No f-ing way, dude
After all he did to prop up Trump he has some nerve:
Former Attorney General William Barr attacked Donald Trump and his Republican supporters for again “pandering to outrage,” this time over the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.
Barr was pressed Thursday by journalist Bari Weiss on her podcast “Honestly” on why Republicans should trust the legitimacy of the FBI search in the wake of Trump’s attacks on the operation to retrieve government documents.
An irritated Barr responded: “Something I’m pretty tired of from the right is the constant pandering to outrage and people’s frustrations. And picking and picking and picking at that sore without trying to channel those feelings in a constructive direction.”
Barr said it’s “premature” to reach a conclusion about the Aug. 8 FBI search of Trump’s resort and residence. Agents turned up 27 boxes of material, including 11 packets of classified material, including some top secret information. Under the Presidential Records Act, all of the documents should have been turned over to the National Archives at the end of Trump’s term.
Barr conceded it’s “hard to explain” why Trump would have held on to the official documents.
He characterized vicious attacks on the FBI by Trump and his supporters as “over the top.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was appointed by the former president, is not going to “wake up and say, you know, ’How do I throw the FBI’s weight around to interfere in the political process? Just the opposite. I think he’s very cautious about that,” Barr told Weiss.
Barr said he’s particularly “irritated” at the “whole episode” because it “strengthens [President Joe] Biden and hurts the Republican Party going into the midterms because the focus once again returns to President Trump and his persona and his modus operandi rather than the pocketbook issues” of the campaigns.
Barr also attacked Trump’s constant drive to divide Americans over every issue.
“The problem with Trump is that it’s all about running just the base election, whip up your base, get your base all upset, get them outraged and turn them out at the polls,” Barr said.
“That’s a prescription for continued hostility within the country, and demoralization of the country and an impasse in the country,” he added, which Barr also accused “both sides” of creating.
Barr called Trump his “own worst enemy,” who’s responsible for provoking much of “venom” directed at him.
Barr said when he joined the administration, he hoped Trump would rise to the office of the presidency. “He didn’t,” he added.
But Trump has managed to turn much of the party into a personality cult, Barr indicated.
“This pursuit of a personal agenda and personal power is weakening the Republican Party,” Barr said. “You don’t make America great again by making people madder and madder and madder.”
Please. Barr knew what he was. He was in his cabinet. He helped him. He was instrumental in keeping Trump from being held accountable for his crimes from 2016 and the Mueller investigation and the first impeachment. This is one guy who can never rehab his reputation.
Here’s more from Barr:
[W]hile Barr has opened up a good deal about his time in the Trump administration, there’s one leading awkward moment that stands out, he told journalist Bari Weiss on her podcast, “Honestly,” during an extensive interview.
“The president was bellowing at a number of his Cabinet secretaries and especially the military guys, the DoD secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and calling all of us f-cking losers at the top of his lungs,” Barr said.
Barr appears to be talking about the incident on June 1, 2020, when the Cabinet was debating what to do about protesters across the US who filled the streets after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.
The details of that meeting were first laid out in “A Sacred Oath,” a book by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Barr backed Trump to the hilt on that and was the driving force behind bringing in federal troops. He was in favor of using the Insurrection Act. What a piece of work.
Barr’s answer about his most awkward moment came during the “lightning round” Weiss has at the end of her interviews, where guests have to quickly answer a series of quickly fired questions. Barr’s book, “One Damn Thing After Another,” recounted the incident as well.
Barr, who also served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, was critical of Trump throughout much of the “Honestly” podcast, saying he opposed the way Trump attacked people who didn’t agree with him, as well as his leadership style.
“One would think that an executive would have a better idea how to operate with people and manage people, and he’s a poor manager of people,” Barr said of Trump, who was a real estate mogul with no government experience when he became president.
Barr also said he regretted that Trump was closed to taking advice from the people close to him. He referred to the 2016 election, when the “Access Hollywood” video leaked in which Trump said women would let him “do anything” to them, including grabbing them between the legs.
Barr said Trump “behaved himself for a few weeks and he just squeezed through” to win the presidency, referring to how Trump won the electoral vote against Hillary Clinton but lost the popular vote by 3 million people.
“This time he felt he knew better than everybody else,” Barr said of Trump’s leadership as president. “And so he didn’t follow anybody’s advice.”
He literally uses Trump’s asinine response to the Access Hollywood scandal — apparently believing the comments themselves were just fine — as his expectation that Trump could “grow into the presidency.” Talk about bad judgment.