Fox's Bill Hemmer asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders if Trump told William Barr what to do about today's House hearing.
This caused Donald Trump's faux Press Secretary to go on an unhinged rant against Jerry Nadler. It's a war of attrition from the White House from now on.
On Fox News' "America's Newsroom," Sanders claimed Democrats changed the format of their hearing because of William Barr's Senate performance. His performance has been widely panned across the country except for Fox News.
Hemmer had to remind Sarah Sanders that Chairman Nadler proposed his changes to the format before yesterday's Senate hearing.
Then he asked why Barr simply doesn't just show up and be interviewed. I don't think she was expecting that kind of accountability on Fox News.
She said, "The Attorney General sat for five hours yesterday, Bill, and answered every question put in front of him. He was willing to sit down again with the House. Naturally, the Democrats have changed the rules in the middle of the game. They took a special vote yesterday to allow staff to question the Attorney General. He is a cabinet member for the President of the United States. And this is a straightforward oversight hearing in which members of Congress should be able to ask those questions. They shouldn't need to staff that out. In fact, a number of these members are attorneys themselves and should be perfectly fine making those asks and doing that all on their own without having somebody else do that.
Bill Hemmer corrected her again: "It's rare but not unprecedented to do this. 1987 Iran-contra."
Sanders continued to lie: "It's pathetic they can't do their job."
This has nothing to do with committee members' skill or willingness to ask questions. As many have pointed out, if members ask questions, they have five minutes each. This allows Barr to do a four-and-a-half minute monologue and then say something that doesn't answer the question. He's skilled at this.
A staff lawyer asking a series of questions without the same time constraints allows for a detailed rendering of events. That's something the Trump White House will avoid at all costs.
Sarah Sanders is on thin ice arguing the timing of the staff lawyer. Witnesses do not get to decide how they are going to be questioned; that's up to the committee.
The fact that the Trump White House doesn't want to answer questions from Congress AT ALL is the real story.
