Chris Wallace: Barr hearing ‘an embarrassment’ for Democrats: ‘Just wanted to excoriate him’

Chris Wallace called a recent Capitol Hill hearing with Attorney General William Barr “an embarrassment,” with the “Fox News Sunday” adding that Democrats “just wanted to excoriate him” during a network podcast interview on Friday.

“I thought the Barr hearing, which I took somewhat more seriously, was an embarrassment,” Wallace told the “Fox News Rundown” podcast. “I’m not saying I agree with, but I understand the reasons why Democrats really don’t like him and feel that Barr has become the political henchman.”

“They just wanted to excoriate him,” Wallace added.

The hearings included several fiery exchanges, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who was involved in a minor car accident that delayed the beginning of the hearing, denying Barr a break for lunch.

“Mr. Chairman, could we take a five-minute break?” Barr asked Nadler.

“No,” Nadler replied.

“I waited 45 [minutes], an hour for you this morning, I haven’t had lunch. I’d like to take a five-minute break,” Barr noted.

“Mr. Attorney General, we are almost finished. We are going to be finished in a few minutes. We can certainly take a break, but—” Nadler said.

“You’re a real class act,” Barr injected.

Wallace also questioned why President Trump suggested the November presidential election be delayed due to his concerns over mail-in voting.

“Joe Biden in April said, ‘I bet you that President Trump is going to try to find a way to delay the election,'” Wallace recalled, referring to the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

“And the president came back that same month and said, ‘No, I haven’t even thought about. Tell Joe he can rest easy,'” Wallace said. “I promise you, those clips will be played. I just don’t understand why the president would want to stoke this brush fire.”

The Trump campaign had previously described Biden’s speculation about Trump wanting to delay the election as “incoherent conspiracy theory ramblings of a lost candidate who is out of touch with reality.”

The president said Thursday he only broached the idea to get the “LameStream Media” to talk about what he described as “dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting.”

“Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!),” Trump tweeted to his more than 85 million followers.

Glad I was able to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

Several top Republicans dismissed the idea of delaying the election on Thursday, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.).

“Never in the history of federal elections have we ever not held an election, and we should go forward with our election,” McCarthy said Thursday.