Morning Consult features editor Joanna Piacenza said in an interview on Friday that most Americans outside of Washington, D.C., will not be thinking about the recent controversy between Attorney General William Barr and special counsel Robert Mueller in 2020.
“It’s a constant news cycle within the bubble of D.C., but outside of the East Coast, outside of D.C., I’m not sure that this is really an issue that people have a lot of strong opinions about, and more importantly, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue looking towards 2020,” Piacenza told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”
“This is just going to fall to the back of people’s minds when the next news cycle comes,” she said.
An apparent rift between Barr and Mueller became public this week after The Washington Post reported that Mueller had written to Barr to express concerns with a summary the attorney general issued of the special counsel’s Russia probe.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Barr about the recent revelation that Mueller said Barr’s four-page summary of the special counsel’s report did not “fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of the investigation’s conclusions.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also said that Barr had committed a crime by lying to Congress, a reference to testimony he previously gave where he said he was not aware of any reservations from Mueller or his team over his handling of the report.
Barr refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday to testify on the matter, prompting backlash from Democrats.
Various 2020 Democratic contenders have called for Barr’s resignation.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass), a 2020 presidential candidate, has called for impeachment hearings against Barr.
— Julia Manchester
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