CNN has been holding townhalls with each of the various Democratic candidates. That is a great public service. Don Lemon is a good media person. This is not to say he is bad at his job. None of us are perfect. Here, he made a serious mistake. I was watching the townhall he hosted with Senator Cory Booker. A person came on and asked a question about impeachment. Senator Cory Booker said that he wanted to see the Mueller report before he committed to supporting impeachment. Don Lemon followed up on that. Don Lemon said, “ the attorney General and Rod Rosenstein cleared President Trump of Obstruction !” While the attorney general did clear President Trump of Obstruction, Attorney General Barr admitted that Mueller “did not exonerate” President Trump of Obstruction of Justice. Both Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were appointed by Donald Trump. Further, Barr applied for the job by writing an unsolicited 20 page essay supporting the thesis that the president could not commit obstruction of justice and sent it to the president. Moreover, Barr wrote his 4 page summary only 48 hours after receiving the 500 page report. This is not like reading a 500 page work of fiction. This evidence needs to be read, analyzed, and put together to come to a conclusion. This was insufficient time to do the work. Almost certainly there was only one reason why Mueller did not recommend indicting President Trump on Obstruction of Justice. That reason is because it is against DOJ policy to indict a sitting president. If Mueller had recommended that, Attorney General Barr would have opposed it and said that it was against DOJ policy and would have been correct in saying so. For all of these reasons, Barr’s conclusion that President Trump did not obstruct justice is worthless. Therefore, this should not have been asked. It is like asking, “Since President Trump pronounced himself innocent of Obstruction of Justice, does that take impeachment off the table for you ? “ See how ridiculous a question that is ? The question that Don Lemon asked is just as ridiculous for all of the reasons I listed above. Senator Cory Booker did acknowledge that Barr was a Trump appointee and that he would not take impeachment off the table until he had seen the actual Mueller report itself. However, I think he could have hit back even harder on this question. This occurs around 20 minute 15 second mark.
Senator Booker showed his support for addressing racial disparities with strong answers. He supports expunging the records of those who have criminal records due to convictions of marijuana. He supports using the buying power of Medicare to lower drug prices. He supports Medicare for all. He supports criminal justice reform. He did a very good job during this townhall!