You know things are bad at the White House when AG Bill Barr tries to backtrack from anything he’s done. In his mind he’s always right and always the almighty. But yesterday he tried — and failed — to disassociate himself from the fascist Lafayette Square debacle that has been roundly criticized, with former defense secretary Jim Mattis noting: “Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.”
The Justice Department confirmed on Tuesday that Barr had personally ordered that the protesters in Lafayette Square be pushed back, with a Justice Department officially stating that Barr said “get it done.” On Wednesday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany confirmed that account. At his own news conference on Thursday, Barr also confirmed that he had decided to extend the perimeter early Monday morning, and later met with law enforcement agencies to lay out a plan for doing so. He also said it was “entirely appropriate” for the park to be cleared so that Trump could engage in his bizarre Bible-holding photo-op.
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday Barr got into some embarrassing contortions to slink away from the entire incident.
“I’m not involved in giving tactical commands like that,” Barr told the Associated Press. “I was frustrated and I was also worried that as the crowd grew, it was going to be harder and harder to do. So my attitude was get it done, but I didn’t say, ‘Go do it.’ ”
You got that? He may had thought and even said “get it done” but he didn’t say “go do it.” OK, that clears everything up. He threw the Park Police under the bus, claiming it was a Park Police tactical commander who gave the order to clear the park of protesters. He just happened to be standing around when it happened, thinking he was in a line for a food truck.
Even a five-year-old can see this is total BS. But it’s kinda fun to see Bill Barr trying to save his fat behind as events in this country continue to rapidly slip out of the White House’s control. The rats are clearly putting on their life preservers and dipping their toes in the water.