On Tuesday morning’s New Day, CNN co-host John Berman and legal analyst Elie Honig used former Attorney General Bill Barr resigning to express their vehement dislike of Barr. Berman set up Honig to attack Barr by asking what his “legacy is,” to which Honig replied “Bill Barr has been a disgrace.”
Berman began the Barr bashing by claiming that he “is willing to break so many norms for the President of the United States and break so many precedents for the President of the United States.”
Honig called Barr a “disgrace” for not taking CNN’s favorite conspiracy theories about Trump such as the Russia collusion conspiracy more seriously:
HONIG: Yeah, John, I wish there was a nicer way for me to say this, but Bill Barr has been a disgrace. He has been a disgrace to the Attorney General position, to the Justice Department, to himself. Here's what I mean by that, I served at DOJ under three Republican appointed A.G.s, one Democratic appointed A.G. and I was taught under both administrations early and often all you have is your credibility and independence. Without those things you cannot stand up at a podium in a courtroom and say, Elie Honig representing the United States.
Bill Barr throughout his term has done the opposite of those two things. He has lied to the American public over and over, from Mueller to his reasons for getting involved in Flynn and Roger Stone, to his efforts to try to keep the Ukraine scandal under wrap. He has completely compromised DOJ's independence. He has used DOJ for political ends. Let's not forget, just a few months ago Bill Barr was out there mimicking, echoing Donald Trump's baseless theories about massive election fraud. I know Bill Barr changed his tone a couple weeks ago, but that does not undo two years of dishonesty and politicization of DOJ. The damage he has done is long lasting.
This is fascinating coming from CNN, as it has had little to say about Barack Obama using the DOJ to investigate, wiretap, and even jail journalists. CNN has even declared that Obama had "eight years scandal-free.” CNN must only care about the DOJ following “norms” and “precedents” when the President is a Republican.
Honig suggested that President Trump forced Barr out of office because he “has done a couple things to reestablish the independence of the Justice Department.”
This claim from the media that Barr has not acted independently as AG is nothing new. The media, with no evidence, has accused Barr of assisting Trump to pardon his friend Roger Stone.
Honig then accused Barr of being “willing and able to twist facts, distort the law” throughout his time in office. However, Honig may have been confusing Barr with CNN, which labeled Barr as racist for denying the existence of systemic racism and accused him of lying about China being potentially a greater threat to U.S. election security than Russia.
It is very doubtful that CNN will apply this same level of scrutiny to Joe Biden’s AG pick.
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Read the full December 15th transcript here:
CNN New Day
12/15/20
7:33:38 AM
JOHN BERMAN: All right, also developing overnight Attorney General Bill Barr announcing he is leaving the Trump Administration next week. The news comes via presidential tweet after weeks of feuding with the President. Joining us now CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig, he's a former federal prosecutor and as important for the purposes of this discussion Elie, you're writing a whole book on Bill Barr, which is coming out in July. I want to talk about his legacy in a second, leave that aside for a moment. But what does it say to you that this guy, this attorney general, who is willing to break so many norms for the President of the United States and break so many precedence for the President of the United States, what does it say to you that -- that something happened, something got between them and he just couldn't take it anymore. What could that be?
ELIE HONIG: Yeah, so it -- it tells me, John, first of all that with Donald Trump it is all about loyalty. And I'm not talking about loyalty to the Constitution or the American people or the Justice Department, but loyalty to Donald J. Trump. And the fact that William Barr just in the last couple weeks has done a couple things to reestablish the independence of the Justice Department, he's done a couple things the right way, that was it, deal breaker, relationship over. That's what it tells me about the way Donald Trump treats those around him.
BERMAN: What does it say about Barr? And again, leave the legacy part for a second here, but what does it say about Barr? What -- what could he have been asked to do that he wasn't willing to do that he would walk? Was it the election? Was it he wouldn't say there was massive fraud in the election?
HONIG: Yeah, so look, I think the big -- the big sort of sticking point between Donald Trump and William Barr was when Barr said a couple weeks ago, we the Justice Department have not found evidence of widespread fraud. I think part of the reason there is there just is nothing. Look, Bill Barr has shown time and again, he's willing and able to twist facts, distort the law, but he can't make something out of nothing. I mean the guy's not a wizard, he can't conjure facts where there's just nothing. And by the way, in his resignation letter yesterday he undid some of that by going out his way to say, oh it was such a pleasure to brief you this afternoon Mr. President on our continuing efforts to investigate voter fraud, giving Donald Trump just a little bit of a hook to say, hey, they're still looking.
BERMAN: Yeah, that -- that felt like a little bit of a divorce agreement right there, language that they had both agreed upon in order part ways. What about the next 36 days, Elie? What happens now that Barr leaves? Christopher Wray, who is the FBI Director, there's some reporting that Barr had been protecting Wray and that Wray may be in some kind of jeopardy now. What do you see?
HONIG: Yeah, so even though we're at the very tail end of -- of this presidency and this attorney general's term there's some big issues. Number one, Chris Wray, will he survive? Will the President fire him? Chris Wray has committed the same sins that Bill Barr committed last week or two weeks ago in coming out and saying publicly no evidence of election fraud. There's other big issues too. Will the new attorney general, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen appoint a special counsel to handle the Hunter Biden investigation? That is a politically charged decision, that’ll have a major impact for how that investigation goes, for whether the public finds out about it, for whether Congress finds out about it. So, even though we've only got a few weeks left, look, this is the Attorney General position. There are major decisions to be made there.
BERMAN: Now, to the larger question, which I know you're going to focus a lot on in your book, Bill Barr the legacy, Bill Barr act two, this -- this stretch in the Justice Department, what is the lingering legacy?
HONIG: Yeah, John, I wish there was a nicer way for me to say this, but Bill Barr has been a disgrace. He has been a disgrace to the Attorney General position, to the Justice Department, to himself. Here's what I mean by that, I served at DOJ under three Republican appointed A.G.s, one Democratic appointed A.G. and I was taught under both administrations early and often all you have is your credibility and independence. Without those things you cannot stand up at a podium in a courtroom and say, Elie Honig representing the United States. Bill Barr throughout his term has done the opposite of those two things. He has lied to the American public over and over, from Mueller to his reasons for getting involved in Flynn and Roger Stone, to his efforts to try to keep the Ukraine scandal under wrap. He has completely compromised DOJ's independence. He has used DOJ for political ends. Let's not forget, just a few months ago Bill Barr was out there mimicking, echoing Donald Trump's baseless theories about massive election fraud. I know Bill Barr changed his tone a couple weeks ago, but that does not undo two years of dishonesty and politicization of DOJ. The damage he has done is long lasting.
BERMAN: Elie Honig, thanks so much for being with us. Congratulations on the book. I want to introduce you to the two most important words in the literary universe, book party. Waiting for the invite. Thanks so much Elie.
