Attorney General William Barr might want to borrow a dictionary.
On Wednesday, Barr appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, where Republicans focused on Russian election interference and Democrats stuck to President Trump's potential obstruction of justice. Yet even as one Democrat went so far as to challenge Barr to resign, it was Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-Calif.) very simple questioning and word choice that left Barr the most tripped up.
Harris, a 2020 presidential contender, started her five minutes with Barr with one question: "Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?" Barr stumbled for a second, asked Harris to repeat the question, and then said he was "trying to grapple with the word 'suggest.'" So Harris provided a few synonyms — and Barr still didn't quite give an answer.
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Harris went on to ask Barr if he "personally review[ed] all the underlying evidence" that Mueller's team uncovered before deciding not to charge Trump with obstruction of justice. "No," Barr responded, saying that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein didn't either, and eliciting a very strong tweeted response from Harris. Kathryn Krawczyk
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