MSNBC’s Katyal: Barr Was Partisan, Evasive, Selective — ‘Really Sad Day for the Justice Department’

Tuesday on MSNBC, network legal analyst Neal Katyal said Attorney General William Barr’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was partisan, evasive and selective.

Katyal said, “Barr was partisan, he was evasive, and he was selective. He came off so partisan. The attorney general is really supposed to be above this. Barr was going and taking Trump’s line on coronavirus. Saying Obama was responsible for coronavirus and stuff like that. And his defense of the Justice Department actions on the census and the violent federalization of policing and the like was really evasive. Indeed, he began his statement by talking about the things that Trump told him to have conversations about saying, like Trump doesn’t tell me what to do on law enforcement decisions and stuff like that.”

“Then when he was asked by a member of Congress, has Trump talked to you about using federal law enforcement, he says I’m not going to comment on my conversations with the president, they are private,” he continued. “It’s so selective. Even more selective to me, he’s began his statement by saying, you know, well, violence against African-Americans by police isn’t that big of a deal, only eight people this year have been killed who are black, and 11 were white. Eleven whites as if that excuse things. Then when it gets to the FISA and the abuse there, it’s the sky is falling. There are a couple of problems. It was very, very selective how he did it, and it came off as a really sad day for the Justice Department.”

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