Democrats in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have greatly shifted their standards of the attorney general since former President Barack Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, were in office.
As IJR Blue reported, multiple Democrats have called for Attorney General William Barr’s resignation following his testimony before the Senate on Wednesday, including Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
In her weekly press conference Thursday morning, Pelosi also came down hard on Barr, claiming it was “sad” to see the attorney general “withholding the truth from the Congress of the United States.”
“I really lost sleep last night after watching over and over again the testimony of the attorney general of the United States,” she said. “How sad it is. How sad it is for us to see the top law enforcement officer in our country misrepresenting, withholding the truth from the Congress of the United States.”
Watch Pelosi’s press conference:
Pelosi also claimed that withholding information from Congress was a crime. She told reporters that she would allow the committees to decide if they want to move forward to pursue the criminal element against Barr.
Attorney General Barr’s decision to mislead the public in his testimony to Congress was not a technicality — it was a crime.
43.8K people are talking about this
Pelosi and her House Democrats have been gung-ho about their investigations into Barr, clearly seeing it as a vital part of their role in Congress to provide oversight of the executive branch.
However, that hasn’t always been the case for Pelosi.
In 2012, Holder was found to be in contempt of Congress after refusing to turn over the documentation about the “Fast and Furious” scandal — a Department of Justice (DOJ) operation that allowed illegal gun sales to Mexican drug cartels in hopes that they could trace the guns to make arrests.
While they were able to trace the weapons, two of the guns were used to kill Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Instead of coming clean about the botched operation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) buried the story until a whistleblower blew its cover.
When Congress demanded answers from Holder and the DOJ, he refused and was held in contempt of Congress. At the time, 17 Democrats voted with the Republican-controlled majority. Pelosi was not among them.
Although present-day Pelosi lost sleep over the idea that Barr may have withheld information from Congress, she was outraged when Republicans held Holder in contempt for doing the same thing. She even led a walkout protest during the 2012 vote while chanting “shame on you.”
Watch Pelosi’s reaction to Holder’s contempt charge:
Pelosi, who was the minority leader at the time, called the investigations and resulting contempt charge against Holder “frivolous” and an attack on him as a person.
“To frivolously use that really important vehicle to undermine the person who’s assigned to stop the voter suppression in our country. I’m telling you, this is connected. It is no accident. […] It’s not only to monopolize his time, it’s to undermine his name.”
Pelosi’s past self also questioned why Republicans were focused on going after Holder when they should be focused on job development and other important issues.
As IJR previously reported, Pelosi’s current self has been criticized for not getting much done in the first 100 days as House Democrats continue to push investigations into the Trump administration.
Watch Pelosi question Republicans:
00:00
/
01:08
00:00
“What we have seen is a shameful display of abuse of power by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Instead of bringing job-creating legislation to the floor — the transportation bill — they are holding the attorney general of the United States in contempt of Congress.”
Pelosi’s views on the role of congressional oversight and the attorney general have clearly shifted since her party was in office and Holder — who described himself as Obama’s wingman — was the top law enforcement officer in the United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment