House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., joined congressional bickering over Attorney General William Barr on Thursday by accusing House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., of being untruthful.
“I do not believe Attorney General Barr lied. I believe he’s been very transparent in all of this. I think that if there are people who are looking at who has lied in the process, simply look at Chairman Nadler,” McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Barr has rankled Democratic lawmakers after a news story this week reporting that special counsel Robert Mueller last month complained to the attorney general that his four-page memo about Mueller’s federal Russia investigation report “did not fully capture the context” of his findings. Barr then refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning after testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. His failure to sit down for the interview, he said, was triggered by Democrats on the panel pushing for an additional hour of questioning by staff lawyers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., further fanned tensions Thursday by alleging that Barr lied to Congress.
“Chairman Nadler asked the attorney general to come and he said yes. After the attorney general said he would come to the committee to speak to every member, they moved to change the rules. Even CNN cannot find any history of that happening before. The only time an individual, a staffer, questioned somebody is during Watergate,” McCarthy said. “Nadler has been wanting to impeach since the day after the election. He can’t have the facts to prove why he should, but he will not stop. This is what the American public gets frustrated by, politics of attacking individuals.”
McCarthy on Thursday also agreed with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who asserted this week there was no need for Mueller to speak to Congress about his work.
“We’ve gotten all the information,” he said.
[Related: Kevin McCarthy: Democrats would be ‘stupid’ if they tried to impeach Barr]
