Bill Barr set to hammer critics and back federal agents battling a ‘mob of hundreds of rioters’ in fiery House remarks – The Sun
WILLIAM Barr is set to hammer critics and back federal agents battling a "mob of hundreds of rioters" in fiery House remarks.
The Attorney General will make his debut before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning.
"Ever since I made it clear that I was going to do everything I could to get to the bottom of the grave abuses involved in the bogus Russiagate scandal, many of the Democrats on this committee have attempted to discredit me by conjuring up a narrative that I am simply the president’s factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions," Barr's opening statement reads.
"Judging from the letter inviting me to this hearing, that appears to be your agenda today."
Barr is expected to discuss the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after cop Derek Chauvin was filmed kneeling on his neck during an arrest while providing statistics of the number of white men who have been killed by police.
"Police forces today are far more diverse than ever before; there are both more Black police chiefs and more Black officers in the ranks.
"Although the death of George Floyd – an unarmed Black man – at the hands of the police was a shocking event, the fact is that such events are fortunately quite rare.
"According to statistics compiled by the Washington Post, the number of unarmed Black men killed by police so far this year is eight. The number of unarmed White men killed by police over the same time period is 11.
"Some unarmed suspects, moreover, were physically attacking officers or threatening others at the time they were shot. And, the overall number of police shootings has been decreasing."
He is then expected to discuss black-on-black crime, and suggest that the "vast majority" black Americans are killed by other black people.
"The threat to Black lives posed by crime on the streets is massively greater than any threat posed by police misconduct.
"The leading cause of death for young Black males is homicide. Every year approximately 7,500 Black Americans are victims of homicide, and the vast majority of them – around 90 percent – are killed by other Blacks, mainly by gunfire.
"Each of those lives matter."
Barr is also set to comment on the protests and riots that have been ensuing throughout the United States since Floyd's death.
In Portland, protesters have set the Justice Center and Federal Courthouse on fire following the news that President Donald Trump was sending federal agents into the city.
Demonstrators launched fireworks at the building on Thursday, cops said, and a riot was declared in the area in the early hours of July 22 amid vandalism and assaults.
"Every night for the past two months, a mob of hundreds of rioters has laid siege to the federal courthouse and other nearby federal property," Barr's statement reads.
"The rioters arrive equipped for a fight, armed with powerful slingshots, tasers, sledgehammers, saws, knives, rifles, and explosive devices.
"Inside the courthouse are a relatively small number of federal law enforcement personnel charged with a defensive mission: to protect the courthouse, home to Article III federal judges, from being overrun and destroyed."
He will add: "What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called a protest; it is, by any objective measure, an assault on the government of the United States.
"In recent nights, rioters have barricaded the front door of the courthouse, pried plywood off the windows with crowbars, and thrown commercial-grade fireworks into the building in an apparent attempt to burn it down with federal personnel inside."
Barr is also expected to say that rioters have "started fires outside the building, and then systematically attacked federal law enforcement officers who attempt to put them out—for example, by pelting the officers with rocks, frozen water bottles, cans of food, and balloons filled with fecal matter. A recent video showed a mob enthusiastically beating a deputy U.S. marshal who was trying to protect the courthouse – a property of the United States government funded by this Congress – from further destruction.
"A number of federal officers have been injured, including one severely burned by a mortar-style firework and three who have suffered serious eye injuries and may be permanently blind. Largely absent from these scenes of destruction are even superficial attempts by the rioters to connect their actions to George Floyd's death or any legitimate call for reform."
Fox News reported that today's hearing will include four-and-a-half to five hours of questioning, with Barr's appearance being voluntary and not responsive to any subpoena.
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