Welcome to the Daily Boogie. Welcome. I say hello there. Thank you so much for joining us.
What is this? This is nothing. This is nothing. Nothing to see here.
Move along. What's all this in, eh? Nothing. Nothing going on.
Just a bunch of people in a room looking at a whole lot of nothing. Thank you so much for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen, how are you? Are you good?
Are you feeling good? Are you loosened up? Are you ready to roll? Are you ready to rock?
Perhaps you're somewhere in between. Rock and or roll. A rock and a rolly place. A rolling pin.
Oh, we're off to an absolute flyer. The professionalism. I really need to start pre-writing things, I think, because I've discovered all the best streamers and all of the best presenters. They pre-write little intros and stuff.
You know, little quips. If you're on television, you've got a team of writers. I obviously do not. But I don't pre-write anything.
I don't take notes. I pull up a couple of clips and articles. I don't even pre-watch the clips or pre-read the articles, really. I quickly scan it and I think, oh, yeah, I can get something out of that.
Let's do it. Because I want genuine reactions with you. You know, I want to watch something for the first time with you. You know what I mean?
But sometimes it must be avoided because today I did spend around six hours watching officially the most boring man on the planet, William Barr. Just, if it was possible to witness somebody being bored to death, today was the day. And it wasn't me. It was the people asking him questions.
And it's fantastic because, like, I found myself laughing uncontrollably during the Barr hearings. I don't know about you, but just the way he's like, it'll even be little things. He sits there with his head in his hand like this. He looks completely disinterested with the whole thing.
And they'll ask him a question and then he waits about five seconds sometimes and he's like, I'm sorry, what exactly are you referring to? And he makes them repeat it again. And he just looks so bored. So, like I said, I thought it was fucking amazingly funny.
It's either the driest comedy routine of all time or it's what somebody would look like if they were watching paint dry. But whatever it is, it works. It's working for him. He's got X factor.
With deadhead look especially, exactly. So we will get into that. Thanks so much for joining us, ladies and gentlemen. By the way, if you want to become a supporter of the show, please head over to patreon.com forward slash boogiebumper and become a subscriber by hitting that subscribe button on your preferred podcast player.
And of course, if you'd like to bore me to death, put me to sleep, not answer questions and perhaps stare right through me as you rest your head in your hands, you can do so by following me on Twitter at boogiebumper. Just want to open the kimono a little bit. People like the intro, but sometimes, you know, people who are new here, they don't really get it yet. They don't really get what we do here yet.
And that's fine. It's a learning process. And a lot of people come in for like 20 seconds and then leave because they think, this is incredibly slow-paced. What are we talking about, William Barr?
See, and they never get to stay around for the stories of, you know, women marrying zombie dolls and consummating their relationships. Men cutting off their own penis in an attempt to go viral on the internet. 70 centimeters of toilet paper is all you get in China. They don't stick it out.
They don't get to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So I feel sorry for them. But sometimes people don't understand the sarcasm and they watch the intro and they think I'm being serious. You know what I mean?
They're like, well, this intro, stop taking yourself so seriously. You know what I mean? What is this, some kind of conspiracy show? Oh, okay.
Transcend reality? Jeez, mate. Taking it a little far, aren't you? So if you want, I'm going to open a kimono and explain the intro for you.
It's really none of those things. One, it's seven minutes long. So I'm already taking piss a little bit. But I like the over-dramatization when you compare it up against what we actually talk about most of the time.
And I'm a big sci-fi nerd. So of course I put planets and stuff in there. The robotic voice over the top of the whole thing just adds to the level of sarcasm. So people think it's a serious thing.
It's not really. And the storm thing, people think it's like a Q-Ref. It's not a Q-Ref. In the old intro, I had storm sounds as well.
If you want the real reason, the real reason I put the storm sound in there is because it's a great way to mask the sound of one song turning into another song. And it blends it. So you can fade one song out while the storm sounds are happening and fade another song in. And then the transition seems almost seamless.
Because the sound of the storm, you don't get to hear the hard cut between the two audio tracks. People are like, oh, what is this, some kind of Q thing? It's like, no, not really. Just a little bit of audio wizardry.
And a very, very, very little bit. So there you go. There's the story of the intro. Hope you enjoyed it.
So yeah, we will get into Mr. Barr. Mr. Barr.
I've got so much stuff. I'm going to have to like back end a lot of stuff into tomorrow's free-for-all because I don't think we're going to get through it all. For the intro, not for the intro, for the bar testimony, it did go for six hours. I once did a breakdown of a 10-minute Donald Trump address which took an hour and a half.
So can you imagine if we played the entire six hours of the bar proceedings? Hard pass. Hard pass. So there were so many moments to choose from.
So I just picked out a couple of moments here and there that I thought we could get something out of. A little bit of joy from Mr. Barr. So we're going to do that.
And just a quick reminder, if you haven't already, I just tweeted out the link to the Discord. People have been joining the Discord. It's going to be great fun, especially when we get a lot of people in there. I expect a lot of arguments and debates, dank memes, shooting the shit, shooting the shit.
So if you haven't joined already and you're interested in that kind of thing, then just go to my Twitter timeline. You'll see the link there, the Discord link. Join up, sign up. Come on in.
Cart your ass on in. And we'll have a bit of fun along the way. All right. Let's kick it off with Mr.
Barr. Yes, the boring Mr. Barr. See, this is exactly what I was talking about when I referred to he's the world's greatest DMV employee.
Little moments like this. Look at that stare. Just watch this. The camera stays on him for about 20 seconds.
You're going to love this. Check this out. Hey, Don. Good.
He's just patiently waiting. He's staring right at somebody. See, when you're waiting at the DMV and your number gets called, you know, I don't know what it's like for you guys, but here, you walk in, you take a number and there's a whole row of tellers, right? And it'll be like teller one, teller two, teller three, and a little bell goes off, ding, and it lights up with your number and which teller you're supposed to go to.
If your number lights up at the DMV and you have to go to this guy's teller me, you know what I mean? It's like, oh, I'm going to have to fill out some form. That smile. That shit-eating grin.
Welcome, my name is William. How can I help you today? And this is something like I saw a couple of times. I saw a couple of times the Democrats were trying to get under his skin.
They were trying to irritate him. They were trying to ruffle him up a bit to try and get some kind of emotional reaction. I think they're still riding the high of the Kavanaugh proceedings. And I think, well, if we just batter this guy constantly, then he's going to lose his shit.
You know what I mean? He's going to have a fist slamming moment. He's going to go way over the top. He's going to scream or something.
If you see this face, if that's your game plan and that face is looking back at you, you need to recognize right there and then that it's not going to work. You are not going to get over, you're not going to get under the skin of a man that looks like this. No way in hell. Your attempted insults, your attempted slander, look, look, he's already bored.
He's pissed off. Look at that. He's just staring into space. There is no way that you're going to get this guy ruffled.
And you know, you can carry on. No, no, no, no. He'll just look at you like that. He'll just stare right back at you with that face.
That's exactly what happened today. All right, I can't remember who I've got. I had a few little moments safety. I can't remember which is which, so let's just rock and roll see where we are.
Thank you, Chairman. Attorney General, you had a conversation with Chairman Graham earlier this morning. Ah, yes. In my opinion, the dumbest man in the Senate, Sheldon Whitehouse, ladies and gentlemen.
To use Chairman Graham's words, hardening our electoral infrastructure against foreign election interference. You see the way he's sitting there? He's got his hand up. That's the kind of look when, you know, if you're watching TV or you're reading the newspaper and your wife wants you to do something, like some kind of yard work or something like that, you're having a lovely, relaxing Saturday morning at home.
You've just made a cup of coffee. You've just lit on the morning news or you've just opened up the morning paper and you hear from the other room in that specific tone, William, you know what I mean? It's not William and it's not good morning, William. It's like, would you like some breakfast, honey?
It's not one of those. It's William, as if to say, get your ass out the back and rake up these fucking leaves right now. You know what I mean? That's the look you give when you hear that.
William. Yes. Yes. What is it now?
And then she's going on about how the leaves need to be raked up because their friends are coming over for a garden party later in the day and you don't say a word. You just listen to a ramble for 10 minutes like this with that look on your face. That's the look he's giving Sheldon Whitehouse as if Sheldon Whitehouse was a nagging wife demanding yard work on a Saturday morning when you should be relaxing and reading the funny pages. I ask you, is anonymous election funding an avenue for possible foreign election influence and interference?
Yes. Let's turn to the March 27th letter which you received and read March 28th, the Mueller letter, correct? Yes. When did you have a conversation with Bob Mueller about that letter that you've referenced?
I think it was on the 28th. Same day that you've read it? When did you... See, little things like that just cramped me up.
I think it was on the 28th. So Sheldon then asks he does the confirmation question, right? When did you read the letter? I think it was on the 28th.
So it was on the 28th and he just ignores him. It doesn't answer. It just goes back to that look on his face. As if to say, what the fuck did I just say?
...of the New York Times and Washington Post stories that would make the existence of this letter public, the ones that came out last night. I think it would have been yesterday but I'm not sure. When they contacted you to ask for any comment? They didn't contact me.
Contacted DOJ to ask for any comment? I can't actually remember how it came up but someone mentioned it. So at some point you knew that the Mueller letter was going to become public and that was probably yesterday? I think so.
Okay. I think what he's showing here is I think what he's showing all of the people who have to go through these proceedings and sit in front of these senators and these congressmen, I think he's showing everyone that everyone else tries way too hard. You know, like if somebody else gets asked that question they'll either say I can't recall or they'll say yes, well, you see we got notification in the morning and then there was a conversation I was in a meeting and then my aide came into the meeting and made me aware that there was an email and I had to respond to it and when he gets asked he goes, I don't know I can't remember how it came up but somebody was talking about it and were you made aware of the document itself? Maybe, I don't know probably.
When did you decide to make that letter available to us in Congress? This morning. This morning. Would you concede that you had an opportunity to make this letter public on April 4th when Representative Chris asked you a very related question?
I don't know what you mean by related question it seems to me it'd be a very different question. I can't even follow that down the road. Well, that depends when he asked a related question well, I don't know what you mean by related question it seems like a very different question and Sheldon knows that he's licked Sheldon knows that he's beat he knows that he can't beat this guy so rather than get dragged into duking it out and defining what a relevant question is or a comparable question Sheldon knows I can't beat this guy so he just moves on. Or how it came up but someone mentioned it.
So at some point you knew that the Mueller letter was going to become public and that was probably yesterday? I think so. Okay. When did you decide to make that letter available to us in Congress?
This morning. Would you concede that you had an opportunity to make this letter public on April 4th when Representative Chris asked you a very related question? Very related question. I don't know what you mean by related question it seems to be a very different question.
And then just says right at him. I can't even follow that down the road. That's a masterful hair splitting. Masterful hair splitting.
See that line there from Sheldon I'm going to call him Shelly from now on. Shelly, that masterful hair splitting this whole six hours was an argument over semantics. It really was. It was semantical garbage the whole time.
But if you're somewhat autistic then you would have loved it. You would have loved the fact that people were arguing over what words really mean when placed in certain contexts. Well, you know, I said spying and I don't think there's anything wrong with spying. What do you think spying means?
Letter references enclosed documents and enclosed materials. Right? Are those the same things as what you call the executive summaries that Mueller provided you? With this letter?
Yes. With this letter? It's all the same document. I'm sorry.
When you talk about the executive summaries. I'm telling you he's a DMV employee. You would go up to the DMV guy and say look I have the right paperwork here I've signed the right paperwork and all of this is related to that document. I'm sorry what do you mean by related to the document?
They're two different documents. No. This one came with this one. So I signed this document and I was told that I need to bring these other documents to go with it.
Well those other documents don't really go with that document. I'm sorry which document are you talking about? This one. Yep.
We'll see. Those documents that you have there they're completely unrelated to this document here. So you're going to have to go to the back of the line take another number and fill out the correct documentation. This is a rabbit hole I can't even go down.
Mueller provided you they are the documents that were the enclosed documents with that letter which we have not been provided. I think they were. They have been provided them. They're in the report.
They're in the report. There's some reason in the report. Is the language of the report in the report? There's nothing else that he provided you then?
I think that's what he provided. Is the language of the report in the report? I think that's what he provided. I think they're in there.
Okay. If there is anything else that you provided to us if it's different in any form it's odd to be given the letter without the attachments to it and the attachments to the letter. I think they were the adapted versions of the summaries that are embedded in the report. Can we get that?
Just to be sure? Sure. Because he makes it out like by the time you get to the end of the point that Sheldon is trying to make Shelley it's like Barr is now he's now convinced to the end of the report. watching it that it's really not that important you know what i mean well it's strange like can we get the related documents is the language the same in the report as it is in the letter can we get the documents that are relating to this letter well i think you have them they're in the report no but look if we haven't got everything can you please provide the other stuff that we don't have sure um do you agree that none of that material was either grand 360 it's like it's like imagine if a firefighter like imagine the notre dame cathedral burning to the ground and instead of panic and chaos and firefighters trying to shoot thousands of gallons of water this thing imagine if the firefighter just went up and with an eyedropper and just went and the whole thing singed out it's like complete right it's they're trying to manufacture outrage and they're trying to convey a sense of importance and urgency and they're just coming up against this immovable object it just gives them absolutely nothing he completely disarms them with his lack of you know outward outward personality traits you know what i mean he doesn't raise his voice he doesn't get flustered he just completely singes the fire out with a eyedropper and it just leaves them stunned because they've got nothing to go off like they can't he doesn't allow any escalation whatsoever everything is a de-escalation or presented a risk to uh intelligent sources and methods or would interfere or compromise ongoing investigation or affected by executive privilege there were redactions made in the uh executive summaries but as i said i wasn't interested in putting out summaries period well you know this is another hair-spooling exercise because bob muller i think we all agree is fairly credible actually described your letter as a summary so what so you can say it wasn't a summary but muller said it was a summary and i wasn't i wasn't interested in summarizing the whole report as i say i was stating that the bottom line conclusions of the report you're right but it's intended to describe yeah describe the report in volume one when you describe the report in four pages i don't know why you're cabling about because i stayed in the letter that i'm stating the uh principal conclusion um but i'll also say that you know bob muller is the equivalent of the u.s attorney he was exercising the powers of the attorney general subject to the supervision of the attorney general he's part of the department of justice his work concluded when he's the way the way i put this is he's killing them with process right bureaucrats and public servants love process they love protocols and process you know like if you have a form that's like 7-a and a form of 7-a.a but you need to fill out and they're the exact same form the only thing that's different on these two forms is the dot a on one of them then if it says in the process that you need to fill out form 7-a.a but instead you fill out form 7-a then they will just hand it back and say no and you're like it's the exact same form like why are we splitting hairs here why why are we arguing the semantics of this there's a process you fill out form 7-a.a i put it into this system here it's processed it then goes to the office the other way you know the director of 7-a forms will then bring a report back to me i hand it back to you it's like well but what about what about robert muller robert muller thought that this should have been a public thing well the process is robert muller hands me the report and then i decide what happens to it after that this is why we have green juries so we fill out this process this process he just keeps going back to process sent his report to the attorney general at that point it was my baby and i was making a decision as to whether or not to make it public i effectively overrode the regulations used discretion to lean as far forward as i could could to make that public and was my decision how and when to make it public not bob muller's with respect to the olc opinion that informed bob muller's decision as he describes in the report um do you agree that that is merely an executive opinion and that under our constitution the decision as to what the law is is made by the judicial branch of the state of right i'm sorry with respect to the olc opinion that informed muller's decision again not to make a recommendation on obstruction as he said i'm sorry can you repeat that rambling ink out here in question one more time this report you can see that that is an executive opinion and that under our constitutional system what the law is gets decided by the judicial branch of government yes is there any way for the olc's opinion to be tested by the judicial branch of government to see if it's correct or not none that comes to mind and it could be wrong but it's not uh i guess hypothetically there are many respected legal commentators and professors and lawyers who disagree with it it's very hard to find lawyers that agree on anything he's getting laughed off his white opinion we have to give the president an extra benefit of the well a lot of people disagree well hard to get lawyers to agree to anything out because he has denied his day in court where he could exonerate himself that seems like a fallacy to me because it's what the president of the states he has a sip of coffee and doesn't race there look at that that is some cold shit right there he could in another life he could have been like a standover man for the mafia you know i mean watch watch the way he picks up his coffee and just doesn't race there with the guy at all not for one second uh i guess i just let you talk slowly legal minds that disagree with it correct there are many respected legal commentators and professors and lawyers who disagree with it correct it's very hard to find lawyers agree on anything so um the interesting thing to me is it goes on to say that just to be all the opinions this is our move to give the president an extra benefit of the doubt because he has denied his day in court where he could exonerate himself that seems like a fallacy to me because if you are the president of the united states you can either wave or readily say i'm ready to go to trial i'm going to exonerate myself let's go could you not i was just relevant to my decision because i assumed that there was no rlc opinion well see this is the other thing too because of his candor and because of his demeanor how many other people can get away with asking the people questions how many other people have you seen in these senate hearings ask questions of the senators and get answers you know normally they'll fire back especially if they're on the opposing side like say if they're the democrats in this case normally they would fly back with anyone else and say i'm asking the questions here yes or no and they get really hyper aggressive but because of the way he handles himself they just they end up doing what he wants how is this relevant i'm sorry how's this relevant he lets him ramble for like two minutes lets him just ramble on about whatever the fuck he's talking about nobody can even remember what he said and then at the end of it he's like i'm sorry how is this relevant to my decisions and then just sits back and watches him ramble again i have a report in front of us that says it just influenced the outcome and in particular it says it influenced the outcome because it deprived the president of his ability to have his day in court and my point to you is that the president could easily have his day in court by simply waiving or overriding this olc opinion that has no judicial basis correct well i don't think that there was anything to have a day in court on i don't think the government did not have a prosecutable case the part well muller obviously didn't agree because he left that up to you well he said that he could neither confirm nor deny that there was a prosecutable case here he left that to you and when he did he said and you apparently have agreed that this olc opinion bears on it and it will be unfair to the president to put him to the burden of being a day did not having the ability to be charged i want to characterize how bob's thought process i'm not sure what he means by that in the report well obviously bob muller disagrees now see sheldon's just wasted another 60 to 90 seconds explaining why what he thinks bob muller was thinking william barr's not there to interpret what people are thinking william barr is there to take all of the data and spit out a conclusion that's that's it that's he oversees the operation and then at the end he gets handed something and it's his job to boil it all down and say well there's not enough here for the government to charge prosecute whatever right so sheldon's there going well bob muller disagrees and then he tries to explain all the reasons why bob muller was thinking something else and william barr says well i don't want to characterize muller's thoughts and he goes i'm not asking you to characterize muller's thoughts this is what he wrote in the report and he turns around and says well i don't know what he means by that um with respect to the word um spying i just want to nail down you use the word spying and lindsey graham who was running this show he was very generous with giving them extra time i think i know why see when sheldon whitehouse after this train wreck of an attempted questioning it's asked for another minute to ask another question you give it to him you go absolutely sure you can have the whole day mate you can if you want a cup of coffee we'll bring you a cup of coffee you're right you can go for the next two hours please continue on with this with this devastating examination of william barr you're really you're really doing a good job i would even lean over and whisper in his ear oh you've got him on the rack now sheldon it's time to go for the final push you've got him right where you want him you can win this keep going keep going go for the kill about authorized doj investigative activities are you talking about my testimony about the house appropriations yes in the entirety of your previous career in the department of justice including as attorney general have you ever referred to authorized department investigative activities officially or publicly as spying i'm not asking for private conversation i'm not going to abjure the use of the word spying i think my first job was in cia i don't find any pejorative connotation at all but you recognize always whether or not it's authorized and adequately predicated spying what does shelley refer to it as because this is this is one of my greatest bugbears in life management speak i absolutely think spying is a good english word that in fact doesn't have synonyms because i was giving him an english lesson well i think spying is a good english word because it doesn't have any synonyms he's explaining why word is good to use is the broadest word uh incorporating really all forms of covert intelligence collection is just staring at him like what am i doing here i'm not going to back off the word spying except i will say i'm not suggesting any pejorative and i use it frequently as you media when did you decide to use it with it all like really when did you decide to use the word spying i'm surprised you didn't come back and say what do you mean by spying just to really stick it up his ass out of me it was actually off the cuff to tell you the truth when when when the senator the senator i mean the congressman probably who chats from hawaii no sir no no whoever was whoever was when he challenged me and said you want to change your language i was actually thinking like what's the issue i don't consider it a pejorative but frankly frankly we went back and looked at press usage and up until all the before outrage a couple of weeks ago it's commonly used in the press they refer to authorized activities such as it is not commonly used by the department what it is not commonly used by the department my time is commonly used by me sensational look at that look phrase frame that mean that one mean that sucker there's a look there's the look of a satisfied man right there he was he was they were attempting to beat him over the years for using the word spying instead of what was it authorized surveillance activities get the fuck out of here whatever so they try to beat him up he's the word spying he then goes on to explain why spying used in that context is appropriate and why he's actually fond of using it because it has no synonyms and it's an all-encompassing word for you know authorized activities he then gets accused of using some kind of unusual language because it's not commonly used by the department he's like well it's commonly used by me shelly good job you've got him shelly you've got him on the rack you've got him right where you want you mate now's the time to go in for the kill shall we do it all right again i can't remember which part we're up to here but we'll get something out of it oh dirty dick blumenthal thank you mr chairman uh thank you for being here today uh you've been very adroit and agile and your responses to questions here agile but i think history will judge you harshly oh really and maybe a bit unfairly because i'm on your side i'm on your side mr bar for this report and i think that conclusion is inescapable in light of the four-page summary see this is again bar doesn't shake his head he doesn't get upset he doesn't get flustered he just stares at him the whole time just let him go through his little spiel tells him why he's losing credibility tells him why he's wrong but i just sit there staring at him doesn't move doesn't try to buddy and doesn't say well i object to you using that term nothing just let him go couldn't care less and then the press conference you did on the day it was released knowing that you had in hand a letter from the special counsel saying that he felt that you mischaracterized his report and you would have word spider in the chat why does blumenthal looks like he plays with matches by one of my colleagues uh senator van holland what do you know uh he's like when i know what you knew bob muller supported your conclusion what and you said i don't know whether bob muller supported my conclusion you were asked by representative chris excuse me senator that conclusion was not related to my description of the findings in the march 24th letter that conclusion refers to my conclusion on the obstruction well so it's a different conclusion that was used by special counsel muller and on the obstruction just moves on if you at page eight and 182 of the report i don't know what you have in front of you the special counsel specifically said at the same time i'm quoting if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice we would so say he said it again at page 182 and yet in your summary and in the press conference that you did you in effect cleared the president on both so-called clear and the difference the difference is i use the proper standard that statement you just read is actually a very strange statement okay so the problem here is uh that statement that you just read is very strange they're getting upset he's not he's supposed to be the one getting grilled he's supposed to be the one under pressure he's supposed to be the one that's made to squirm but they're the ones that are getting upset they're the ones getting their back up in their chair they're the ones that are butting in you know what i mean like i said he just he de-escalates to the point of you know they go all they de-escalate all the way back around to maximum aggression again it's incredible episode robert muller concluded that there was substantial evidence on God, I hate it when they bring up props.
...on the three necessary elements of obstruction. Well, you're on your project. I have to finish my question. Well, you haven't let me finish my answer.
And it's like in this soft tone. I have to finish my question. Okay, well, you didn't let me finish my answer. Even Dick's smiling at him, like you cheeky little bastard.
Well, let me just finish the question. We can do both. Lindsay's like, everybody can have a turn, okay? You ignored in that press conference and in the summary that Robert Mueller found substantial evidence.
That's completely pointless. And we have a chart that shows the elements of that crime, intent, interference with an ongoing investigation, and the... He's just completely unimpressed. So I think that your credibility is undermined in this committee and with the American people.
And I want to ask you whether on those remaining investigations, the 12 to 14 investigations, whether you have had any communication with anyone in the White House. No. And will you give us an ironclad commitment that you will in no way... I'm not sure the laundry list of investigations, but I certainly haven't talked to substance or been directed to do anything on any of the cases.
Well, let me give you an opportunity to clarify. Have you had any conversations with anyone in the White House about those ongoing investigations that were spawned or spun off by... I don't recall having any substantive discussion on the investigation. Have you had any non-substantive discussion?
I mean, it's possible that the name of the case was mentioned. And have you provided information about any of those ongoing investigations? Any information whatsoever? Any.
I don't recall, no. You don't recall? I don't recall providing anything. Wouldn't you recall whether you gave information to somebody in the White House about an ongoing criminal investigation in the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, or the Eastern District of Virginia?
I just don't recall providing any substantive information about a case. Is there anything that would refresh your recollection? If I probably looked over a list of cases and thought about it. I don't recall, because you know what those investigations are.
We discussed them at your confirmation test. Did we? I don't know. Whether, I think you have 12 or 18 cases, right?
You don't know what those are. I don't know what they're saying. I can't remember each of them. Let me ask you one last time.
You can't recall whether you had discussed those cases with anyone in the White House, including the President of the United States. My recollection is I have not discussed those, but you don't recall for sure. I didn't. Let me, I can say, very shortly, I did not discuss the substantive.
Will you recuse yourself from those investigations? No. Let me, uh. Again, like somebody else, somebody else in this situation would feel the need to explain why they shouldn't recuse themselves.
You know what I mean? Somebody else who probably doesn't have the same experience and probably isn't at the same point in their life as this guy is. Because remember, this guy in his confirmation hearing, he was saying to them, basically, look, look, I've done this before. I don't need this job, okay?
So if you think I can do it, then vote for me. And if you don't want me to do it, then vote no. But I don't care. And they all had their mouths open.
Because they're used to people begging for their approval, right? So it's what they've come to expect. You know, these lifestyles that they lead, they see the world through the tinted, bulletproof windows of their, you know, chauffeur-driven cars, right? So they've come to expect a certain, people to act in a certain way once in their presence.
You know what I mean? They are the exalted ones. So when a senator asks you, will you recuse yourself from those investigations? They're expecting, in return, somebody to say, well, I don't think, you know, senator, with respect, I don't think that would be appropriate because this, this.
And then they would cut them off halfway and go, well, I don't know how you can't recuse yourself after. And you look silly. They ask you, are you going to recuse yourself from these investigations? No.
That's it, full stop. Fantastic stuff. I think our girl Maisie is next. I ask you about a couple of quotes from the president, since a number of my colleagues have raised the Russian investigation.
And these are from the report, untruth recited by the report from the president in December of 2016, when President Trump was asked about the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in our election to boost Trump's chances. He said he had, quote, no idea if it's Russia, China, or somebody. It could be somebody sitting in a bed someplace. 400-pound person.
Lindsay chiming in with the lines. I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. 400-pound person sitting on a bed.
That isn't what the president said. He referred to it as somebody. He also, at Helsinki, denied Russian attacks. In 2015, on our election.
Otherwise, two days after... See, Barr's so cool, because he knows that none of this has anything to do with him. You know what I mean? Like, you can bring up a quote that the president made in Helsinki in 2016, but Barr has, this has nothing to do with...
Like, he's not going to answer any questions. He's not going to defend the president's honor in that sense. You know what I mean? And that's what they're expecting him to do.
But he knows. It's like, well, so what? Okay, so the president said something about Russian interference didn't happen in 2016, and so what? So what?
What's your point? He's like, how is this relative to my case? How is this relative to my work? We're running out of time.
I do want to get to Maisie. Let's give it a hit to the lovely Maisie Hirano. She was having some fun today. And now we have the opportunity to decide how to do better.
Opportunity. So the special counsel's report is the end of the road. I think many have stated that. The end of the road when it comes to the question of the Trump administration's intent, but it is just the beginning of the conversation on how we counter Russia and other foreign adversaries in their attempts to undermine our republic.
So if we can talk about that 2016 presidential election, do you see vulnerabilities or weaknesses that existed at that time that left us open to foreign aggression, foreign influence in the election system, and then how do we move forward through the Department of Justice and making sure we're shoring up some of those avenues of approach of our foreign adversaries? Yes. The FBI has a very robust program, the Foreign Influence Task Force, which is focused on this problem and is working to counteract and prepare for the kinds of things that was able to detect and how we can start using that approach across the board. So I think we've accomplished a lot for Feinstein that, quote, the job of attorney general is not the same as representing, unquote, the president.
So you know the difference, but you've chosen to be the president's lawyer and side with him over the interests of the American people. To start with, you should never have been involved in supervising the Robert Mueller investigation. You wrote a 19-page unsolicited memo, which you admit was not based on any facts attacking the premise. Now, look.
The tactical coffee sips just fucking got me. When I was watching it during my work day, like, I had it on while I was working, and like, I would just glance over at the screen and see these coffee sips, and they're throwing all kinds of shit at him. You're a disgrace. You've got no credibility.
You shouldn't even be here. You should resign. You're barely interested. Half of the investigation.
Couldn't care less. And he also should have insisted that Deputy Attorney General Robert Rosenstein recuse himself. It's one of those funny things. It's like, he's not insulted because he doesn't think much of it to begin with.
You know what I mean? There's a line from a helmet song written by the great Paige Hamilton in one of their songs that says, I'd rather be insulted by you than someone I respect. Right? So it's easy not to get ruffled when people insult you if you have a very, very, you know, low, if you have a very low idea of that person in the first place, then if they insult you, you're like, well, so what?
I don't get what you think. Why would I get upset? You think I've got no credibility. You think I'm an awful person.
So that's why he doesn't care, because he doesn't think much of it to begin with. He wasn't just a witness to some of the President's obstructive behavior. We now know he was in frequent personal contact with the President, a subject of the investigation. You should have left it to career officials.
Then, once the report was delivered by the Special Counsel, you delayed its release for more than two weeks. You let the President's personal lawyers look at it before you even deigned to let Congress or the public see it. During the time you substituted your own political judgment for the Special Counsel's legal conclusions in a four-page letter to Congress. Yeah, I mean, Bags in the chat says, the visual perspective is so different from listening earlier.
If you are listening to the podcast, because I know a few people only listen to the podcast, so you are missing out on this one. This is a very visual-heavy show today. So if you want to, you know, if you normally listen on the podcast, that's fine. I normally listen to the podcast, too.
But today, you're going to be missing out if you don't check it out. So go to the YouTube, youtube.com forward slash C forward slash Boogie Bumper, and then you'll see the YouTube, and you'll understand why we're laughing so much. Now we know, thanks to a free press, that Mr. Mueller wrote your letter objecting to your so-called summary.
When you called Mueller to defend the summary, the reports are that he thought your summary was giving the press, Congress, and the public a misleading impression of his work. See, this is fantastic. We're not going to have time for crews and stuff. But this is something we said on Trust Verify a few weeks ago.
We were laughing at it then. Like, this must be the worst cover-up in human history. Like, do these people not understand what a cover-up actually is? You can't cover up a released report.
So it's like, he's so calm as well, because he knows that there's nothing they can say. It's like, so they're really upset. And like, all the spin now is like, well, Bob Mueller's letter, this changes everything. You know, Bob Mueller wrote a letter saying that your summary is misleading, and, you know, people need more information.
And then you waited two whole weeks to release the whole report. And like, this is all they've got. This is all it is. And, you know, he answers back, well, I didn't want to release, you know, 19 pages.
I didn't want to release the report in dribs and drabs. I just wanted to put it all out there in one hit. So they're accusing him of misleading people when he's released the entire report when he didn't have to. That's how insane this is.
It is mind-bogglingly absurd to accuse somebody of a cover-up when they release a report to the public. It's unheard of. It doesn't make sense. How could you even have the balls to sit there and accuse somebody of covering up a document which you have in your hand?
You tried to cover this up. I just gave it to you. I said, here's the fucking report, mate. And he went through the statistics.
I think the version that they got is something like 98% of it is unredacted. It is one of the least redacted reports in human history as well. And he's like, you know, he even said during the day at some point, he was like, this is so bizarre. This is mind-bending.
Because I've given you the full report and I didn't even have to. Yeah, Maisie does go on to slander a little bit. Let's play a bit of Lindsay. Lindsay's not without his faults.
Lindsay's got his problems, but I think this is pretty good. Person implicated or people implicated or concerned about that criminality being discovered, take an inherently malignant act, as the Supreme Court has said, to obstruct that investigation. So one of the examples that people were worried about, that he fired Comey to stop the Russian investigation. That's one of the concerns people had.
Well, let me tell you a little bit about Comey. I do not have confidence in him, Comey, any longer. That was Chuck Schumer, November 2nd, 2016. I think he, Comey, should take a hard look at what he has done.
And I think it would not be a bad thing for the American people if he did step down Bernie Sanders, January 15th, 2017. The president ought to fire Comey immediately. And he ought to initiate an investigation. That is Congressman Nadler, November 14th, 2016.
Did you have a problem with the way Comey handled the Clinton email investigation? Yes, I said so at the time. Okay, so given the fact that a lot of people come in, do you find that to be a persuasive act of obstructing justice? No, I think even the report at the end of the day came to the conclusion, if you read the analysis, that a reason that loomed large there for his termination was his refusal to tell the public what he was privately telling the president, which was that the president was not under investigation.
As to where we go forward, as to how we go forward, would you recommend meeting every other committee of Congress to do our best to harden our infrastructure against future Russian attacks? Absolutely, yes. You think Russia is still up to it? Yes.
You think other countries may get involved in our elections in 2020? Yes. So you would support an effort by Congress working with the administration to harden our electoral infrastructure? Yes.
Is that one of the takeaways of the Mueller report? Yes. Do you share my concerns about the FISA warrant process? Yes.
Do you share my concerns about the counterintelligence investigation, how it was opened and why it was opened? Yes. Do you share my concerns that the professionalism and the Clinton email investigation is something we should all look at? Yes.
Do you expect to change your mind about the bottom line conclusions of the Mueller report? No. Do you know Bob Mueller? Yes.
Do you trust him? Yes. How long have you known him? 30 years, roughly.
You think he had the time he needed? Yes. You think he had the money he needed? Yes.
Do you think he had the resources he needed? Yes. Do you think he did a thorough job? Yes.
I think he feels he did a thorough job and had adequate evidence to make the calls. Do you think the president's campaign in 2016 was thoroughly looked at in terms of whether or not they colluded with the Russians? Yes. And the answer is no, according to Bob Mueller.
That's right. He couldn't decide about obstruction. You did. Is that correct?
That's right. You feel good about your decision? Absolutely. Thank you very much.
Lindsay's good in those moments. That was a pretty good couple of minutes there. Just machine gun style. Well, let's see what the cool kids on CNN made of today's proceedings, ladies and gentlemen.
You're going to absolutely love this. Jeffrey Toobin, let me get your thoughts on how the first couple hours of this extraordinary hearing has been going. Extraordinary. Well, Barr sure didn't establish that he told the truth when he answered the question about whether Mueller objected to anything he said.
I mean, you know, I have to say, I found his answers total gobbledygook about that. I mean, you know, the fact is, Mueller wrote a letter of protest. He wrote a letter saying this was not an accurate rendition of the facts. Again, see, this is something that they went over so much, the Democrats.
They thought this was their opening. This was their chance. This was the way that they were going to nail this guy to the wall. And he just kept saying the four page memo that I put out was just a summary of what was in the report and outlining the verdict.
You know, it's so ridiculous. So if somebody in Robert, well, he says it was Robert Mueller. According to William Barr, it wasn't Robert Mueller at all because Robert Mueller told him it wasn't. But see, this doesn't do enough.
You're not getting enough information out there in the public. He released the whole report. So they're complaining about a memo where he outlined his... his verdict, and he outlined the conclusions that were in the report.
They are using this as an attack point because apparently the Mueller team wrote him a letter saying that he didn't do a good enough job in his memo, and that it was so important to do a better job in the memo and really put more information out there, he put out the whole report. This is what they think is newsworthy. This is what they think is like the cover-up. That somebody who wrote a report complained that a memo describing the report didn't go far enough.
They think this is a cover-up. If you actually step back and look in, it's completely and utterly absurd. Carry on. When Barr announced his summary or his summary of conclusions, and Barr was asked about that.
He was asked twice about it. Under oath, and he said, no, Mueller had no problems, but that's just not true. And it's still not true after the explanations he gave. I mean, a lady asked him about it.
Even if it wasn't true, but he says it is true, but even if it wasn't, it doesn't matter anyway. Who gives a fuck? Because it's not up to Robert Mueller what gets released or not. It's up to William Barr.
So Robert Mueller can complain all he fucking likes about the memo that William Barr wrote about the report that Bob Mueller did. It doesn't make any difference. So what? Oh, Robert Mueller thought that there should have been more written in the memo.
He was really upset about that memo. You know, Bob. Bob was really pissed off about that memo. He really didn't like the memo you put out.
Who cares? Who cares? The whole report's out there. They were saying this.
They were saying these things all day whilst they were holding the report, the whole report, in their hands, waving it around. Robert Mueller said you should have put more information in the memo about this report right here. All 400 pages of this report. It's insane.
These people think they're onto something. And, you know, I just don't understand. I was, you know, I'm a clue in English, but I don't understand what his answer is. The specific letter, the March 27th letter, three days after the initial four-page document was sent to Capitol Hill, said...
Who cares about the fucking letter? Who cares about the letter? You've got the 400-page report right in front of you. Why do you care so much about a letter written by someone complaining that the memo describing the report didn't go far enough?
And it's not even relevant to anything. The whole report is in your hand right now. I can't believe it. But guarantee you, there will be thousands, millions.
There will be millions of people walking around tomorrow going, oh, William Barr's covering up. Did you see that letter that Bob Mueller wrote? Bob Mueller wanted more information in the memo. He was covering up with that memo.
It's like, covering up what? I will send you the whole memo, the whole report right now to your inbox. Doesn't matter. He was covering it up.
Covering up the release report? What kind of a fucking lunatic are you? It's like, seriously, you must be an absolute fucking spastic at this point. How do you even think that?
They're going to spend days arguing this case. I fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office's work and conclusions. We communicated that... Ernie says the letter was their scam attempt.
Well, see, that's the other thing, too. There was all little things that came out. So, Barr asked for the redactions to be pre-done in regards... I forget what he called it.
Was it an E6? An E6 redaction or something? I forget the number. Some process thing that bureaucrats love.
Some process books that bureaucrats read to their children when they go to bed at night. Oh, yes, the E6 classification. Well, that's an important redaction in this report. So, whatever the redaction was, Barr asked for that information to be provided so they could get the report out quicker.
And it wasn't provided, so they knew it was going to take a couple of weeks to do it. So, then, in the interim, you can have the Democrats complaining that the report isn't being released quick enough, right? Now, that should be plainly obvious to anyone. 6E, thank you so much, 6E.
Is it 6E or E6? I don't know. It doesn't matter. So, they don't provide that information to William Barr.
William Barr, he didn't complain about it. He didn't say it was part of some political conspiracy. He just said, well, they didn't do it, so then we had to do it, and it takes a couple of weeks to do it. But it's plainly obvious to anybody paying attention that in those couple of weeks, right, then that allows, then, the media machine to kick into high gear.
So, the Democrats can come out and say, we demand to release the report. We played one of the saddest protests I've ever seen in my life with about 30 Democrat voters in a park out the front of Capitol Hill, right, demanding to see the report. So, two weeks of, is he going to release the report? He needs to release the report.
The public deserves to know. The public needs to know. All the while, he was already saying, yeah, you're going to get it. But they just ignored that.
They just rolled over it. It's informational blitzkrieg. You just keep rolling your tanks over the opposing argument and never look back. And if they're firing, you know, rifle shot rounds into the back of your tank, you just keep going and pretend like it's not happening.
But he already said he's releasing a report. But we demand it now. We demand a report right now. Well, it's going to take some time to take out the things that I legally am forced to redact.
Well, we demand it now, not two weeks from now, right? So, that happened. That was an opportunity. So, then he puts out his memo, and then the letter comes out.
I don't think you provided enough information. You should provide, you know, these 19 pages of the report. So, he doesn't provide the 19 pages of the report. He provides all 400 plus pages of the report.
And what are these idiots complaining about? They're complaining about the fact that he didn't release 19 pages of the 400 pages that they have. I don't even know. If you have Democrat friends tomorrow, if they can sincerely look you in the face and mean it, and legitimately mean it, and start talking about this Mueller letter, and how he should have released the 19 pages of the report instead of the whole report, eventually, right?
If they can legitimately push that to you, and you look in their eyes and they mean it, it's like, you know, check to see if they've got mittens sewed into their jacket. You know what I mean? Holy shit. ...on the morning of March 25th, there is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.
The letter is very, very clear, Jeff. And when he's confronted with his... That's about the letter. What happened to the report?
Don't we care about the report anymore? You're talking about a letter discussing the report now. Imagine for two years, the Mueller report. We can't wait for the Mueller report.
The Mueller report's going to come out. The Mueller report is going to come out, and when it lands, it's going to be a bombshell, baby. When the Mueller report gets here, then you'll see. Then you'll see how he's right.
He's getting indicted. He's getting indicted. She's getting indicted. Everybody's getting indicted.
As soon as the Mueller report comes out, we will have justice. And then the Mueller report comes out, and they go, You know, Robert Mueller wrote a letter about the report. Why are we talking about this letter? This letter is a bombshell.
How can we not know about the letter? He's lying about the letter. You know, when the truth about this letter comes out, then we'll have justice. When the truth about this letter is finally revealed, then we'll know the true extent of the cover-up of the Mueller report.
You mean the Mueller report you have in your hands? Yes, the very same one. There were efforts made by William Barr to cover up the contents of the Mueller report. This is proven by the Robert Mueller letter.
And even though I have the very Mueller report right here in my hand, everybody right now needs to look at this letter over here, explaining why we should have access to the Mueller report, which I have in my hand. Yeah. To steal a line from Rachel Maddow. This is who we are.
This is where we're at. His response to Congressman Christ, he says, Well, I talked to Bob Mueller, and he had no problem. But he obviously did have a problem. But he put it in writing.
Definitely ask your question. I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. Just one quick article here before we go, ladies and gentlemen.
I've got the Jerry Nadler. I think Poppy shared it on Twitter. I'll play that tomorrow. I haven't watched it yet.
I don't want to ruin it. So I'll play it tomorrow, the Jerry Nadler clip of him flipping out. Or should we do it now? Should we do it now?
Completely unrelated topic. CNN drops 26% in primetime as Fox News dominates April cable ratings. I can't imagine why this would be the case. I've got no idea.
April ranks as CNN's lowest rated month among total viewers in nearly four years since October 2015. CNN's Cuomo primetime, which has been the network's highest rated hour, drew a total audience of 917,000 viewers in April, the show's worst ever performance. Among viewers 25 to 54, the demographic most coveted by national advertisers, the falloff for CNN was even more stark, down 41%. Though, to be fair, the article continues.
All three networks saw year-over-year declines in April with MSNBC down 36% and Fox News Corporation down 19%. Among primetime cable news shows, Fox News has Hannity led with a total audience of 3.86 million, or 3.086 million, followed by Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2.83 million. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was third, 2.63 million. Listen to this.
None of CNN's primetime hours finished among the top five shows overall. CNN's top rated hour, Cuomo primetime, finished in 26th place. Chris Cuomo, ladies and gentlemen, let's get after it. Let's get after it.
You know that's his little saying now. Let's get after it. Let's get after it. Let's get after 25th place.
Can we do that? The top show on CNN in primetime, rated 26th. Incredible, isn't it? I've got no idea why the ratings would be falling so fast at CNN.
Can you figure it out? Coming up after the break, the Bob Mueller letter. Okay, so the ones have it. I think the ones have it.
So we'll let Jerry Nadler take a seat after tonight. The motion is approved. The gentleman from Florida is recognized for the purpose of the amendment. Can we just say what?
Oh. We just say what? Okay. Then, excuse me.
The reporting quorum being present, the question is on the adoption of the motion. Pursuant to House Bill 11, close to J.C.C.B. Those in favor say aye. Mr.
Chairman. Opposed, no. Mr. Chairman.
I have it. Mr. Chairman. If I have it, the motion is agreed to.
I won't recognize members of the committee who want to speak on this motion. Does anyone wish to ask for a recorded vote? Mr. Chairman, I've asked for recognition.