Look past the 'bombshell' headlines and click bait to see the real story

I watch a lot of Congressional and Senate Hearings as well as press conferences. That way I have more of an informed opinion without any bias. Having said that, I sat in horror as I watched the Congressional hearing with Attorney General Bill Barr on July 28. I have never seen such an orchestrated effort to shut someone down and bully them for 4 hours. It was truly sad and disgusting. Don't get me wrong, it's not unusual for congressional members to interrupt and be rude, but never to this degree. It was clearly just a 4 hour PR stunt to create headlines, soundbites and click bait for the complicit news and social media. Never mind whether it's true or not, it's all about ratings and election campaign material.

AG Barr came voluntarily and the Democrats grilled him on protecting federal buildings, Portland, his opinion on tear gas and whether it was an appropriate response for rioters. It was alluded that he was a lackey for the President and at one point even that he was responsible for murder.

Four almost 4 hours, every time he was asked a question from a Democrat and started to answer, immediately the Congress member would shout "reclaiming my time reclaiming my time" shutting down his answer. One Congresswoman asked him a question, and when he started to answer she immediately shouted him down accusing him of refusing to answer her questions, even adding that she couldn't believe how he was refusing to answer. He was told "Shame on you." It was a clickbait hearing. It served no other purpose. At one point, AG Barr said, when they wouldn't allow him to answer their accusations, "I thought this was a hearing and the purpose was for me to be heard...." Look for direct quote. My hope is that the Democrats on that committee are not representative of the whole party.

After much frustration, Barr asked the Democrats, "Can any of you just come out and say that it's not OK to burn down federal courthouses?" There was dead silence. That was surprising even to me.

In an interview later with Mark Levine, Barr said, "They (Democrats) talk about the rule of law, the importance of the federal legal system, and the protection of civil rights. At the heart of that is our court system, and not one of them piped up saying, 'No it's not OK to be burning down federal courts."

Barr also explained, "I have the perspective of having been attorney general 30 years ago and now, and I thought things were partisan and tough 30 years ago. [It was] nothing compared to today; things have fundamentally changed," he said.

"I think what's happened is that the left-wing has really withdrawn and pulled away from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded our society since our founding. And within the family, we've had two ways of resolving disputes. One is discussion, the dialectic, the marketplace of ideas, trying to arrive at the truth.

"We had an idea that there was some truth to arrive at. And then if we couldn't reach agreement, we would vote, and that's how we operated."

He said they aren't interested in compromise or dialectic exchange of views. He said they view their political opponents as evil because we stand in the way of their 'progressive utopia' that they're tryin to reach. He said that's what gives the intensity to the partisan feeling today. He also called them cowards who are only concerned with power and saving their job.

In the Levine interview he also said that he thought they were afraid to let him answer their questions. It was ironic that they were accusing him of securing favors for President Trump by politicizing the Department of Justice, when he said he is doing just the opposite and he said he has been completely independent from President Trump in running DOJ.

Barr says that he is working to restore integrity to the Justice Department because it has been politicized and used as a weapon for political purposes, as it was with the Russia investigation against President Trump. The DOJ is expected to present indictments in the next few months from US Attorney John Durham who was appointed previously to serve as a special prosecutor on four separate occasions, including corruption in the FBI. This is a deeper dive into the FBI on the heels of what DOJ Inspector General Horowitz found and reported to DOJ and the Senate last year. He found 17 major "mistakes", lies and fraud, even as it relates to documents given to the FISA court.

It was later found that the [Steel] dossier which predicated the Russia collusion investigation in the first place was just salacious political opposition research paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.

It is reported that $40 M tax dollars were spent, 2800 subpoenas issued, 500 witnesses questioned and 500 search warrants issued. In the end they could prove no collusion and it appeared to be a fishing expedition to try and find dirt on President Trump. Later it was the Ukrainian phone call and the impeachment campaign which led nowhere. Now there are subpoenas for eight years of Trump tax returns to see if they can find anything there. It only takes a little objective consideration to see that powerful people and federal agencies have been weaponized against President Trump and Barr is working to bring justice back to the Justice Department and clean up the FBI. Not unlike the IRS when they were targeting conservative groups during Obama's administration.

BTW, In relation to the Flynn case, the DOJ found a lot of exculpatory evidence that was hidden from Flynn and his attorneys and that exculpatory evidence continues to surface proving there was no predicate for investigation in the first place. But it provided an excuse to go after Trump, spend $40 Million in tax dollars, cause a 3-star General who had valiantly served his country to go broke defending himself and when the FBI finally told him they were going to start going after his son who just had a baby 4 months prior with his wife, that was it. He gave up and pleaded guilty like they wanted him to. And it provided two years of nightly "Bombshell" headlines and "bombshell" click bait. It doesn't matter that it was a lie and that an honorable person was being destroyed with all the power of the federal government and our tax dollars.

This is what AG Barr is fighting hard to clean up and the powers that be aren't giving up their power easily. It all makes perfect sense and I believe it is every bit as important as the rioting and civil unrest going on presently.

Julie Reeder, publisher