Sen. Tim Kaine Rips Trump’s Influence Over AG Barr, Believes ‘This is How Democracies Die’
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) bitterly remarked that President Donald Trump’s influence over Attorney General Bill Barr is a tipping point for the state of American democracy.
In an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, Kaine was asked if Barr should resign amid the recent indications that he’s following Trump’s marching orders while running the Justice Department. Kaine began by noting he voted against Barr’s nomination to the job because “it was very clear to me based on his past record that President Trump wanted him as just his all-purpose flack jacket to cover for” himself.
“The worst thing that can happen to a U.S. Attorney is to have Department of Justice come into the work they’ve done and squash one of their cases because ‘it’s the friend of the president’s,” Kaine said. “That is so destabilizing to the rule of law and so demoralizing to our career professional who does good work around the country.”
Camerota followed up by invoking former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance, who warned that Trump’s level of influence over the Justice Department “is how democracies die.” Kaine said Vance was quite correct in her view, and that there was real concern about Trump having “carte blanche” after being acquitted from impeachment over the Ukraine scandal.
“But do you think this is how democracies die?” Camerota asked again.
“Yes, I do,” Kaine answered. “Unless people snap back and say that’s not what we want. The only guarantor of democracy in this country is the American people saying we want and deserve better than this.”
Kaine continued by expressing skepticism about whether Congress as a whole is willing and able to take action to hold Trump accountable now:
“I’m very skeptical about whether the Senate…will act to check this president’s abuses of this kind…We have a toxic president, and evil spreads like a virus, and now this toxicity has infected the institution of the Senate. So the Senate has not been yet willing to hold the president accountable for these kinds of politically motivated actions. I hope that we might be and it would start in the Judiciary Committee.”
Watch above, via CNN.
