you still pushing for his impeachment?
ERIC SWALWELL: I think he should’ve been impeached before Donald Trump. He's worthy of it and I want to set a standard for what we expect of Attorneys General in United States, but that's a decision for our leadership. I personally believe that. I don't think he's got better since I made that call, but again here he is today, and we'll be ready for him.
RUHLE: He hasn't gotten better, and, in fact, if you look at things that have happened since then, I'm thinking Roger Stone, for example, things have gotten worse. Given all of that, let's be honest, besides questioning Bill Barr today and hopefully, for you, tripping him up, what oversight can your committee realistically do while President Trump is in office?
SWALWELL: We have the power of the purse, and we also do not have to fund the militarization of the police to use chemical weapons on peaceful protesters. We're doing an appropriations process this week on Homeland Security funding and there's going to be a lot of measures to reduce their ability to do that. And also, Stephanie, we have to inoculate the public from the bogus claims the president and attorney general have made about mail-in balloting. We want to make sure the public knows it's safe to do that. There’s been bo history of the department investigating fraudulent mail-in balloting, but the attorney general has shown a willingness to co-sign on the president's claims there is fraud around this, and we think as we get close to November, this may be a way the president would refuse to leave office and have attorney general who would go back to work as the new Michael Cohen to file lawsuits to keep the president there.
