Chris Cuomo Gets A Civic Lesson from Attorney General Michael Mukasey On TV:
NEWSBUSTERS notes:
…Cuomo apparently didn’t know the attorney general of the United States had the authority to decide whether charges should be filed, or he was being supremely disingenuous. “[W]hat your friend did is not just by the book. He took it on himself to decide this rule. He didn’t have to do that,” he bitterly declared.
Continuing his crusade against Attorney General William Barr, Cuomo wrongly stated that the special counsel was “separate from the DOJ” and insisted Congress had the power to indict.
Mukasey had to undo the damage Cuomo was doing to his audience and called his host out for misleading people:
MUKASEY: Of course he had to do it.
CUOMO: Why?
MUKASEY: Who was going to decide if we were going to indict or not?
CUOMO: Congress, as a political matter. Leave it to them.
MUKASEY: They decide whether to impeach or not. They don’t decide–
CUOMO: And Mike, you’re skipping the big point, which you taught me about very early on.
MUKASEY: That is the big point.
CUOMO: They can’t indict him. That is the opinion from the OLC so there’s nothing to decide on that level. It’s purely political. It always would be.
MUKASEY: Congress doesn’t indict. Congress can impeach.
CUOMO: I’m using it as just a metaphor here.
MUKASEY: But you’re misleading a lot of people.
After Mukasey had to explain all the other ways Special Counsel Robert Mueller could have taken action against the President if he had the goods, Cuomo put on his rhetorical tin foil hat and accused Barr of being part of a cover-up:
CUOMO: AD Barr didn’t need to do it for that reason. He needed to do it to protect the President. That’s why he did it.
MUKASEY: Protect the President from what? When he can’t be indicted?
CUOMO: From criticism in the open question and giving Congress that kind of momentum. That’s why he did it.
MUKASEY: Oh, come on.
CUOMO:That’s why he did it. That’s why he wrote the letter the way he did. That’s why he gave the press conference the way he did. That’s why he misled us to what the report would look like the way he did…..