William Barr, who was the Attorney General at the time, said that Donald Trump was resorting to extortion to continue to exert influence over the Republican Party.
In a lengthy interview published Thursday, former New York Times editor Bari Weiss asked Barr why more Republicans did not just come out and say that Trump's claims that election fraud had prevented him from winning the 2020 election were, to use Barr's previous word, " bullshit"
According to Barr, the tactic that Trump is using to exert control over the Republicans is extortion. What other leader did this? I will ruin your election chances by telling my base to sit home if it's not me. I will sabotage whoever you put forward other than me. He shows what he is all about. He's focused on himself.
Trump was angry when he learned that his attorney general had told the AP there was no evidence of election fraud. A clash between Trump and Barr resulted in Barr to tender his resignation on the spot before White House counsel Pat Cipollone persuaded him to leave.
Although Trump once had nothing but public praise for Barr, his has since turned on his former attorney general who didn't have the courage to go after voter fraud.
Weiss asked Barr if he underestimated Trump's disregard for the truth and disregard for the result of the election.
I didn't know how far he'd go. The states had certified the votes when I resigned. That was all I could think of. Barr said that it was the final stop. There was no way that he could challenge the election. I thought it was a good idea to leave. I wasn't correct. I didn't think he would go as far as he did with the legal theories.
According to Weiss, Barr told him that Trump had been a victim of a conspiracy theory that he was a possible Russian agent during the campaign. The full memo written for Barr that advised him not to charge Trump with any crime was released this week.
After the 2020 election, Barr has a more sour view of Trump. Weiss asked what he thought about the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
I was horrified and disgusted. The whole thing hurt the Republican Party and the administration more than before. I wasn't happy about that. The administration was angry about that. It was just an exercise by the police. The whole thing, to me, was a big embarrassment because there wasn't a genuine threat to overthrow the government.
Barr said that the riot was a shame. The president definitely started it.
As for the current legal standoff between Trump and the Justice Department and the National Archives, Barr said he is waiting to see what information emerges before he draws a final conclusion about what the government has said was hundreds of pages of classified documents.
Everyone is reaching conclusions that are premature because there are two important information that we need to know. The nature of the highly classified information is one of the questions. These documents were very sensitive. What is the evidence that the president and his associates in Mar-a-Lago are scheming to deceive the government? Barr made a statement. It is difficult for me to say whether or not it was justified. I think people should wait and see what the evidence is before making a decision.
After the search was done, Trump's support among Republicans went up by seven points for those who said he was their top choice for president. If Trump is found guilty of mishandling classified documents, a majority of Americans think he shouldn't be allowed to serve as president again in the future.
Barr wasn't willing to quit Trump even though he wasn't happy with his former boss and what he saw at the end of his time in office.
If we have Biden versus Trump, Harris versus Trump, or Newsom versus Trump, are you going to vote for Trump? Weiss asked if the attorney general was still alive.
Barr would say yes right now.
Barr said that Trump was not his first choice to become the GOP nominee.
I have been impressed with Ron's record in Florida. Barr said that he would support whoever had the best chance of getting Trump to change his mind.
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