re: #124 Targetpractice

I think it was Hoarsewhisperer who noted that Barr is a political dinosaur these days, his way of coverups totally out of place in the era of social media. His plan seemed to be that he’d release his letter to Congress on a Sunday and by the time Monday came along the media would have settled on the “This is a total exoneration for Trump!” storyline.

Then slow-walk the Report’s release while the White House and Congressional Republicans made a huge stink in the press about how Democrats won’t “just move on.” The media would certainly have had an easier time convincing folks that the matter was turning “partisan” because it would look like the Democrats refusing to accept Mueller’s conclusions.

And then finally the Report would be released in the middle of an otherwise busy news week, with a reiteration of his letter as a live presser where he tried to hammer home that his summaries of the Report’s conclusions were in line with DOJ policy and the relevant laws. The Report would be dropped like a cow pie on Congress’ doorstep, filtering through to the media by lunch time and lost in the scrum by that evening. And the media would only publish those portions that fit a short news story rather than an in-depth analysis, so it could be days or weeks before a significant portion of the public read the Report in full and knew he was a fucking liar.

Back before Twitter and Facebook, such a tactic might have worked well. He would have sat before Congress yesterday and been confident that most of the people tuning in had no fucking clue what Democrats were talking about when they referenced the Report or specific pages. If anything, it would look like Democrats were being “mean” and “angry” towards him for not just accepting the conclusions of the Report.

I think HorseW was right about that. News and information travel a lot quicker than they did in the early 90’s. Barr hasn’t served in government since then.