Congressman David Cicilline hit a brick wall when he was asked why he supports holding Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.
During a “Fox News Sunday” interview with host Chris Wallace, Cicilline was pushed to explain the difference between this case and the “Fast and Furious” scandal, and the sudden change of pace by Democrats. Congressman Cicilline started by claiming Holder was going to work with Republicans, but they wanted the “stunt” to move forward.
“They’re quite different, Chris. In [Holder’s] instance, the White House had already indicated it would release all the documents and the attorney general said the same. The Republicans, nonetheless, wanted to go forward with the contempt citation. It was close to an election and they thought it would be politically advantageous. It was really a stunt. In this case, the attorney general had continued to refuse to comply with the lawfully issued subpoena.” Cicilline said.
Host Wallace immediately pushed back on Cicilline, correcting his claims.
“The House sued for documents that Eric Holder hadn’t turned over that they wanted him to testify on and he didn’t testify,” said Wallace.
“The point is kind of the same, which is the attorney general refused to answer requests from the House and the House voted him in contempt.” He continued.
Wallace noted that Congressman David Cicilline saw that case as an “abuse of power” back in 2012, but no longer sees it that way for the attorney general appointed by a Republican.
Cicilline, who is the chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee—floundered, claiming that Holder gave an “assurance” that the documents would be turned over and Barr has yet to do so.
He claimed that “no one” wants to hold AG Barr in contempt so long as he promises to turn over the unredacted report.
It is not yet clear if AG Barr will overturn the tradition of prosecutors protecting third-parties in order to appease the House Democrats.
