The three Democratic presidential candidates who got to question Attorney General William P. Barr at a Senate Judiciary Committee came away with varying levels of success.
WASHINGTON — Senator Amy Klobuchar advertised her bipartisan legislative efforts, just as she does on the Democratic presidential campaign trail. Senator Kamala Harris was prosecutorial and pointed, evoking memories of her treatment of Brett M. Kavanaugh at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
And Senator Cory Booker flubbed his lines, saying “obstruction” instead of “collusion.” Later, both he and Ms. Harris put out fund-raising emails and posts on Twitter calling for Attorney General William P. Barr to resign.
Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing offered Democrats on Capitol Hill their first chance to grill Mr. Barr about his handling of the special counsel’s report and decision not to pursue an obstruction of justice case against President Trump. And the three committee Democrats running for president — Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker — were not about to let a prime branding opportunity go to waste.
Each sought to use the hearing to distinguish him- or herself from the others — a necessary task in a field so crowded that voters can barely remember some Democratic contenders’ names, and in a week when former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. declared his candidacy and instantly catapulted to the front of the Democratic pack.
Ms. Klobuchar, of Minnesota, is positioning herself as a sensible centrist Midwesterner who can bring the country together to defeat Mr. Trump. She wasted little time in praising two Republicans, Senators James Lankford of Oklahoma and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (the committee’s chairman and a scourge of liberals), who have joined her in supporting legislation to prevent foreign interference in the 2020 election.
