U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) his upped the ante with his rhetoric by mocking Attorney General William Barr, whom he called a “chicken” — and the Democrat held up a chicken statue and ate fried chicken for effect.
Breitbart reported on the tirade at a press conference by the Memphis congressman. The remarks came after Barr said he would not attend a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report showing there was no collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice.
#ChickenBarr won’t be appearing before @HouseJudiciary tomorrow. The Attorney General shouldn’t be afraid of taking questions from counsel or members. Contemptible behavior. Fortunately, we have subpoenas ready. pic.twitter.com/a4QecbqcHN
— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) May 1, 2019
The Commercial Appeal reported that Cohen brought the chicken statue and a KFC bucket to the hearing.
Barr reportedly refused to attend the hearing because House Democrats demanded that staff attorneys, in addition to lawmakers, be allowed to question Barr over his summary of the Mueller report — a condition that Barr refused to comply with.
Before the morning hearing started, however, Cohen ate the chicken in his KFC bucket, Fortune reported.
Regarding his analogy, Cohen said in a press release, “The message is Attorney General Bill Barr is not brave enough to answer questions from a staff attorney and members of the Judiciary Committee. A legitimate attorney general would not refuse to appear at an oversight hearing but Barr is fearful our questions would expose his duplicity and prove once again that he is the president’s fixer, not the nation’s top law enforcement official. While the props were in gest, (sic) I am acutely aware of how close we are to a serious Constitutional crisis when the executive branch essentially declines to have its actions reviewed by Congress, a co-equal branch of our government.”
Barr testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, where he said the Mueller team investigated the president “exhaustively” and did not find any evidence of collusion or obstruction.
MSNBC interviewed Cohen about his props, in which the congressman said, “I think the attorney general deserves no respect.”
The video is available here.
This is not the first time Cohen has disrespected another public official.
Last July, Cohen said he wished President Donald Trump would tell Marsha Blackburn, who was running for the Senate, to jump off a bridge in Memphis, as The Tennessee Star reported previously.
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes.
Background Photo “William Barr Chicken Head” by Steve Cohen.
[…] The Tennessee Star reported, Cohen, who represents Memphis, mocked U.S. Attorney General William Barr at a House […]
Aw, come on folks, give Cohen a break, he is just trying to get rid of the “Crow taste” he had to eat after all his comments about Trump and Russia.
Personally, I didn’t think there was enough people of “Cohen”s caliber” in Tennessee to elect a dog catcher, much less a Senator.
But evidently, I was wrong.
Character criticism coming from an alcoholic /pedopilic looking embarrassment from memphis. Cohen, do Tennessee a favor and leave or shut your mouth.
Cohen doesn’t belong in the same room as Barr.. Cohen is such a jester/clown… Don’t give him pub… what a disgrace Cohen is… Paul R.
Such childish behavior and such an embarrassment to Tennessee. This reminds me of the time the Democrats in the house had a sit down protest over a 2nd amendment bill that they were in disagreement with. I cannot believe there a people gullible enough to keep electing these fools.
Mr. Cohen;
I am a supporter of President Trump and an independent conservative. I also completely trust William Barr as Attorney General of the United States. This letter is to extend an invitation. Please come to my home and call me a chicken to my face.
Hey Memphis, aren’t you proud?
Was Cohen born ethically bankrupt and without a trace of dignity?
I hope his liver fails soon. But, Memphis will replace him with a clone clown.
When Memphis Democrat Steve Cohen mocks ‘Chicken Barr’ at House hearing, by eating KFC fried chicken in the committee room. He mocked the very people he supposed to represent. Fried Chicken is sometime used to stereotype minorities.
A May 22, 2013 NPR article by Gene Demby titled “Where did that Fried Chicken Stereotype come from?”
Demby asked Claire Schmidt for help in his research for the article. She’s a professor at the University of Missouri who studies race and folklore.
“Schmidt said chickens had long been a part of Southern diets, but they had particular utility for slaves. They were cheap, easy to feed and a good source of meat.
But then, Schmidt says, came Birth of a Nation.
D.W. Griffith’s seminal and supremely racist 1915 silent movie about the supposedly heroic founding of the Ku Klux Klan was a huge sensation when it debuted. One scene in the three-hor features a group of actors portraying shiftless black elected officials acting rowdy and crudely in a legislative hall. (The message to the audience: These are the dangers of letting blacks vote.) Some of the legislators are shown drinking. Others had their feet kicked up on their desks. And one of them was very ostentatiously eating fried chicken.
“That image really solidified the way white people thought of black people and fried chicken,” Schmidt said.”
At some point in America, we were taught to associate fried chicken and watermelon with a stereotypical view of black America. It started with turn of the century minstrel shows and films like Birth of a Nation (1915) and persists today at awkward “themed” office parties and school lunches nationwide. Through the power of ignorance, these tasty staples became synonymous with the “laziness” and “stupidity” of black Americans. This was good for nobody.
Surely Steve Cohen must thought this was a good joke, or was it a Freudian Slip? FYI: A Freudian slip an unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings.