On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr held a news conference in regards to the release of the redacted version of the report written by special counsel Robert Mueller. Several congressional Democrats reacted to the news conference by accusing Barr of using a political “spin” when he defended his findings of Mueller’s report.
After the news conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “AG Barr has confirmed the staggering partisan effort by the Trump Admin to spin public’s view of the #MuellerReport — complete with acknowledgment that the Trump team received a sneak preview.” She continued by saying that “It’s more urgent than ever that Special Counsel Mueller testify before Congress.”
When sharing their opinions on Twitter, Senate Democrats used the word “spin” quite often when talking about Barr’s summary of Mueller’s report. Mueller spent two years investigating the potential collusion between President Trump and Russia. Barr’s summary concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge President Trump with anything.
Sen. Bob Casey from Pennsylvania called it “a sad day for our country” that Barr “acts as a spin doctor.” While Sen. Jeff Merkley from Oregon wrote that Barr’s news conference was “an embarrassment for our nation.” He continued by saying that the conference was “more political spin than legal briefing.”
Sen. Tom Udall from New Mexico wrote: “The American people have heard enough spin from the Attorney General and the administration. It’s time for AG Barr to release the full Mueller report and for Robert Mueller to testify publicly.”
When Sen. Chris Murphy from Connecticut was speaking about the news conference, he referred to it as “a blatant attempt to spin a report.” Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Cardin from Maryland repeated Udall’s demand to see the release of the full report, saying that “we don’t need more spin from AG Barr.”
Sen. Bob Menendez was another person who had nothing nice to say about Barr’s conference. In fact, he accused Barr “acting as an agent for Trump and spinning the report in the President’s favor.”
After calling the news conference “quite a spin job,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen also accused the attorney general of caring “more about defending Trump than the United States.” Needless to say, there aren’t many Democrats who weren’t critical of Barr.
It seems to be that many of the Democratic candidates running in the 2020 election used the word “spin” quite often, as well. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand from New York tweeted: “Congress should get the full, unredacted Mueller report. The American people have the right to know the facts — without the spin.”
Referring to the news conference as “a stunt, filled with political spin and propaganda,” Sen. Kamala Harris from California wasn’t pleased with the news conference. She also claimed that Barr was “acting more like Trump’s defense attorney than the nation’s Attorney General.”
“The American people deserve the truth. Not spin from a Trump appointee,” New Jersey Sen. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker wrote on Twitter: “The American people deserve the truth. Not spin from a Trump appointee. Release Mueller’s full report now.” Barr released the report just two hours after the news conference.
