Randy Rainbow Shines On Barr, and the Mueller Report, Once More

Political musical parodist Randy Rainbow has a new video out that revisits controversial Attorney General William Barr and his handling – or mishandling, as some see it – of the Mueller Investigation report, reports Billboard.

This is a second helping of the singing comedy sensation's scalding satire of Barr, noted Billboard.

As in many of Rainbow's video critiques, the stage is set with a faux interview. In this case, Rainbow appears to be part of a press pool attending a briefing given by Barr on the report. Referring in passing to Barr as "Roseanne," Rainbow launches right in with, "Many are concerned that you have whitewashed this report in an effort to protect the president. Your response?"

As Barr launches into a non-answer, music swells – the strains of "Belle," from "Beauty and the Beast." Rainbow literally drifts away as Barr drones, his image sliding to the right as Barr's voice distorts into a dull, slowed-down rumble.

"Little clown, crying 'No collusion,'" Rainbow croons. "We've been tricked, and it's gone too far. He ain't down with the Constitution – that's why Trump hand-picked Bill Barr!"

With the utterance of the name, the song and video spiral into kinetic life, with Rainbow appearing to shout out to the Attorney General from different directions.

"Roseanne?" iteration of Rainbow shouts.

"Why does he just keep saying, 'No Obstruction?'" Rainbow muses. "He must be under Donald's spell. He's a sheisty hypocrite," the parodist continues, making a wordplay on a term used to connote a shady attorney. "You might say he's full of shit – just like someone else I know. Good morning, Kell!"

The scene shifts from a briefing with Barr to a mock appearance on Fox News – termed "Fake News Channel" in the video - with Kellyanne Conway, who appears to leap in defensively, spouting, "First of all, the investigation by Mr. Mueller – "

"Okay, I just said 'Good morning,'" Rainbow attempts to break in, perplexed at the torrent of verbiage.

Undeterred, Conway appears to plow right on: " – failed to conclude that the president had committed a crime – "

"Wow!" Rainbow interrupts. "That's great! Your husband hates you. Gotta go."

As a smiling Conway slides away off screen, Rainbow resumes, "Now it's no wonder Donald crapped his diaper the day he heard they hired Bob. Since he really did obstruct, he said, 'Oh my god, I'm fucked!' Then he called Bill Barr and offered him the job."

Those lyrics reference a passage in the report, widely disseminated in the media, in which Trump, hearing that Mueller – a former director of the FBI with a sterling reputation for integrity who commands respect across the political spectrum – exclaimed, "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."

Current headlines indicated that Mueller reached to Barr after Barr summarized the report with a four-page exegesis that Mueller critiqued as lacking "context."

According to a Justice Department spokesperson, "The Special Counsel emphasized that nothing in the Attorney General's [summary] was inaccurate or misleading," but even so, "he expressed frustration over the lack of context... regarding the [report's] obstruction analysis," the BBC reported.

As a result of Barr's summary, Mueller fretted, "There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation."

Democratic leadership characterized the summary differently, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tweeting, "Attorney General Barr misled the public and owes the American people answers."

The White House and Republican leadership, for their part, seized on the report as having fully "exonerated" Trump – something that the report did not do. Though Mueller could not prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to manipulate the 2016 election, that is not definitive proof that no collusion took place; moreover, the report specifically did not exonerate the president of alleged attempts to obstruct an investigation into the question.

Rainbow seemed to take this point to heart, singing, "What they declare he's just repeating, like in that phony summary."

Rainbow's signature chorus – comprised of multiple images of the parodist singing in harmony – now appears: "He should play fair, but he's misleading." Re-entering, Rainbow picks up the narrative: "He's shadier than Sarah Huckabee," a jab at White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose honesty has been questioned in the press.

"Huckabee Caught in a Lie?" a banner wonders, as Sanders and Rainbow appear to interact. Rainbow, wielding a copy of the report, declares, "Why look, it even questions your own credibility, stating you lied multiple times to the American public about the firing of James Comey."

"Actually, if you look at what I said, I said the slip of the tongue was in using the word 'countless,'" Sanders replies.

Shortly afterward, Rainbow shows up in a Disney Princess costume, still clutching the report, and croons, "Damn, this is so redacted!" An over-the-shoulder shot depicts two pages of the bound volume in which fully half the text is blacked out.

The song careens on from there, roping in Trump celebrity lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who bites back with, "Stop this pious act... there's nothing wrong with taking information from Russians!" When Rainbow expresses incredulity, Giuliani response, "It depends on where it came from." Snaps Rainbow: "It came from Russians!"

Rainbow escapes Giuliani's rhetorical coils with, "Excuse me, I have to do a costume change." When he reappears, it's to share the screen with Jerry Nadler "with a fat subpoena for White House counsel Don McGahn." Then, skipping to Trump's son, "Little Junior pushed his luck – Daddy's thankful he's a schmuck – and his dumbass foiled their own master plan, a reference to a bungled meeting that reportedly took place at Trump Tower between the younger Trump and a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin and autocratic Russian president Vladimir Putin. Media coverage of what the report has to say about this concludes that Donald, Jr. managed to avoid breaking the law only through circumstance.

The song rolls on to a close that reiterates its basic points: "He lied," "She 'slipped,' " and, of course, "I need a drink."

View the parody video below.