WASHINGTON – The House Judiciary Committee voting to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday is the first step of many Democrats are…
WASHINGTON – The House Judiciary Committee voting to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress on Wednesday is the first step of many Democrats are willing to take as they continue investigating the Trump administration.
Democrats say they have been pushed to consider drastic measures, even impeachment and jailing individuals, in light of President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to cooperate with congressional investigations and attempting to shut down requests for everything from his tax returns to former and current aides appearing before Congress to answer questions.
But now, Democrats are offering a glimpse at their roadmap to navigating these barriers and where this leaves the House when it comes to both their investigations and the possibility of impeaching the president.
“There is a big picture here,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Wednesday morning. “And the big picture is our democracy, our Constitution, the ability of the American people to know what its executive department is doing. That’s the big picture and we’re gonna focus on that big picture.”
The debate over whether Barr should be held in contempt moves to the House for a full vote. Hoyer said it has not been decided whether that vote will happen before Friday.
While Wednesday’s vote was an escalation of tensions between the executive and legislative branch, it could just be the start of a number of contempt proceedings.
Hoyer said Wednesday morning that Democrats were not looking at each denial as individual items. He said the party was viewing it in a “holistic” way, working with each of the six committees investigating Trump and hoping to display “the picture of, perhaps, the greatest cover-up of any president in American history.”
Barr, he said, was just was one piece of that picture.
“You ask our strategy,” Hoyer told reporters when asked about Barr and next steps in the House, “It’s the cover-up that we’re gonna be focused on and there will be individual items, which will be proof of that cover-up.
