Two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a reprieve from wandering the woods of upstate New York to make an appearance during Wednesday’s The Rachel Maddow Show. The MSNBC host was ecstatic to have the former Secretary of State on her show once again; this time to talk about the findings of the Mueller Report and bash Attorney General William Barr for executing the duties of his office.
In one particularly slanted and longwinded question about Barr’s “behavior,” Maddow essentially answered her own question for her guest:
In terms of Barr's performance today and what we have learned, including from Mueller himself about how Barr has handled the results of Mueller's investigation thus far, would you call this an attempted cover-up? Would you say that Barr is handling Mueller's findings in a way that are -- that is dishonest, that is inappropriate, that is something that ought to – as many Democrats said today, cause him to resign? That should potentially leave him open to the prospect of impeachment himself? How do you assess Barr’s – the severity of Barr's misbehavior here?
“Well, I think it is incredibly severe, because I think he is doing the job he was hired to do,” Clinton claimed as she basically parroted Maddow’s points back to her. “He auditioned for the job with his 19-page memo basically saying there is no such thing as obstruction of justice when it comes to a president. He was hired to make sure that was a reality. He has behaved in that way.”
Clinton commended the Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee for their behavior in the hearing and asserted the AG was acting as Trump’s personal defense attorney and “not the attorney general of the United States in the way that he has conducted himself.”
The former Secretary also condoned calls for Barr to resign:
Now, calling for his resignation makes perfect sense because he is not discharging the duties of the office. He is not going to resign. And at this point, I think that we know what we need to know about him. Bob Mueller has made that abundantly clear, that he has not represented accurately the context, the nature and the substance of the investigation.
In an exchange between the two later in the show, Maddow embarrassingly groveled before Clinton as she thanked the former Secretary for agreeing to appear (click “expand” to read):
MADDOW: Back with us once again be Secretary of State, Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Madam Secretary, thank you again for coming in to do this.
CLINTON: Glad to be here.
MADDOW: You have every option in the world and I really appreciate you being here.
CLINTON: It's only our country after all, Rachel.
[Laughter]
MADDOW: I know, but this is just my little slice of it. Having you here means a lot.
CLINTON: I know, but still, you've tried to really cover this story and as we were just talking, it is far from over and it is still going on. That's what I worry about. I don't want it to happen again.
Maddow groveled once more at the end of their interview, saying, “You can do any of these -- you can speak to anybody you want to speak to and be anywhere you want to be. Thank you for being here. And I hope you'll come back.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
May 1, 2019
9:27:27 p.m. Eastern(…)
RACHEL MADDOW: In terms of Barr's performance today and what we have learned, including from Mueller himself about how Barr has handled the results of Mueller's investigation thus far, would you call this an attempted cover-up? Would you say that Barr is handling Mueller's findings in a way that are -- that is dishonest, that is inappropriate, that is something that ought to – as many Democrats said today, cause him to resign? That should potentially leave him open to the prospect of impeachment himself? How do you assess Barr’s – the severity of Barr's misbehavior here?
HILLARY CLINTON: Well, I think it is incredibly severe, because I think he is doing the job he was hired to do. He auditioned for the job with his 19-page memo basically saying there is no such thing as obstruction of justice when it comes to a president. He was hired to make sure that was a reality. He has behaved in that way.
I think that the Democrats on the committee did a good job today in exposing that, that he is the President's defense he is not the attorney general of the United States in the way that he has conducted himself.
Now, calling for his resignation makes perfect sense because he is not discharging the duties of the office. He is not going to resign. And at this point, I think that we know what we need to know about him. Bob Mueller has made that abundantly clear, that he has not represented accurately the context, the nature and the substance of the investigation.
(…)
9:52:57 p.m. Eastern
MADDOW: Back with us once again be Secretary of State, Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Madam Secretary, thank you again for coming in to do this.
CLINTON: Glad to be here.
MADDOW: You have every option in the world and I really appreciate you being here.
CLINTON: It's only our country after all, Rachel.
[Laughter]
MADDOW: I know, but this is just my little slice of it. Having you here means a lot.
CLINTON: I know, but still, you've tried to really cover this story and as we were just talking, it is far from over and it is still going on. That's what I worry about. I don't want it to happen again.
MADDOW: We're in the middle of figuring it out still.
CLINTON: We are.
(…)
9:56:18 p.m. Eastern
MADDOW: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, again, thank you for being here. You can do any of these -- you can speak to anybody you want to speak to and be anywhere you want to be. Thank you for being here. And I hope you'll come back. One of the other things l’d like to talk to you about over the course of the next few months is this huge Democratic field of presidential candidates who I know a lot of them have been coming to talk to you. There's a lot else going on. I hope you'll come back soon.
CLINTON: I would love to.
