U.S. Sen. Cory Booker called on U.S. Attorney General William Barr to resign Wednesday, about an hour after he lambasted Barr during a hearing for “normalizing” President Donald Trump’s behavior in the way he has painted the Mueller Report to the public.

Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate, took to Twitter to push for the resignation as Barr appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss his handling of Mueller’s report.

Booker tweeted that Barr has shown “he lied to us and mishandled the Mueller report.” The senator shared a petition calling for his resignation:

Attorney General Barr answers to the American people—not to President Trump—and over the past 24 hours it’s become clear that he lied to us and mishandled the Mueller Report. He needs to step down. Add your name if you agree: https://t.co/x7KkyROdi5 — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) May 1, 2019

Booker — who is frequently critical of Trump, a Republican — unleashed some of the most fiery comments and questions directed at Barr, the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, during Wednesday’s hearing at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

“I fear you are adding normalcy to the point where we should be sounding alarms as opposed to saying that there’s nothing to see here," Booker told the attorney general.

Booker called the Mueller report “a very sobering moment in American history" and said he fears “we’re descending int a new normal that’s dangerous for our democracy.”

He said it exposes a “deep litany of lies and deceit and misconduct” from Trump and his allies.

The report, released last month and overseen by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, found the Russian government tried to influence the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win, though it did not find enough evidence to conclude the president conspired with Russia.

Mueller’s team also laid out areas where Trump may have obstructed justice but did not come to a conclusion about whether the president did.

Barr said at a news conference the day the report was released that he and Deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein found was not enough evidence to say Trump did not obstruct justice.

Wednesday’s hearing came news surfaced that Mueller sent a letter to Barr in March complaining about a four-page memo Barr sent to Congress about the conclusions of the report.

Mueller wrote that Barr’s words “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of the report and that it threatened to “undermine” the public’s confidence in the investigation.

Barr told the committee Wednesday that it was up to him at that point to reveal what he believed was right.

“At that point, it was my baby,” Barr said of the report.

Democrats on the committee took Barr to task, accusing him of defending Trump — who appointed him — when he should be more critical of the president. Though attorneys general are appointed by presidents, they traditionally are expected to act independently.

Booker zeroed in on a statement Barr made during his news conference last month, when the attorney general said the report finding Trump did not collude with Russians is “something all Americans can and should be grateful to have confirmed.”

Booker said he found Bar’s “choice of words alarming” and that it "calls into question your objectivity.”

“Should the American people really be grateful that a candidate for president sought to benefit from material and information that was stolen by a foreign power to influence an election?” the senator asked Barr.

Barr replied: “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘seek to benefit.’ There’s no indication that they engaged in either the conspiracy to hack or that they engaged in any action with respect to the dissemination that was criminal.”

Cory Booker to Bill Barr: In your news conference, you suggested the American people should be grateful the Mueller investigation cleared him of collusion. Should the American people be grateful the Trump campaign had 215 contacts with Russian operatives and then lied about them? pic.twitter.com/WOOMedsYrv — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 1, 2019

Barr also said foreign governments and citizens “frequently make a lot of attempts to contact campaigns.”

“If we were right now, for example, to go and look at Hillary Clinton’s campaign during the same timeframe,” he added, “then you’d see a lot of foreign governments trying to establish …”

Booker cut him off and accused Barr of trying to “brush over” the “new normal in the country.”

“Nobody should be grateful,” the senator said.

“You seem to not even be willing to be the least bit critical in your summarizations,” Booker added.

Booker also drew attention later in the hearing, when one of his rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, took over questioning Barr.

Booker was seen trying not to laugh as Harris grilled the attorney general:

Oh man, watch @CoryBooker trying and failing not to laugh while @KamalaHarris quietly dismantles Barr. Look closely: pic.twitter.com/TiMR7OCWTr — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) May 1, 2019

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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