U.S. Attorney General William Barr listens to concerns raised about public safety in rural Alaska during at a roundtable discussion at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska. Barr did not take questions from reporters in his first public appearance after former special prosecutor Robert Mueller spoke to reporters after resigning at the completion of his report into Russian interference into the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
What is the corporate media playing at with their reporting on Attorney General William Barr’s comments about President Trump’s tweeting habit? Ever since Barr explained that the President’s tweeting makes his job more difficult in an appearance on ABC News, it seems the press has seized on the opportunity to use the story to promote a Trump vs Barr narrative. A closer look at the situation easily raises questions about what the Fourth Estate is up to, and a cursory glance at the headlines reveals their true intent: To pit the President against his Attorney General.
Yesterday, The Washington Post published an article claiming that the Attorney General was considering tendering his resignation due to Trump’s refusal to stop tweeting about federal investigations. True to form, the news outlet relied on the comments of unnamed administration officials who are supposedly close to the situation:
“Attorney General William P. Barr has told people close to President Trump — both inside and outside the White House — that he is considering quitting over Trump’s tweets about Justice Department investigations, three administration officials said, foreshadowing a possible confrontation between the president and his attorney general over the independence of the Justice Department.”
One of these individuals told The Washington Post that Barr “has his limits.” Despite the fact that much of the media was focused on the upcoming Democratic debates, the establishment media treated this as some massive bombshell that would shake up the White House.
However, the Attorney General’s office released a statement that served as the proverbial wet blanket on what the press hoped to be a major conflagration between the President and top cop. “Addressing Beltway rumors: The Attorney General has no plans to resign,” Kerri Kupec, Barr’s spokeswoman, tweeted.
But the Attorney General’s announcement didn’t seem to deter the press, which continues to report on the Twitter tete a tete as if it were real news. The Washington Post published another story titled, “Trump tests Barr with more tweets about the Justice Department.” ABC News also chimed in with a piece titled “Trump continues to defy Barr’s warnings to stop tweeting about Justice Department.” Not to be outdone, MSN put out an article titled, “Against wishes of Barr, Trump fires off more tweets about the Justice Department.”
One can’t ignore the shrewdness involved in their fixation on Trump and Barr’s disagreement. The thought of Trump losing another attorney general would be enough to make any leftist activist disguised as a journalist salivate, wouldn’t it? It would be a perfect story given the many “L’s” the left has been taking lately. The Democratic debate was a disaster for everyone except the President and this catastrophe came right off the heels of a failed impeachment attempt. Put simply, things aren’t going so well for the left at the moment, and they are in dire need of a win.
This situation started when Barr told ABC News that Trump’s tweets were “disruptive” to the Justice Department. He said:
“To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases, make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me.”
In a conversation with reporters, Trump praised Barr, but also defended his use of Twitter. “Everybody has the right to speak their mind. And I use social media,” he said. “But I think he’s doing an excellent job. He’s a strong guy. I never spoke to him about the Roger Stone situation.”
The President also said that Barr is “a very straight shooter,” and affirmed that, “he’s working very hard.”
So far, the press has not ignited a controversy between the President and the Attorney General, but this will certainly not be the first time they will try. It can be expected that they will continue to foment tension among members of the Trump administration. The question is: Will the administration allow its members to be baited?
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
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