By Kelly Cohen, Washington Examiner–

William Barr, President Trump’s nominee to be the next attorney general, not only survived his eight-hour Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, but he left it with a strong chance of picking up some Democratic votes.

That seemed unimaginable last year, when Democrats warned that Trump’s decision to fire Jeff Sessions sparked a “constitutional crisis” and fears that Trump was looking to take control of the ongoing investigation into whether he colluded with Russia to win the election in 2016.

But Barr told Democrats repeatedly that he wants special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation to continue and conclude without interference. He said he believes Russia tried to interfere with the election and that a final report is needed. And he said he wouldn’t let Trump tweak the final report before a summary of it is made public.

Barr, who was George H.W. Bush’s attorney general in the early 1990s, also pledged that he wouldn’t be bossed around by Trump or anyone else.

“I am not going to do anything that I think is wrong, and I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong by anybody, whether it be editorial boards or Congress or the president,” Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I’m going to do what I think is right.”

His statements seemed to leave Democrats satisfied that the senior official from another era was about as good as they could do, and many left open the idea that they could vote for him.

Ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., offered praise for Barr during a break in the hearing, and said she agreed that he’ll have an “easy road” to confirmation.

“I think they’re going very well, as a matter of fact. I think the candidate is answering questions and, I think, doing well. And the questions cover a fairly wide range,” Feinstein said. “[H]e’s certainly been responsive to the questions. He hasn’t ducked them and he’s answered them as fully as he can … I think he’s held up well.”

Feinstein at one point offered a snack to a weary grandson of Barr’s, who was sitting behind him in a suit.

One point of contention was a memo he sent to the Justice Department and shared or discussed with White House lawyers in 2018. In June, the unsolicited memo described Mueller’s possible investigation into obstruction of justice by Trump as “fatally misconceived.”

But Barr called the memo “narrow in scope,” and said it was only meant to cover one possible interpretation of obstruction. He said it was written “without any assistance and based solely on public information.”

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Another rough patch for Democrats was when he declined to say he would recuse himself from overseeing the Mueller investigation if he were confirmed. He said that decision is for him to make once he’s confirmed.

But his defense of Mueller’s work, and his belief that Mueller would not be involved in a ” witch hunt,” seemed to open the door to winning some Democratic votes.

“[T]here are still some fundamental issues involving his June memo and for me particularly, the issue of immigration,” said Minority Whip Sen. Dick Durbin. But the Illinois Democrat did call Barr a “strong witness.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said she will decide after the full confirmation hearings if she will vote for Barr.

“I continue to be concerned about his early writings [the memo] and also how that relates to decisions about the release report and a full release of the report, as well as some immigration [issues],” she said.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Barr “did pretty well.”

“I couldn’t say that yet,” the Rhode Island Democrat said when asked if he would vote for him.

Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, so they don’t need any Democratic votes to confirm him, as long as they mostly stick together. But Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he’s hopeful Democrats will come along with GOP senators in the final vote.

“When it comes to policy you can’t expect a Republican nominee to adopt a Democratic agenda,” Graham said. “But you can expect them to be fair arbiters of the law. I’m asking no more of Democrats than I asked of myself. I am hopeful Democrats will support this fine man.”