Senator has to remind GOP that Barr hearing is not about Clinton emails

Attorney General William Barr appears to have lied to Congress and the American people multiple times about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

But instead of asking Barr to explain his repeated mischaracterization of Mueller’s report and Trump’s crimes while he was testifying Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Republicans instead chose once again to obsess over Hillary Clinton and her emails.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) called out his GOP colleagues for this behavior in no uncertain terms.

“It appears that [Republicans] are going to work together and coordinate the so-called ‘lock her up’ defense,” Durbin said.

He shamed Republicans for acting like the hearing is “not supposed to be about the Mueller investigation, the Russian involvement in the election, the Trump campaign — it is really about Hillary Clinton’s emails.”

“Finally, we get down to the bottom line,” Durbin sarcastically noted.

He blasted the committee’s Republicans for being “totally unresponsive to the reality of what the American people want to know” about Trump, the Mueller report, and whether Barr acted inappropriately as attorney general.

Durbin made his remarks after a succession of Republicans, led by committee chairman Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), tried to change the subject to Clinton and her emails. Republicans also repeated baseless conspiracy theories about how the FBI somehow conspired against Trump.

Such conspiracy theories and smears about the former secretary of state have been the right’s go-to distraction to avoid discussing the evidence of Trump’s crimes and attempts to obstruct justice.

Trump, Republican members of Congress, and the Republican Party’s quasi-official propaganda outlet, Fox News, have focused on these stories as part of a long-running disinformation effort.

But Durbin cut through the noise and shamed them for their transparent ploy.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.