MSNBC anchor Brian Williams said Attorney General William Barr will forever be known as the “AG who took one for the team,” accusing Barr of protecting Trump for declaring “no collusion.”
“I think a conservative reading of what we just witnessed is that at the age of 68, Bill Barr has decided his legacy, he is fine with his legacy being the AG who took one for the team,” Williams said Thursday after Barr said there was no collusion in his press conference ahead of the Mueller report release.
“At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the president’s personal culpability. Yet, as he said from the beginning, there was in fact no collusion,” Barr said at the press conference Thursday.
“It also explains why we haven’t seen Sarah Sanders in a while. The administration has a new messenger, one with a lot more stature. He’s the attorney general. The most extraordinary piece of that statement was twofold, one around collusion. He said half a dozen times no collusion, no collusion. No lawyer, no legal presentation presents its conclusion six times,” said Nicolle Wallace, the chief political analyst for MSNBC.
[Related: Wounded Warriors roar as Trump declares no collusion, no obstruction]
“That was extraordinary.”@MSNBC‘s Brian Williams Reacts To Barr presser.
“Bill Barr has decided … he’s fine with his legacy being the AG who took one for the team.”@niWallace “It’s like parent saying, yeah, my kid vandalized the school but he was frustrated…” pic.twitter.com/tTjXgnRDrc
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 18, 2019
“A political messenger, and I know a little bit about that, having been a political messenger all of my career, underscores the message, particularly if it’s on shaky ground multiple times, to use that room, to use that podium to underscore Donald Trump’s refrain on his Twitter feed of no collusion,” Wallace added.
Williams and Wallace’s reactions come as Barr delivered comments at a press conference stating there had been “no collusion” and Trump’s actions during the investigation “did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law.”
The Mueller report which represents the conclusion of the investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign by special counsel Robert Mueller is expected to be released Thursday.
[Also read: Barr shuts down reporter who read him Dem talking points]
