Politics Pelosi bashes Barr after testimony: 'He was like a blob' and 'henchman' for Trump

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tore into Attorney General William Barr after his testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, accusing him of acting like a "henchman" for President Trump.

© NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images Pelosi bashes Barr after testimony: 'He was like a blob' and 'henchman' for Trump

"He was like a blob. He was like a, just a henchman for the president of the United States, instead of the attorney general of the United States of America," Pelosi said on MSNBC.

Barr testifies before House panel in long-awaited showdown with Democrats

Attorney General William Barr appears before House lawmakers Tuesday in a long-awaited showdown between congressional Democrats and one of the President's most effective enforcers.Attorney General William Barr appears before House lawmakers Tuesday in a long-awaited showdown between congressional Democrats and one of the President's most effective enforcers.

But Mr. Barr insisted he was trying to enforce the law against what he characterized as rioters using demonstrations as cover to commit crimes. Democrats charged that Mr. Barr had intervened improperly in the Stone and Flynn cases to please Mr. Trump . They accused him of helping the

Trump wants Barr to function as his personal lawyer. Barr once again obliges. When Attorney General William P. Barr delivers his long-awaited testimony to a House committee on Tuesday, he will engage in all manner of clever hair-splitting and obfuscation, as all good personal attorneys do.

"You don't send in people acting like storm troopers into the scene," Speaker Pelosi says of AG Barr defending the use of federal force in his House testimony. "He should be answering for what he did at Lafayette Square ... He was like a blob - just a henchman for the president." pic.twitter.com/RGqBhEDJNC

- MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 28, 2020

Pelosi particularly targeted Barr over the administration's decision to send federal law enforcement officers to certain cities. Barr has defended the move to send officers to guard federal property in Portland, Ore., amid protests that have at times turned violent.

"[P]eaceful protest is who we are and what we do. And do some other people come along and try to disrupt? Yes. But you don't send in people acting like stormtroopers into the scene and evoking even more, even more unease and unrest," Pelosi said.

William Barr Only Claims to Respect the Rule of Law

House Democrats exposed the attorney general’s willingness to reinvent the rules for Trump.“What I’ve been trying to do is restore the rule of law,” Barr said early in his testimony, offering an animating principle for his leadership of the Justice Department. “The rule of law is, in essence, that we have one rule for everybody.

After saying he ’s fine after a minor car accident on the way to the hearing, Nadler opens by portraying Barr as a corrupt actor blatantly bending the power of the nation's top law enforcement agency to benefit Trump personally and politically. "Your tenure has been marked by a persistent war against

In written testimony released Monday night, Barr comes out swinging, accusing Democrats of falsely seeking to paint him as a Trump loyalist, challenging them to denounce violence in Portland, Ore., and defending himself against what he calls attempts by Democrats to Read the written testimony below

The remarks come after Barr sustained withering criticism from Democrats during Tuesday's hearing in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

Several Democratic lawmakers sought to cast Barr as a loyalist to the president who has used his tenure as the nation's top cop to protect Trump and his allies from scrutiny and boost the White House's "law and order" message in the run-up to the presidential election.

"The job of the attorney general is to defend the best interests of the people and serve as the people's lawyer, but during your time as attorney general you have consistently undermined democracy, undermined the Constitution and undermined the health, safety and well-being of the American people," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). "All to personally benefit Donald Trump."

Barr denied allegations of wrongdoing, maintaining he's worked to "restore the rule of law" after the Justice Department "strayed" from its mission before his tenure.

AG Barr: DOJ has been drawn into 'political maelstrom'; department used as 'political weapon'

The hearing, billed as an oversight of the Justice Department, will touch on a long list of grievances, including federal deployments to Portland.Even before taking office in 2019, Barr said he became "deeply troubled by what I perceived as the increasing use of the criminal justice process as a political weapon and the emergence of two separate standards of justice.

I don’t think we could actually punish the Deep State like this, or else they might release a deadly bioengineered virus, create economic disaster, and start a horrific race war, fanned on by ALL THE MEDIA, with no one ever questioning the narrative, and even now the clown show of TV newscasters

While Barr said that police abuses remain rare, he said Floyd's death and others like it "strike a Berman later testified that Barr repeatedly pressed him to resign to make way for Trump 's desired During the closed-door testimony , Berman said he questioned why he was being asked to leave

Video: McConnell points to Trump administration when asked about FBI funding (The Washington Post)