When it comes to Trump and impeachment, Andy Barr defends the indefensible
As will surprise no one, I disagree with Sixth District Congressman Andy Barr on many issues. Make that most issues, probably. We have a fundamental difference in the way we see the role of government, fiscal policy, particularly taxes, education, healthcare, well, just about everything. I also think he’s a fundamentally good person and a smart politician who does a good job on constituent services and is pretty popular throughout the Sixth District. (He also has a very good bill to regulate horse racing.)
However, his ardent devotion to our Narcissist -in-Chief is not just appalling, but indefensible. His latest interview with Daniel Desrochers is a tour de force of disingenuous nonsense. He called Trump’s call to the Ukraine, “routine diplomacy,” as though anyone with half a brain could actually believe that Trump was concerned with corruption in Ukraine. Barr, who has a very good brain, knows perfectly well that Trump cares for nothing but his own interests, which include getting re-elected. It’s unlikely that Trump could find Ukraine on a map or that he cared about the political health of a country involved in a civil war with his man-crush, Vladimir Putin. The thing about Trump is that he’s always been exactly the same so it’s very easy to discern his motives. OK, maybe not exactly the same. Judging from the letter he sent to Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday, he’s falling apart.
At this point in our democracy’s demise, no one expects any Republican politician to put the good of the country above politics. It’s just more gaslighting. Trump is probably the most corrupt politician in U.S. history, enriching himself daily in ways the Founding Fathers could not have dreamed of, but tells us he cares about stopping corruption. Barr tells us that it would be wrong for a president to use his position to ask a foreign country to dig up dirt on a political opponent, but that’s not what Trump did. Please. Just. Stop.
No one expected Barr to vote for impeachment, but he could stop going the extra mile by defending Trump with this nonsense. The only thing at which Trump is a success as president is turning a bunch of politicians into toadies, scared of a giant toddler and his scary Twitter machine. I used to think Barr would be above such political cowardice, used to think he would stand up to a serial assaulter and liar who puts children in cages. I was wrong.
I’ve written about Barr and Mitch McConnell’s enabling of our most unfit president, and again, I would say to these two students of history: Do you really think the history books will reward you? Trump will go down as one of the worst presidents in history, and those two as his most willing sycophants, sacrificing personal honor for short-term political gain.
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 2:24 PM.
