MSNBC's Claire McCaskill blasted her former Republican colleagues for abrogating their constitutional responsibility during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General William Barr.
The former Democratic senator said GOP senators -- many of them experienced and skilled lawyers -- failed to ask a single worthwhile question of Barr, who revealed disturbing details about his service to President Donald Trump and his role in overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
"He played rope-a-dope all day, you know, he was wiggling, he was zigging, he was zagging -- it was so obvious," McCaskill said. "I just wish a jury was listening to this guy all day, because whatever he was charged with, they would have convicted him. He was clearly evasive, clearly as Sheldon (Whitehouse) said, splitting hairs."
The lawmaker-turned-political analyst was disturbed by the behavior of her former GOP colleagues.
"But the thing I've got to get off my chest," McCaskill said, "because my hair's on fire about this, you've got Harvard- and Yale-educated Republican lawyers on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, and they sat there and listened to the attorney general of the United States say that any president, if he feels an investigation is unfair, can shut it down. That's banana republic stuff. That is North Korea, that is Russia, that is China."
"What separates us from the rest of the world, and those guys know it, is our respect for the rule of law," she added, "and this guy is trampling all over it."
"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough agreed, saying Barr was serving an autocrat.
"The contempt, just the utter contempt that man has for any oversight whatsoever -- he is a dictator's lawyer," Scarborough said. "That guy could go to Turkey right now or to Russia and would fit right in. It's incredible."
