Fox Business host Lou Dobbs went on a tirade against Attorney General William Barr after he complained publicly about Donald Trump’s tweets destroying any façade of Barr’s independence.
As you probably know by now, William Barr messaged Donald Trump, via a suspiciously self-serving interview on ABC News, to stop tweeting about DOJ cases because they “make it impossible to do my job.” This was in response to the bad look for Barr and his DOJ after it changed the sentencing recommendations for Trump pal Roger Stone, not long after Trump tweeted his displeasure with the current ones, and then praised the change. Four DOJ staffers resigned from the case in protest. Barr wants us to believe the change had nothing to do with Trump but, as Aaron Blake explains, Barr’s explanation of what happened makes no sense.
But Fox Business host, Trump attack dog and informal Trump adviser Lou Dobbs was incensed at Barr for daring to show even a veneer of independence:
DOBBS: [Trump] is keeping his promises that he made as a candidate for the office he holds. He is also expressing himself fully, freely and directly to the American people without going through the sage intermediaries of the national, left-wing media. And it’s just – I guess I am so disappointed in Bill Barr. I have to say this. It’s a damn shame when he doesn’t get what this president has gone through and what the American people have gone through and what his charge is as attorney general.
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Where the hell is the report [on the Russia investigation]? Where the hell are the indictments? Where the hell are the charges against the corrupt, the politically corrupt deep state within the Justice Department, the FBI and why in the hell aren’t we hearing apologies from someone in that rancid, corrupt department about what they permitted? Because they had to have enablers by the dozens to pull off what they did.
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But then to hear this – this - this attorney general complain about this president who’s fighting every one of those damn people and to do the right thing to get this country straightened out and it’s his mission to do so, not to carp about his boss. And, by the way, I don’t want to hear any crap about an independent Justice Department. This Justice Department, as does every one, works for the president. It is part of the Executive Branch.
As I was writing this post, it was revealed that the Department of Justice will not prosecute Andrew McCabe, the former FBI official who authorized the investigation into Trump and who has been demonized by Trump and Fox. It’s a move that will surely enrage Trump but is certainly conveniently good timing for Barr.
You can watch Dobbs’ anti-American viciousness below, from the Fox Business Network’s February 13, 2020 Lou Dobbs Tonight, via Media Matters’ Andrew Lawrence.
Lou Dobbs attacks Bill Barr, suggests he's part of the "deep state," calls the Justice Department "rancid, corrupt" pic.twitter.com/PzjnieGrlK
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 14, 2020