William Barr, attorney general under both George H.W. Bush and Donald J. Trump, is on a rehabilitation tour right now. It hasn’t been going so well. But he does have a forthcoming memoir, with a semi-profane title, in which he turns on the latter, a little over a year after resigning in disgust over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. He’s clearly trying to fix a reputation tarnished by his association with the most notorious president in American history. But there’s one catch: He’d vote for Trump again.
Bill Barr, after saying that Trump lied about the election and caused the attack on Congress, refuses to rule out supporting Trump in 2024 because Democrats are “the greatest threat to the country.” pic.twitter.com/2KFbz2c9cX
— John Whitehouse+ (@existentialfish) March 7, 2022
During an interview with NBC’s Today, Barr was asked what he’d do if the man he’s called “manic and unreasonable” as well as “off the rails” makes good on his endless teases to run for the highest office in the land a third time. Barr’s answer was surprising — well, not that surprising, honestly.
“I have made it clear that I don’t think he should be our nominee,” Barr told Today’s Savannah Guthrie. “I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic party.”
Guthrie pushed back. “So even if he lied about the election and threatened democracy,” she charged, “[he’s] better than a Democrat?”
“As of now, it’s hard for me to conceive that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee,” Barr told her.
Trump, meanwhile, would almost certainly not re-hire Barr should he wind up back in the White House. Last week, the former president sent a strange letter to NBC News anchor Lester Holt, trashing his former AG, who, among other things, straight-up lied about the contents of the Mueller Report before a partially complete version was made public.
“Bill Barr cares more about being accepted by the corrupt Washington Media and Elite than serving the American people,” Trump wrote. “He was slow, lethargic, and I realized early on that he never had what it takes to make a great Attorney General.” He also provided a negative review of his new book, which he hasn’t read. “I would imagine that if the book is anything like [Barr], it will be long, slow, and very boring.”
But yes, it’s progressive politics that are worse than an uncontrollable madman with authoritarian leanings with a proven track record of despising free and fair elections, probably because he’s never won the popular vote.
(Via The Daily Beast)