Matt Whitaker took on the Democrats yesterday and turned in a performance for the ages. At times rude and belligerent and other times simply exasperated, he sparred with the Democrats and gave them the answers they did not want to hear.
Much will be made of how Whitaker fought back against the Dems with many thinking he went too far and was disrespectful.
But that just hides their disappointment with Whitaker’s answers. He blew a mile wide hole in CNN’s and the rest of the media’s phony narrative about Trump playing games with the Russia investigation behind the scenes.
CNN ran a report saying Trump lashed out at Whitaker over some actions taken by SDNY in the Cohen case among other dubious claims of Trump interfering in the investigations.
Other media outlets have claimed Trump and Whitaker have been conspiring behind the scenes. Unless Matt committed perjury yesterday, which would be dumb because there will be records inside the DOJ he Matt interfered, the narratives are false.
From Fox News: Democrats are acutely focused on Whitaker’s oversight of the Mueller probe, in his acting AG status while awaiting confirmation of President Trump’s attorney general pick William Barr.
“There has been no change in the overall management of the special counsel investigation,” Whitaker testified Friday, saying that he never offered any “promises or commitments” regarding the Mueller or any other investigation.
Nadler pressed Whitaker over whether he had shared information about the investigation with Trump, or any White House officials.
“I do not intend today to talk about my private conversations, but to answer your question, I did not talk to the president about the status of the investigation,” Whitaker answered. “Consistent with what I’ve already said, I have not talked about the special counsel’s investigation with any White House officials.”
From The Atlantic:
Trump has yet to comment on Whitaker’s performance. But there seemed to be little for him to complain about.
Whitaker told lawmakers that, despite a CNN report to the contrary, Trump had not “lashed out” about the investigation into his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
And in contrast to his testimony that he had not discussed the Mueller investigation with Trump, Whitaker dodged questions about whether he had discussed the Cohen probe with the president.
“As I’ve mentioned several times today, I’m not going to discuss my private conversations with the President,” he told Democratic Representative Val Demmings.
