It is common for many to say that the role of AG is not to be the President's personal lawyer. While that is true, the fact that the Justice Department is within the Executive Branch(Since 1870) with POTUS at the head of it pretty much ensures that the AG will be a partisan officer largely doing the bidding of the Administration. I think that AG Barr did about as good as one could've done in the Trump administration. Especially given that Trump, more than any other POTUS, viewed the presidency as an extension of himself. My guess is that Barr probably walked a tightrope, knowing full well how off the charts unhinged Trump was. There was always this worry that a intemperate President could lash out and purge the more sane voices in his presidency, and fill them with full blown sycophants(especially given that Congress never really sufficiently exercised its powers to hold Trump accountable for his deeds). An easy solution to this, is to not nominate and elect Donald Trump or anyone like him again. Good moral character and integrity can go a long way to fix a lot of what went wrong the past few years.
Regarding Massie, I think people need to cut experts some slack regarding Covid-19, given that we were pretty much learning about it as we went through the pandemic, from a baseline of zero knowledge. I get that Massie is staunchly opposed to most of what the federal government does as a libertarian, and I'm very sympathetic to that argument, broadly speaking. But getting facts wrong retrospectively in good faith or simply being inconclusive(such as with Fauci and asymptomatic spread), is not morally equivalent to lying in the slightest. My biggest concern is that smearing apolitical, good faith public servants like Fauci and others, will discourage good people from serving in our government. Which means less competent partisans will fill these posts. And when you have the less competent hacks running the scene, you get a less competent government. Which usually means more dollars and resources wasted, running contrary to the aims of a limited, efficient government.
It is common for many to say that the role of AG is not to be the President's personal lawyer. While that is true, the fact that the Justice Department is within the Executive Branch(Since 1870) with POTUS at the head of it pretty much ensures that the AG will be a partisan officer largely doing the bidding of the Administration. I think that AG Barr did about as good as one could've done in the Trump administration. Especially given that Trump, more than any other POTUS, viewed the presidency as an extension of himself. My guess is that Barr probably walked a tightrope, knowing full well how off the charts unhinged Trump was. There was always this worry that a intemperate President could lash out and purge the more sane voices in his presidency, and fill them with full blown sycophants(especially given that Congress never really sufficiently exercised its powers to hold Trump accountable for his deeds). An easy solution to this, is to not nominate and elect Donald Trump or anyone like him again. Good moral character and integrity can go a long way to fix a lot of what went wrong the past few years.
Regarding Massie, I think people need to cut experts some slack regarding Covid-19, given that we were pretty much learning about it as we went through the pandemic, from a baseline of zero knowledge. I get that Massie is staunchly opposed to most of what the federal government does as a libertarian, and I'm very sympathetic to that argument, broadly speaking. But getting facts wrong retrospectively in good faith or simply being inconclusive(such as with Fauci and asymptomatic spread), is not morally equivalent to lying in the slightest. My biggest concern is that smearing apolitical, good faith public servants like Fauci and others, will discourage good people from serving in our government. Which means less competent partisans will fill these posts. And when you have the less competent hacks running the scene, you get a less competent government. Which usually means more dollars and resources wasted, running contrary to the aims of a limited, efficient government.