Members of the liberal media had epic meltdowns following Attorney General William Barr’s Wednesday admission he was looking into how the Trump campaign was spied on in 2016. Despite the fact former FBI Director James Comey admitted the campaign was surveilled, ABC host George Stephanopoulos insisted that it somehow wasn’t really “spying”, during Sunday’s This Week. But the Clinton lackey was swiftly schooled by former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
In the midst of their roundtable discussion, lame duck Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel argued that, “It was a counterintelligence investigation, it was approved by the courts. There was no spying. This was approved by the courts, here.”
“Rahm, that is spying,” Christie immediately interrupted. “That's not spying,” Stephanopoulos exclaimed in his liberal guest’s defense.
After Emanuel opined for a little bit, Christie took over and returned to the facts about spying. “There's legal spying and illegal spying, by the way. There’s legal and illegal spying. The Attorney General didn’t make any opinion on that, George, about whether it was legal or illegal,” Christie explained.
Stephanopoulos relented: “I guess spying generally has a negative connotation.”
“It’s electronic surveillance that the person who’s being surveilled doesn't know that they're being surveilled. I mean, what do you call that? It's another adjective,” Christie accurately continued. “Now, if [Barr] said it was illegal spying he would have been out of line because he doesn’t have the conclusion to do that yet.”
Republican strategist Alice Stewart agreed with Christie and suggested: “the Democrats are so busy being word police on this, they're losing sight of the fact of what the governor said: there's legal and illegal types of spying.”
And while the liberal media were busy spreading conspiracies about Barr lying for President Trump, Stewart made the point that Barr wouldn’t go out of his way to damage his reputation:
And look, we can all agree Attorney General Barr has a tremendous reputation, he has a tremendous history of his work in the law. He is not going to jeopardize his legacy by mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Surely, I think this four-page report may have been glossed over a little bit. He's not going jeopardize his legacy and mischaracterize information what the American people want to know.
The schooling was needed and deserved but the liberal media will likely stick to their false narrative anyway.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
April 14, 2019
9:39:59 a.m. Eastern(…)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: So, what do Democrats do now?
RAHM EMANUEL: Well, two things that I would say. One: the White House is going to rue the day that it was only a four-page memo, because everything's going to be measured now, that comes out, against that four-pages.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, that was the high point.
EMANUEL: Yes, that was their good day. And everything else is going to be a problem for them, because basically everybody drew one conclusion, that four-pages is not a summary. The thing that Democrats should have done, a long time ago, was not ask for the whole report. Every section has a summary. They should have said, “while you’re redacting, we want all those summaries out”. So, they could have kept it going for three weeks, not just waiting. They could have actually gotten those summaries.
I actually do think in one thing I would bring here, is because of what was just said by the Attorney General. It was a counterintelligence investigation, it was approved by the courts. There was no spying. This was approved by the courts, here.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Rahm, that is spying.
EMANUEL: No, no. What—
STEPHANOPOULOS: That's not spying!
[Crosstalk]
CHRISTIE: Wait, George.
EMANUEL: Let me say this, having sat through national security briefings, having sat through in the situation room, this was a loaded term used for loaded impact. And this is not what that was explained for. This was all a by the courts. By the Supreme Court [who] makes that appointment.
They're going to rue the day – Now what I would do as Democrats, constantly in this tone has got to be we're just looking at and see where the facts take us. I think the bigger worry for the White House isn't the Mueller Report it's going to be what's going on New York.
CHRISTIE: There's legal spying and illegal spying, by the way. There’s legal and illegal spying. The Attorney General didn’t make any opinion on that, George, about whether it was legal or illegal.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I guess spying generally has a negative connotation.
[Crosstalk]
CHRISTIE: It’s electronic surveillance that the person who’s being surveilled doesn't know that they're being surveilled. I mean, what do you call that? It's another adjective. Now, if he said it was illegal spying he would have been out of line because he doesn’t have the conclusion to do that yet. But--
EMANUEL: It’s all court approved.
ALICE STEWART: I think that the Democrats are so busy being word police on this, they're losing sight of the fact of what the governor said: there's legal and illegal types of spying. And that’s the question that Barr wants to get to and others want to get too.
And look, we can all agree Attorney General Barr has a tremendous reputation, he has a tremendous history of his work in the law. He is not going to jeopardize his legacy by mischaracterizing the Mueller report. Surely, I think this four-page report may have been glossed over a little bit. He's not going jeopardize his legacy and mischaracterize information what the American people want to know.
I think he's right to redact the information that needs to be redacted. It’s going to be very carful. It will never be enough for the Democrats. But he is doing it this the right way, taking our time.
And I have always said we don't need to prejudge the Mueller Report and let’s wait and see what it comes out.
(…)
