Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Congressman Puts A Bucket Of KFC At Barr’s Empty Seat — Get It? Chicken?

When Attorney General William Barr failed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee this morning, Representative Steve Cohen had the perfect rejoinder – unfortunately, it may come with a side of heartburn.

In a taunt sure to grease up the House floor, Cohen, a Democrat of Tennessee, produced a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and arranged a ceramic chicken prop at his desk. The message, of course, was clear: He thinks Barr’s a chicken for not showing up to the House hearing a day after his Mueller report testimony before the Senate.

“He’s here,” Cohen said of Barr, pointing to the chicken bucket, before digging in to the Colonel’s secret recipe.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler appeared to enjoy the gag.

Barr’s true motivations for skipping the hearing in the Democrat-controlled House (he cited his objection to questioning by staff lawyers) may be a mystery to us, but his playing hooky and risking contempt of Congress is almost as ill-advised as Cohen’s eating fried chicken at 9 AM.

PJ Grisar is the Forward’s culture intern. He can be reached at [email protected].

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.