Top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. Im poppy harlow. And im jim sciutto. We begin this morning with breaking news. The start of attorney general bill barrs hearing before the Judiciary Committee is now being delayed 45 minutes, this after the chairman of that Committee Jerry Nadler was involved in a car accident. We should note he was not injured in that accident. Thats right. Were glad hes okay. Our senior Congressional Correspondent manu raju joins us on the hill with more to update us as we wait for the hearing begin. We know it will be delayed at least 45 minutes. Jerry nadler was involved in the car accident. He was not injured according to his spokesman. We dont know other details about the accident, if anyone else was injured or not, but this will essentially delay the start of this hearing, much anticipated hearing that the democrats will have are the first time in the house Judiciary Committee to question bill barr after previous appearances that had been scrapped. Bill barr at one point last year did not show up despite the democratic push to try to get him to appear, and they have a long list of grievances that the democrats plan to air about bill barr about their concerns that he mischaracterized the Mueller Report, about what they believe is him using the Justice Department to protect the president , his firing of a u. S. Attorney who was investigating some trump associates. Those are the range of issues that the democrats will press bill barr on. Bill barr contend the democrats in the committee are simply trying to discredit him for investigating the russia investigation that involved the president. Nevertheless, we expect this combative hearing to take place over the course of the day. We do expect it now to be delayed to start later in this hour because of that accident that jerry nadler was involved in, but it is something that we should well expect both sides to go at it all day long for this first time appearance by the attorney general before this democraticled committee. Guys . It will be worth watching, no question. Manu raju on the hill. Thank you. The nations top Infectious Disease expert dr. Fauci has now had to respond to the sitting president of the United States spreading once again false claims, disinformation about the coronavirus. Overnight the president retweeted claims that masks dont work and that hydroxychloroquine is a cure though the fda says otherwise. Heres dr. Fauci. We should all be Wearing Masks. How about hydroxychloroquine, the president promoting the effects of hydroxychloroquine. We know the fda has warned against emergency use. Exactly, and then i go along with the fda. The overwhelming prevailing Clinical Trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease. That is the clearest possible statement on that. Believe dr. Fauci. The president is erasing any indications that he is following the science. He may be pivoting towards, even a few weeks ago. Even his Health Experts warned something needs to change now or the deaths will go much higher. Lets go to joe johns who joins us again at the white house this morning. Good morning, joe. Do we know why . I mean, what was the impetus for the multiple retweets from the president . Well, one possible explanation is that despite what the president has been told by the Coronavirus Task force, despite the thing that he has been advised by white house staffers, the president apparently Still Believes some of these things that he was saying before his big turnaround last week when he decided to wear a mask, decided to try to project, if you will, seriousness in the approach to coronavirus, but theres also the matter of dr. Faucis credibility, and there was that retweet suggesting fauci was misleading the public last night. That, of course, was something that fauci himself responded to in that very same interview. Listen. I dont tweet. I dont even read them. So i dont really want to go there. I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because i think its very important. Were in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic. This is what i do. This is what ive been trained for my entire professional life, and ill continue to do it. To the charge youve been misleading the American Public . I have not been misleading the American Public under any circumstances. Reporter its just incoherent and a real problem for the messaging coming out of the white house about coronavirus, and it leads people down a dark hole about what to do and what not to do in general. Its just a problem also for the president even politically because frankly it affects his credibility which has been a problem all along. Back to you. Might expect it when he spreads deliberate disinformation about a deadly virus. So the president spreading that disinformation and even finding the need to lie about whether he was invited to throw out an opening pitch according to the New York Times at yankee stadium. What do we know . Reporter right. That obviously is another story. This is something that the New York Times reported on essentially saying that the president was upset about all of the publicity that dr. Fauci was getting when he threw out that pitch last week in the game between the Washington Nationals and the new york yankees. The president then indicating publicly that he, too, had been invited to throw out the first pitch at a yankees game. Apparently that was not true. While there was an open invitation to throw out a first pitch, they hadnt settled on a date at all so there was surprise among yankees organization, surprise here as the white house staffers tell us they didnt know anything about it, and then to make matters worse the president later essentially cancelled the invitation that he had given himself by saying hes going to be too busy dealing with the coronavirus. Jim . Okay. Joe johns, thank you very much for both of those updates. Lets go to florida now where intensive care units at 49 hospitals have reached capacity. Rosa flores is in miami beach with more. Lets begin with the numbers. Whats happening in the state right now . Reporter you know, poppy, hospitals are not really getting a break, especially right here in Miamidade County where i am. This is the epicenter of the crisisins this state accounting for 25 of the now more than 420,000 cases. Icus right now are operating at 142 . Just a week ago they were operating at 130 . What that means is that there are more patients than there are icu beds. Now the county says that they have more than 400 beds that they can convert into icus. When it comes to ventilator use thats up 50 in the past two weeks. The Positivity Rate in this county is ranging between 18 and 19 . The goal is not to exceed 10 . As we look statewide, there are 49 icu hospitals that are at capacity. That means zero icu beds and the Positivity Rate has been ranging from 13 to 18 . City of miami mayor suarez is holding a press conference and updating the public on the enforcement of Wearing Masks in his city. Again, he has mentioned that this is something that is working. Its a remediation measure thats helping. He says so far they have issued 177 tickets. Jim and poppy, you and i have been reporting on this ongoing battle whether or not to reopen schools in this state, and weve also learned that now theres an increase in the number of children infected with covid19. What were learning this morning from the city of miami and the university of miami, they are going to be providing free testing for children very soon by appointment only, but, again, going to the point of schools could be reopening in just a few weeks. They are giving options to parents about testing their children. Jim and poppy. The experts say it can be safe if you have the outbreak under control. The can be dangerous if you dont. Thats the key measure. Rosa flores in florida. Thanks very much. Now to california where coronavirus deaths sadly rising there. The governor telling residents to wake up. Cnns Stephanie Elam joins us now from los angeles. So this has been going for a couple of weeks now since california attempted reopening. Are the measures it took since then having an effect now in keeping this unwraps . Reporter weve definitely been Holding Steady, jim, but were Holding Steady at a higher rate than what the state would like to see. The Positivity Rate in the state is at 7. 5 . The number of new cases announced yesterday shot just high of 6,900. Weve had much higher numbers than that, but things are stabilizing but not where we would like to see them. Theres a part of the state, the central valley, really the major farming region of this state where they are seeing positive rates at about 18 . They are saying the transmission rate there are so high that the governor announcing yesterday that there are going to be three strike teams that go into three regions in eight counties there to help drive down the numbers there. These strike teams will basically bring in Emergency Services from the state. They will bring in Emergency Personnel and also aid for health care workers, more personnel in that arena as well. Making sure that they can isolate and quarantine, that there are the resources there for the people to do this. They are saying that is this is really because these are essential workers, they have been working nonstop. A lot of them live in multigenerational homes so they are seeing a lot of community spread. He says this is why it need to be targeted. This has been done in the state already. They did it in Imperial County in the far Southern Region where they saw the numbers spiking so trying to drive the numbers down. Here in los angeles county, something new that is going to be happening here as they are trying to fight it back. For one thing we dont need to go into a stricter athome order here, but what we do need to do is have people participate in Contact Tracing so what they are going to do is offer 20 gift cards next week so hopefully people will start answering those calls and questions. Jim and poppy. Thats a way to inventivize them to do it. Lets hope it works. Stephanie, thank you very much. Well, it did not take very long. Just when it appeared the president was starting to follow the science more on covid he derailed hopes with a string of new false tweets overnight. Why . As a caricature artist, i appreciate what makes each person unique. Thats why i like liberty mutual. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. Almost done. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. The course structure the it just suits my life perfectly because i am a mom, im a wife. 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Carlos del rio, associate dean of emery school of medicine and Grady Health System in atlanta. Good morning to you guys. Dana, from my understanding in terms of this twitter restriction of tweeting for don jr. , its like 12 hours, and the question is like how many people saw this and believe this before before action was taken . Talk about if you understand the politics behind the president s son tweeting falsehoods and then the president retweeting it and the why when the science is just so clear. You know, we could probably talk about this for your two hours and then some and maybe this this psychiatry or the psychology beyond it thats beyond all of us, but just from my perspective on the raw politics which is, you know, really what matters here, it is this is a president who started out as a candidate who did well stoking cull tush wars, and this is another version of a culture war in president trumps mind. Despite what he said last week, despite what was very carefully scripted for him, despite the fact that he was given data point after data point on his own polling about how bad he is doing and how poorly he is seen in the eyes of so many voters, he needs to be reelected because of tweets like this, because of his gut instinct which is not to the follow science but to try to convince people otherwise, he continues to do that, and its not just him. Its obviously his son and youre right despite twitter suspending his account and restricting his account, its the cats out of the bag. You cant change it. Yeah. Listen, its disturbing it, it makes a difference. You can argue it costs lives. Dr. Del rio, youre a Public Health expert. Explain the impact of a sitting president of the United States repeatedly sharing disinformation that impacts peoples health. What is the impact to people at home but also in the population because you need to get an outbreak under control across the population to protect individuals. Jim, its very sad, and it also makes me very mad because the reality is the United States has so many of the best scientists in the world, and the fact that science is not being respected is exactly the reason why were not responding well to this epidemic. The response to an epidemic, the u. S. Wrote the book on how to respond to epidemicics and pandemics. We know how to do it. The reality is weve not implemented whats necessary and because we havent done so we are in the mess we are in right now so follow the science. We need to do what science tells us to do, and the reality is that until we do that, were going to be in a mess for as long as we want to. Dr. Del rio, to that point, youre a part of the team, one of the investigators on the team in this moderna phase three trial and this is looking, even dr. Fauci says he was optimistic about it yesterday. Its looking promising. Got 30,000 humans volunteering to be a part of it right now. My question is about when disinformation is spread by the president and the president s son, how do people know to believe the real information when its spread once its proven out if this vaccine proves to be effective. Well, youre absolutely right. Thats a challenging, dwirnging what is true and what is false and unfortunately the president has a pulley pulpit thats very important. Youve got to remember when there was a remdesivir study when first released, they were at least at the oval office, in the white house because it was such an important finding so i think, you know, trusts in science needs to be restored, and if were going to get out of this mess we need science to be driving the response. Dana, is it perhaps time, not time really, beyond time, because this is not new to acknowledge that this is a feature, not a bug of the president s approach to government but also to this election, right . The denial of the virus, attacking the Science Behind shutdowns or maskwearing or other restrictions is a deliberate strategy rather than a mistake or, you know, him going off the path here and there, right . Is that where the evidence points . Yeah, i mean, theres a deliberate strategy by him, the person, the candidate, the president , which should and does matter most, and then there is the attempted strategy at those around him who have a broader and maybe more reasonable approach and understanding to how to get reelected, and and to how to treat these matters as just a basic show of leadership, never mind an assault on science, and so you have those two things which are constantly at odds. Im not saying that there arent people around the president who dont agree with him. There are, but it is it is the issue that people who have been hired by him and fired by him in this sort of, you know, movement that weve seen the president s start, never mind his First Campaign but his entire first term, and that is largely because there are people who tried to put him on the right path, and his instinct i was just talking to somebody who is very familiar with the president s thinking. The answer is this is just who he is. He cant help himself so combine that with the fact that he still goes back to 2016 believing that this is how he can win thats how you get to the tweets overnight. Yeah. Dr. Del rio, we had our correspondent Fred Pleitgen on from berlin who talked about germany on monday who will start implementing for everyone who comes in from a hot spot or from the United States, for example, and when fred took a test he got the results back in a day. Yeah. Help us how he can get the results back in a day and major sports leagues across the United States can get results back in a day and normal folks cant in this country. Well, i think we have unfortunately, weve always had the ones at the front of the line and the ones at the back of the line and everybody is not the same. But thats crazy i mean, thats crazy that in america if youre poor and you have a lack of access youre at the back of the line for a test in a health crisis, in a pandemic, and no one is changing that. I agree with you. I think they are trying to change this, but its not easy, and the problem we have right now is we have too many infected individuals and too many needs for tests. Were doing a lot of testing in this country, more than anybody, and its still not enough. We simply have a throughput problem, and i think what we need to do to improve the testing capabilities is to decrease the number of infected individuals. Yeah. Well, the president we know can get tested as often as he wants them and does as does his staff. Is the this a case of not having used the prior shutdowns for their purpose or at least part of the purpose, right, which was not only to control the outbreak but to buy time to build up capacity to test and Contact Trace which is not new advise. Its been the advice from the beginning. I think youre absolutely right, but i think the problem is we built the capacity for what we thought was going to happen. Dont forget, you know, the first wave, so to speak, has never gone away, and if that was a first wave. Now what were having is a tsunami. Were having 70,000 new infections per day. Wuhan throughout the entire pandemic had 70,000 infections. Were having one wuihan a day i the United States. Thats such a difference. Its a disturbing reality today. The gop version of the stimulus plan would change the amount available for employment. Nancy please he calls it pathetic. Is there any room for negotiation . Weve live from capitol hill next. With rose and they had a kid. His name was charles and charles met martha. Isnt she pretty . Yeah. These are pictures just a moment ago of the attorney general bill barr walking in for his appearance before the house Judiciary Committee. Note, he and his staff all Wearing Masks there, a step that the president himself has often avoided. Were going to bring you that hearing when it happens live. Just a few minutes away from that. Also Senate Republicans have also unveiled their version of basically a phase four stimulus, a relief plan. It looks like it will include direct stimulus checks but also a pretty significant cut in extra Unemployment Benefits that people have been relying on getting every week. It was 600, and now they are proposing 200 a week. Thats a big gap certainly for people at home, also between negotiators there. There our manu raju has been covering the story. I wonder is there a middle ground there . I spoke to steve cohen, a democrat, in the last hour. He mentioned the possible of phasing out the 600. Not fadesing it out but reducing them over time as opposed to immediately. Speaking to folks in both parties, is there a potential middle ground . Reporter there is, but that will have to be sorted out between the Democratic Leaders and the administration with the support of mitch mcconnell. Those result maltly the people who will make that decision. The democrats have contended that the 600 a week, while not perfect, its easiest to implement. If they do something that the republicans are poeing, their argument it would hard toifrlment and would take a longer time to get into the system. What the republicans are seeking is 200 a week and then a twomonth transition period that would allow for a 70 wage replacement for federal Unemployment Benefits. The democrats are ruling that out but not ruling going out the 600 a week. Now, that is just one significant difference between the democrats and the republicans. The democratic plan is 3 trillion and the republican plan is 1 trillion. They have a whole host of differences on funding, whether its for education, whether its for state and local governments, and there are significant differences over policy. One red line matter for mitch mcconnell, the majority leader in the senate, it is to ensure theres Liability Protections for businesses, schools, hospitals and others. Democrats are concerned about the sweep of that proposal. They have their own plan, so those are all the Different Things that they have to sort out. They have to get an agreement. Both sides have to ultimately support something and send it to the president s desk while so many are waiting for an answer from washington particularly over the Unemployment Benefits. People will stop receiving some of those checks very soon, so a lot is riding on this and were uncertain how it pans out, guys. Legislative game of chicken going on on capitol hill with that deadly approaching. Manu raju, thanks very much. Any minute now the house Judiciary Committee and attorney general bill barr will go face to face. Thats the chair hell be sitting in what we expect to be a contentious hearing. Were going to bring it to you live. Young man thanks for having us this weekend mrs. Garcy young woman yeah, thanks mom mother of course and i love these flowers young woman whispering hey, did you bring the. The condoms . Young man whispering whats up . Young woman whispering condoms father condoms charlie. She wants to know if you brought any condoms. Young man yeah i brought some. Announcer eargo, a virtually invisible hearing loss solution with high quality sound and lifetime support. Call now to save 300 on our best hearing loss solution i was always comparing myself nefertitito my sisters. Irl they were always thin and i wasnt. I ate a lot of food. 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Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Welcome back. Any moment now the attorney general bill barr will testify before members of congress for the first time in more than a year, and even before it starts he is already laying in to democrats. The start of the hearing was delayed by about 45 minutes after news that house Judiciary Committee chairman jerry nadler was involved in a car accident on his way there this morning. Were glad hes okay. It will get started soon, so as we wait lets bring in our experts. Good morning, one and all. Thanks for sticking around. We know this was going to start a while ago. Jeffrey toobin, if i could just begin with you. I would like to get at sort of the goal of this because the letter was very clear inviting him to come, and its the first time that bill barr is testifying ever before this committee. Remember when he didnt show up about a year ago, so whats the goal . Because now they had talked about, you know, potentially trying to impeach him and nancy pelosi threw cold water on that. What are they trying to get at today . Well, i think the core democratic complaint about william barr is that he has acted as the president s personal attorney not the peoples lawyer as the attorney general is supposed to be. Whether its downplaying or misleading the findings of the Mueller Report, whether its intervening in the roger stone case by asking the court for a lower sentence, by having the Michael Flynn case thrown out of court all together, all of these issues relate to the attorney general, according to democrats, doing Donald Trumps bidding rather than acting like an impartisan custodian of the law. And perez, you cover the jt, Jeffrey Toobin mentioned the flynn case, of course, the flynn case brought by the Justice Department itself under Republican Leadership and then reversed by bill barr. I wonder and well hear a lot of back and forth from democrats and the attorney general as they dig in here, what do lawyers at the Justice Department think about the decision from the flynn or even roger stone, justice sought by Department Lawyers there and then changed by the attorney general. Yeah, jim. I think thats a great way to to sort of surmise everything and to summarize everything that has been happening here, but i think the people inside this building and certainly around the country and inside the Justice Department, you know, they began losing faith in the department, in the attorney generals management of the department with the roger stone decision. You saw a couple of prosecutors quit the case as a result of the attorney generals intervention there, but what ive seen just in the last few weeks, certainly with the firing of the u. S. Attorney jeff berman in manhattan as well as the attorney generals management of that crackdown in Lafayette Square, i think thats where i started hearing for the first time from people around the country other u. S. Attorneys offices, other employees of the department, that they certainly had had enough of the way the attorney general has handled things in his office, some of the charged rhetoric and some of what you see in his Opening Statement today, fiery statement today, but when you see him behaving as he did in Lafayette Square trying to clear the crowd, cracking down on Peaceful Protesters to make way for a photoop for the president and defending it in a way that he did, i think thats where a lot of people lost faith in him, and it takes a lot for people in this building to lose faith because of politics. They try to put all of that aside and its things like that that has really damaged his standing inside the department. And to carry that forward, keri cordero. It continues. Look at the protests in portland and look at the federal forces being sent in there hand what has ensued and the president now saying, you know, hes open to sending up to 75,000 federal policing forces to cities across america even without invitation. You have an interesting question that you would pose to the attorney general on that. Yeah, well, my question i have several questions for the attorney general. One is with respect to some activities that he all therize as it pertains to Lafayette Square, so theres a lot of question as to whether he gave directions to the federal preps that was at Lafayette Square in washington, d. C. When they released pepper balls and what was perceived as tear gas to that crowd. So theres questions about that. Theres questions about an authorization that the Justice Department provided to the dea, the Drug Enforcement administration, to authorize surveillance activities relating to protesting activity, so theres some really substantive questions that need to be asked at this hearing today, and they are pertain to whether or not the Justice Department and the department of Homeland Security under an acting cev right now, whether they are being used as, a, a police force, a federal policing force throughout the country or, b, as an internal security service. Yeah. And these are things that Congress Needs to wrestle with. I wonder if well really get to those substantive questions or if this is just going to be political banter back and forth yeah. Can i just add a c to carries list. Are these Justice Department officials in portland and elsewhere being used as props in Donald TrumpsReelection Campaign . Is the Justice Department trying to treat controversy, create confrontations that can be used so the president can say im fighting antifa and all these left wing groups he likes to talk about, so its not just the the improper use of federal Law Enforcement. Its the political use of Justice Department forced. Thats something that is really without precedent, even as an accusation in my experience. We are tom ridge on, First Department of Homeland Security under george w. Bush, republican administration, saying that, you know, as a practical matter as well injecting militarystyle forces there adding fuel to the fire as opposed to calm things down. Legitimate questions to whether thats deliberate. Let me ask you, dana, the politics of this because the president excoriated the prior appointee in this post who most recently lost his senate race, of course, jeff sessions. The idea being in barr he finally got the attorney general he wanted, right . In seeing that Opening Statement today it appears that the kind of rhetoric as well will be what the president wants in a confrontation like this. Absolutely, and, you know, what what jeffrey said about the politics of this is so key because if you take a step back and look at what the president and and his Campaign Aides think is the narrow path to reelection, it goes along the rhetoric of and the perception of a law and 0rd problem. I mean, its if you look at the president s twitter feed, every so often hell just tweet out law and order. I mean, its not its pretty transparent. Yeah. There is that and then there is a very real execution of the of the strategy in places like port lapd and elsewhere which is, you know, whether its needed. Thats the thats a whole conversation that hopefully they will have at this hearing today, but on the perception, on the optics and the political reasons for this there is no question that the Trump Campaign is hoping that this will play into the fears of say suburban voters. Yeah. Or even other voters who, even rural voters, who look at this and say ah, you know, maybe the president is right. That is the very deliberate tactic and the question is whether or not the attorney general, as jeffrey said, the person who is supposed to be representing america an not the president and not his reelection prospects is helping aid in that. Well, the law, right, is supposed to be renting the rule of law and there are echos on the focus of the caravan, remember the panic about the caravan in 2018 in the midterms, politically that did not in the midterm elections. Weve got moments to go before the start of this hearing. Well bring you right back. Is. All right. We are waiting for this hearing. The attorney general bill barr appearing for the first time before the house Judiciary Committee. A delayed hearing as it gets started. As we wait lets bring our experts back in. Jeffrey toobin, back to you. We have the entirety of the Opening Statement from attorney general bill barr, and he he talks about the racial reckoning frankly that the country is going through, and he talks about what he dream to be a horrible killing of george floyd in minneapolis, but then he spends a lot of time defending Police Officers and laying out the number of white men killed by police this year as well citing Washington Post statistics but distorting it and not not making it develop rant to the proportionality of the population versus black men killed at the hands of police, and thats a really important distinction, and its the same thing that the president did a few weeks ago. Its exactly the same thing that the president said, and, you know, the fact that more white people have been killed by the police than black people have been killed by the police, i mean, you dont have to be a demography expert to know that there are a lot more white people than there are black people so the idea that you should compare the number killed, and thats a meaningful comparison, is just ridiculous, and it just shows that, you know, the black lives Matter Movement, you know, has a serious opponent in the United States department of justice. I mean, if you believe that the black lives Matter Movement is a National Reckoning about the about the price that black people pay with regard to their confrontations with the police, thats just not something that the Trump Administration believes is a serious problem in the United States other than isolated examples like the one in minneapolis. Thats about the fundamental disagreement that the president and the attorney general have with the black lives Matter Movement which is very much now a mainstream movement, not an exotic cause supported by a few you know. With broad support the public polling, very broad support, and its joined over time. Carrie cordero, you served as a prosecutor. Of course, attorney generals have always been political appointees and many have been accused of Many Political for the president that they serve of. In your experience is bill barr particularly political, particularly aligned with the president on issues, for instance, black lives matter of political importance. I think the part of bill barrs written statement that is in line with other attorney generals is his statement on policing and his department does try to take on the particular role of being the chief Law Enforcement officer so from that perspective i think that statement does that, but having served in the Justice Department across different political administrations, this particular attorney general does seem to go out of his way to make political arguments on behalf of the president. One of the things i was surprised about by his written statement was that it really came across to me more as a political speech, not as a document that you would see the attorney general. For example, one of the things that i think is really missing from it is an explanation of what the Justice Departments deployment of additional investigators throughout the country is going to be. He gave a press conference about it a few days ago, but this would have been a really Good Opportunity to explain that because a lot of the commentary has mixed together what were seeing in portland in particular the dhs sports in port 4r57bd and some activities by the Marshal Service which falls under the Justice Department, and a lot of concerns about the abuses of Civil Liberties and violations of law in those activities, but exactly what the Justice Department is doing is in supplementing investigators in other cities where there is a Violent Crime thing is a very different thing. He says that in his statement, but he doesnt explain it at all, and instead much of his statement is opining about his view of society and and the different civil rec things thko are going on. Jerry nadler, the meeting was delayed and he was sitting in a car that was in an accident, and he threatened to subpoena the attorney general. Obviously he didnt need that to happen but then hes been pushing for some extent for a move to impeach the attorney general and walked that back and then nancy pelosi said, nope, better to go to the ballot box and vote this administration out in november. Talk about how real the threat of impeachment of attorney general barr really is. At this point its really not. Yeah. As you said, its the House Speaker who is the decider on these things despite the fact that nadler has significant power as judiciary chair, and despite the impeachment of the president of the United States that we saw earlier this year or maybe it was late last year, the spacetime continuum is a little off these days, but in general the the House Speaker agreed to do that. She agreed to do it reluctantly. When she did, she is all in. She is somebody who does not think impeachment in general is a good move of any any of these people, but i will tell you that there is a grass roots effort among some liberals to try to disbar william barr, to say that he has he has, you know, run amok run afoul of the rules of being a lawyer and being a member of the bar, you know. I dont know how far thats going to get it. Worked with roy cone, and thats what they are arguing as they should do as it comes to barr politically trying to find a reckoning with him. Thats interesting. You guys, i think i think one thing i wanted to try to jump in and mention, jeffrey talked a little bit about the attorney generals Opening Statement where he talks about the aftermath of george floyd. One of the things he lays out is the rising crime in some cities and some of the defund the police talk that youve heard, and, of course, hes against that, but what hes also laying out is this idea that, you know, trying to reform the police is going to cause crime to go up, and i think that that is something that you want to keep an eye on. Thats a very different argument. Were going to have to leave it there. Because were running up against this hearing. Were moments away from hearing from bill barr. We are. Well see you tomorrow. Im poppy how larlow. Newsroom with john king starts after a very quick break. Hello, everybody. Im john king in washington. Were moments away from a capitol hill staredown. The witness today in front of the house Judiciary Committee, you see the Committee Room there is the attorney general, william barr. The hearing guarantees fireworks. Democrats have a very long list of grievances. Their baseline contention is this, that ever since he took the job and was confirmed as an attorney general, william barr, the democrats say has acted as the president s lawyer, not the president s lawyer. Examples are dropping charges against Michael Flynn and to lay out a version of the Mueller Report way back then dramatically that favored the president. Barr said mark an attempt by the