CNN digs up 1998 interview to slam Bill Barr for being a hypocritical partisan hack

CNN's Jim Sciutto and Poppy Harlow brutally mocked Attorney General Bill Barr for being a partisan hack after a newly unearthed interview shows him harshly criticizing then Attorney General Janet Reno for not defending Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr -- a very different response than Barr had for special counsel Robert Mueller.

"Newly uncovered comments Attorney General William Barr made back in 1998 in an interview then are showing a much different tone than we've seen from him in the past few weeks," said Harlow. "This comes in the wake of scrutiny of how he handled the Mueller report, holding that press conference the way he did, even before Congress got their hands on it."

"Yes. Sounded a little different in back in [1998] in the interview, a completely different tone from Barr," said Sciutto. "Then Barr said he was 'disturbed' that then-Attorney General Janet Reno did not defend the independent counsel Ken Starr from what he called 'hatchet jobs' during the Whitewater investigation."

"It's quite a different tone that we have seen than this tepid defense that we have of Mueller," said reporter Andrew Kaczynski. "This came in a 1998 interview with Investor's Business Daily, where he said the White House was attacking Starr basically with spin control, hatchet job and ad hominem attacks."

"He was very disturbed that Janet Reno was not defending Starr," Kaczynski went on.

"And what's so interesting about the way in which these comments paint Barr is that in March that year earlier, he sent this letter, Kaczynski said, "where he said that he thought public comments from the Clinton white House were meant to have the 'improper purpose of influencing and impeding an ongoing criminal investigation' and possibly intimidating possible jurors."

"Yeah. Different," said Harlow sarcastically.

"Very different," laughed Kaczynski. "Very different tone.

Watch the video below.