MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace exploded in the aftermath of Attorney General Bill Barr’s press conference Thursday morning. Wallace’s mental condition visibly deteriorated during the course of one particularly impassioned rant, in which she smeared Barr as a “shill” and a “human shield” for the President, until she was reduced to repeatedly crying, “Why? Why?”
The grief-stricken Deadline: White House host began her tirade with a number of accusations directed at the President: “As the country’s chief executive, he sat in his pajamas watching Fox & Friends maligning the FBI, maligning Robert Mueller, maligning Rod Rosenstein.”
She then turned her ire to Barr: “Rule of law had a deficit because Donald Trump had been kicking it in the teeth for 22 months. And what the country’s Attorney General did was walk in there and back up the guy doing the kicking.”
“Why?” She demanded. “Why?”
Her colleague, veteran MSNBC reporter Brian Williams inquired, “Do you have an answer for that?”
“I don’t” she replied, exasperated. After questioning the legitimacy of the President’s having appointed Barr to begin with, Wallace reached a crescendo:
There will be a strong wave of trying to bully the press, saying, “It’s over! It’s over! No collusion, no obstruction.” Really? Then why did that all happen today? Why have we heard from Barr five times if the Mueller report is so awesome for Donald Trump? We have now heard from someone who is a human shield of Mueller’s findings five times. If Mueller exonerated Trump on collusion, if there’s nothing ugly in there, why have we heard from Barr five times?
A full transcript of Wallace’s screed is available below; click “expand” to read.
MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson
04/18/2019
10:36 – 10:38 a.m. EDTNICOLLE WALLACE: This was an investigation, at its core, about Donald Trump’s daily – sometimes hourly – assault on the rule of law in this country. As the country’s chief executive, he sat in his pajamas watching Fox & Friends maligning the FBI, maligning Robert Mueller, maligning Rod Rosenstein.
So Bill Barr didn’t walk into that room with the scale at zero. Rule of law had a deficit because Donald Trump had been kicking it in the teeth for 22 months. And what the country’s Attorney General did was walk in there and back up the guy doing the kicking. So the question for me now turns to, why? Why?
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Do you have an answer for that?
WALLACE: I don’t. But it goes back to the obstruction memo. I mean, did they just happen to pick a guy, who just happened to have so much free time, that he just happened to write a 19-page memo saying that a president couldn’t obstruct justice, and that Robert Mueller, who you described, I’m sure accurately, as his friend, should never, ever be able to query the President on the topic of obstruction?
I mean, it just puts in place – and there will be a strong wave of trying to bully the press, saying, “It’s over! It’s over! No collusion, no obstruction.” Really? Then why did that all happen today? Why have we heard from Barr five times if the Mueller report is so awesome for Donald Trump? We have now heard from someone who is a human shield of Mueller’s findings five times. If Mueller exonerated Trump on collusion, if there’s nothing ugly in there, why have we heard from Barr five times?
