A Dem congressman placed a toy chicken at AG William Barr’s empty witness desk

Attorney General William Barr was supposed to take questions at a House hearing on Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s report this Thursday, but he was a no-show. In response, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) called him a ‘chicken’ with some well-planned props.

While lawmakers and the press were waiting to see if Barr would show up, Cohen began eating out of a bucket of fried chicken at around 9am, CBS News reports. Cohen then placed a ceramic chicken at the spot where Barr was supposed to sit and take questions.

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The stunt comes after Barr testified for over 5 hours at a Senate hearing this Wednesday, where lawmakers grilled him over his 4-page summary of the Mueller report, which is in excess of 400 pages. Wednesday’s hearing comes in the wake of reports that Mueller was dissatisfied with Barr’s framing of his findings.

Cohen’s symbolism came after Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) slammed Barr’s absence, saying that his actions were a symptom of a bigger problem emanating from the Trump administration which has “prevented us from obtaining information about voting rights, the ACA (Affordable Care Act), and family separations.”

As the hearing was called off, Cohen went to the spot where Barr was supposed to sit and left the empty bucket, along with the chicken figurine, on the table for the press to see.

Speaking to the press later, Cohen held up the chicken statue and declared, “Chicken Barr should have shown up today and answered questions.”

“I’ve been a student of government all my life,” Cohen said. “I watched the Watergate hearings from the beginning to the end. This smacks so much of Watergate and an attorney general like John Mitchell, who believes the president is above the law. That is not America, the president is not above the law, and if the president thinks the Special Counsel’s investigation is a witch hunt, he cannot stop it — but our attorney general thinks so.”

“An attorney general who was picked for his legal acumen and his abilities would not be fearful of any other attorneys for 30 minutes. This man was picked to be Roy Cohn and Donald Trump’s fixer,” he added.

Featured image: screen grab/CBC News

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.