Even for MSNBC, Wednesday’s coverage of William Barr’s testimony to Congress was particularly unhinged. For a second time, Brian Williams and Nicolle Wallace interrupted to offer their spin. This time, Wallace quoted the word “shit” from testimony and then chided Senator Lindsey Graham for using the word “fuck.”
But first, Williams, who is an expert himself on lying, explained that MSNBC simply had to correct the untruthful things being said by the Attorney General: “Our intention always is to bring as much of this uninterrupted to you as possible.... But so much has been said here and placed on the record by the Attorney General that starting with Nicolle Wallace we want to correct some of the record.”
Again, Brian Williams is going to “correct the record.” Think about that.
Wallace denounced, “So I'm not going to dance around this. He's lying. He's lying about what the Mueller report finds around one of the critical flashpoints in the obstruction investigation.”
The MSNBC host then discussed whether or not Donald Trump pressed his White House lawyer to fire Mueller. She didn’t edit herself:
It's also the colorful reporting from this report where Don McGahn says to Reince Priebus, which is the third witness to this incident, “The President asked me to do some crazy shit.” I'm sorry to swear. But I think we've got an Attorney General lying about what is in the Mueller report around what was the most investigated flashpoints in the obstruction investigation.
With no sense of self awareness, she then chided Senator Graham for dropping the f-word: “I heard Lindsey Graham dropped an f-bomb for panache. Sure to make the highlight reel of Fox News prime.” Williams had enough balance to quip to his co-host: “The score is one-to-one.”
So, after calling Barr a liar, swearing, and seeming generally angry, MSNBC's hosts went back to live coverage. Who did they interrupt? Republican Senator John Cornyn. Who did they return to? Democratic Senator Dick Durbin. This is MSNBC's version of priorities.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
MSNBC
Live coverage of Barr Testimony
11:19[Cuts into exchange between AG Barr and Senator John Cornyn.]
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Again, our intention always is to bring as much of this uninterrupted to you as possible. Dick Durbin is coming up after Republican Senator Cornyn of Texas. But so much has been said here and placed on the record by the Attorney General that starting with Nicolle Wallace we want to correct some of the record against of all things what it says in the Mueller report. Nicolle.
NICOLLE WALLACE: So I'm not going to dance around this. He's lying. He's lying about what the Mueller report finds around one of the critical flashpoints in the obstruction investigation. One of the incidents that was investigated by Robert Mueller and his obstruction investigators was the attempted firing of the special counsel. It was one of the incidents that was under investigation into, really, days before Mueller wrapped up. He's quibbling with whether removing Mueller and firing him is the same thing. Here's how Donald Trump talked about removing/firing Special Counsel Mueller. This is from Chris Christie's testimony. One of five witnesses cited in the footnotes of the Mueller obstruction report about Donald Trump's efforts to fire Robert Mueller.
“Chris Christie recalled a telephone conversation in which the President asked which what Christie thought about the president firing,” — firing, not removing — “the special counsel. Christie advised against doing so because there was no basis for the President to fire the special counsel and because the President would lose support from Republicans in Congress.” I'm going to disagree with Christie on that. Here's McGahn’s testimony. I’m not going to read all the witnesses. But here’s McGahn on the President’s effort to make McGahn fire him. Again, from the footnote in the obstruction report. “Although McGahn recalled receiving multiple calls from the President on the same day, he was not specific about the dates but he was confident he had two phone conversations with the President in which the President directed him to call the acting Attorney General and have the special counsel removed. It's also the colorful reporting from this report where Don McGahn says to Reince Priebus, which is the third witness to this incident, “The President asked me to do some crazy shit.” I'm sorry to swear. But I think we've got an Attorney General lying about what is in the Mueller report around what was the most investigated flashpoints in the obstruction investigation. My question, again, is why?
WILLIAMS: Why did the president — the Republicans seem to be relitigating the presidency of Hillary Clinton?
WALLACE: Well, what's interesting to me about that is it's not like that's not under control. There's an inspector general that has looked at the conduct of FBI agents, Pete Strzok and Lisa Page. I heard Lindsey Graham dropped an F-bomb for panache, sure to make the highlight reel of Fox News prime.
WILLIAMS: The score is one to one.
