During a two-minute monologue on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House Wednesday, NBC News National Affairs Analyst John Heilemann trashed Attorney General Bill Barr and suggested that he should be impeached. Heilemann frequently referenced a New York Times op-ed written by former FBI Director James Comey, where he slammed Barr; holding him up as a once-respected public figure corrupted by President Trump, whom Comey alleges “eats your soul in small bites.”
Heilemann tore into Barr, contending that since the release of the Mueller Report, “everything he’s done has been pure political hackery and filled with lies, filled with misrepresentations.” Heilemann also accused Barr of committing perjury and said that following his testimony on Capitol Hill earlier in the day, “there’s grounds now for impeachment.”
At this point, Heilemann challenged his inner Comey and asked “what happens to a man…what happens to a person with his reputation? What does Donald Trump do to these people’s souls?” After praising his “really interesting question,” Heilemann claimed that he did not “care anymore,” predicting that “someone will write a great book about this” that will answer his question.
Heilemann continued to refer to Comey’s op-ed and expanded on the very strong language it relied on. Heilemann expressed his desire that someday “we’ll understand...how he chips away at people’s souls, how he eats them whole, how he turns them into these zombies, these Trump-ified zombies who go forward and do his work, leaving all of their reputation, their stature, and their former, any former ethical standing they had behind.”
It comes across as quite rich that Heilemann would lecture people on another man losing his reputation; considering the fact that he worked alongside Mark Halperin, who lost his positions at NBC News and Showtime, as well as his reputation, because of multiple allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Nonetheless, host Nicolle Wallace, who had her own outbursts on MSNBC earlier in the day, smiled in agreement as Heilemann delivered those punchlines.
Heilemann reverted back to his attack on Barr, claiming “he is fully, obviously corrupted and everything that comes out of his mouth over the course of the last month has demonstrated that he is not acting as the Attorney General of the United States anymore. He is only acting as a paid, fully bought and paid member of Donald Trump’s political team. And I think we have to see everything that comes out of his mouth from this point forward through that prism.”
It was quite difficult to distinguish Heilemann from the Senate Democrats, who have engaged in quite a bit of “hackery” of their own.
A transcript of the relevant portion of Wednesday’s edition of Deadline: White House is below. Click “expand” to read more.
Deadline: White House
05/02/19
04:20 PM
JOHN HEILEMANN: Can I just say this one thing? Just because this is a conversation that Joyce and I have had, it’s a conversation Matt and I have had. Chuck and I haven’t had it yet, but I’m sure we will. And Jim Comey’s got an op-ed piece in the…
NICOLLE WALLACE: Yeah.
HEILEMANN: …New York Times that dropped today on this question. It’s been this mis…We’ve all been discussing it because people of goodwill across the political and ideological spectrum coming into this all said about Bill Barr, well, we got some questions, the, the job application memo is problematic, some of the things he said in his confirmation testimony is problematic but ultimately maybe he’s going to be an institutionalist. And the question of why, what has turned him into…because today’s performance has been apiece with everything he’s done since the Mueller report came in, everything he’s done has been pure political hackery and filled with lies, filled with misrepresentations. Now, I think there are cases we can point to that will be, people will say are, are perjury, that he should be…there’s grounds now for impeachment, certainly many Democrats calling for resignation. All of this has been consistent. So we’ve asked the question over and again, what happens to a man, what happens to a person with his reputation? What does Donald Trump do to these people’s souls? I think it’s a really interesting question and I don’t care anymore because it’s not…I mean, someone will write a great book about this someday and maybe we’ll understand how it is that Donald Trump, Comey addresses this today, how he chips away at people’s souls, how he eats them whole, how he turns them into these zombies, these Trump-ified zombies who go forward and do his work, leaving all of their reputation, their stature and their former, any former ethical standing they had behind. In the end, though, it’s not relevant because what we have now is an Attorney General who has presented himself in a way that’s not really refutable anymore, he is fully obviously corrupted and everything that comes out of his mouth over the course of the last month has demonstrated that he is not acting as the Attorney General of the United States anymore. He is only acting as a paid, fully bought and paid member of Donald Trump’s political team. And I think we have to see everything that comes out of his mouth from this point forward through that prism. It’s the only conclusion we can draw. And, you know, motives, we’ll figure them out later maybe. But they’re not relevant.
