Did Donald Trump just pull a fast one on the new Bush-loving Left?
It certainly looks that way.
According to Fox News:
President Trump wants to nominate William Barr, the George H.W. Bush-era leader of the Justice Department, as his next attorney general, sources told Fox News.
While Trump does not know Barr, he likes the immense respect Barr commands and the fact that he has earned bipartisan support in the past, the sources said.
So who is William Barr? I will get to this in just a minute.
The Fox News report implies that Barr is not a good choice.
Still, other sources indicated that Trump could still decide to go with someone else. Others believed to be under consideration include Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Those close to Trump are divided over the choice: One source close to the White House told Fox News that Barr would be a bad choice, saying “Barr could be worse than Jeff Sessions.”
Again, before I get to Barr, understand that I wrote an article when Whitaker was selected as Acting Attorney General. I had high hopes for him at first. But after talking to DC insiders, I learned that Whitaker actually trusts Rod Rosenstein.
My source assured me that though Whitaker agreed with Trump on many issues related to the Russia investigation, he won’t act.
Look at the outcome. Nothing. And while we’re on the subject of nothing, have you heard anything about Whitaker in a while?
Suddenly the Democrats accept the man? When I was in New York to attend the Gold Gloves, people protested Whitaker’s appointment. I know it’s the Left’s knee-jerk response to protest Trump for anything, but why have they completely stopped?
Let’s take a look at Barr.
According to ABC,
Barr has been somewhat critical of special counsel Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and has claimed there is more basis to investigate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her role in approving the 2010 acquisition of U.S. uranium stockpiles by a Russian energy company — a complicated deal that has come to be known simply as Uranium One.
“To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,” Barr told the New York Times.
He also supported President Trump’s move to fire former FBI Director James Comey, writing in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post that Trump made the right move.
“Unfortunately, beginning in July, when he announced the outcome of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, he crossed a line that is fundamental to the allocation of authority in the Justice Department,” Barr wrote in the 2017 article.
“While the FBI carries out investigative work, the responsibility for supervising, directing and ultimately determining the resolution of investigations is solely the province of the Justice Department’s prosecutors. With an investigation as sensitive as the one involving Clinton, the ultimate decision-making is reserved to the attorney general or, when the attorney general is recused, the deputy attorney general.”
Barr also at one point took issue with the political affiliations of those on Mueller’s team, telling the Washington Post in July of 2017 that “prosecutors who make political contributions are identifying fairly strongly with a political party.”
Barr was referring to reports in the Post that eight of Mueller’s prosecutors had donated to Democrats in the past.
In short, Barr sounds like the real deal. And if he is, it will be difficult for the Left to complain.
Barr was part of the Bush 41 administration. You know, the man recently canonized by the Left.
Why would President Trump reach that far back into the archives to dust off Barr? I don’t have the answer. But I suspect now that Trump found his sea legs, he navigates the treacherous DC waters with much more ease.
Don’t be surprised to learn in Trump’s memoirs how he snookered the Left with this AG selection.
