Attorney General William Barr skipped out on the House Judiciary hearings Thursday, but in his stead was a ceramic chicken and bucket of KFC fried chicken courtesy of Tennessee congressman Steve Cohen.
Cohen dubbed the Attorney General “ChickenBarr” for failing to appear for the second day of testimony regarding the Mueller report. Barr did, however, testify for over four hours during Wednesday’s hearing. Cohen tweeted on Wednesday, “#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.”
The Congressman retweeted a photo of himself eating from a bucket of KFC. He even offered pieces of fried chicken to passersby as well as his seat neighbors.
To really drive the point home, Cohen placed a ceramic chicken statuette at a seat reserved for Barr.
Cohen’s stunt has inspired memes across the internet, including an entire twitter page dedicated to the Cohen-coined DOJ/poultry portmanteau.
Videos have popped up around the interviews taking Cohen’s lead in comparing the Attorney General to the apocryphally cowardly bird.
During a press conference Cohen said, while holding up the ceramic chicken statuette, “Chicken Barr should have shown up today and answered questions.”
Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) opened Thursday’s hearing with a statement excoriating the Trump administration and Barr’s decision to skip the hearing. Nadler ended the session after about 20 minutes.