You may recall that during the Obama Administration I never complained about excesses on the party of the Attorney General or question the president’s authority to direct the Justice Department or to appoint an attorney general that suited him. I did, however, point out that for as long as I can remember, i.e. thirteen different presidents, attorneys general been doing the White House’s dirty work. I don’t know how long that has been the case. Maybe since Edmund Randolph. I don’t like it but that’s the reality.
Agree that the norm is that the AG generally does what POTUS wants, and it is also the norm that the opposition party wants the head of the sitting AG. Nothing new here (the current case may be a bit more extreme) , except that I think it is pretty new to have a sitting POTUS repeatedly make public comments on ongoing investigations and cases.
Steve
Agreed.
There’s passive aggressive thick in the air.
Exactly what are Barr’s transgressions, especially in light of the “wingman.” Hell, decades of wingmen.
And as for Trump’s supposed involvement. Pfttt. He’s just public. If you think this is new and hasn’t gone on privately for many administrations I simply don’t know what to tell you. You guys aren’t slack jawed idiots. What gives?
Frequently commenting on ongoing cases goes back to Obama. I don’t think Barr would ever call himself the President’s wingman as Holder actually did. As to Barr being ‘extreme’, Holder was the first AG to be held in contempt of congress. We still don’t know exactly what Fast and Furious was really about, just a lot of conspiracy theories propagated by the refusal to turn over evidence. Hell, we still don’t know what prompted Janet Reno to issue the order to assault the Koresh compound (IMO it was on her hearing there were children being abused, she had an understandable animus for child molesters).
I do agree that the AG at least within our lifetimes has generally done the President’s bidding, but then recall the President is his boss. If he doesn’t like what the President wants done, he can either suck it up and obey or resign. As happened in the Saturday Night Massacre. It’s only since Trump has been in office has there been calls to make DOJ and other departments ‘independent’, which is incredibly short-sighted and stupid. I doubt the Democrats would appreciate being given the snoot by a bureaucrat when it’s their turn in charge. For it would happen.