And now he has jumped and landed exactly where every other aspect of his service under the Trump administration would indicate: on Trump’s side.
Barr explained his reasoning in an interview with CNN’s Caitlan Collins on Friday. He specifically mentioned the issue on which his break with Trump was most evident: the former president’s efforts to remain in power despite his 2020 loss. What is his argument? Biden was the more worrying actor.
“I think Trump will do less damage than Biden,” Barr told Collins. “I think all of this is a threat to democracy. I think the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement and the Biden administration.”
He explained his idea by claiming: “Threats to freedom and democracy have always been on the left. That is the collectivist socialist agenda.” He explains how he sees these threats emerging now: Did. “Parents are losing their freedom to control their children’s education. And people can’t voice their opinions without losing their jobs. This is a worse situation than the McCarthy era.”
“We’re not policing the border. The border is open,” he continued after a moment. “Illegal activity exists in our cities. Regulations are coming at us fast and furious. Tell people what not to do, get rid of cars, etc. Yes, they are a threat to democracy.”
This is exactly the pattern of the right-wing media bubble. About stoves, about crime, about borders. Then there are the accusations of McCarthyism, the anecdote of “cancel culture.” Collins challenged Barr, citing the right’s attempts to ban books. Mr. Barr shrugged his shoulders and retorted, “Don’t you think there should be some restrictions on what people can read at a very young age?”
That’s it, there it is. Mr. Barr liked and sympathized with Mr. Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy, and in fact cooperated with Mr. Barr on most of those efforts. He hates what Biden is doing, partly because he’s swallowing the nonsensical claims about what Biden is doing, and partly because it’s what the left is doing. This is also because I simply believe that there is. The left is “always” a threat to democracy, he said.Therefore, it is the current Threat to democracy.
Before Barr became the man who rightly debunked Trump’s claims about the 2020 election, he was the man who defended and amplified Trump’s above-the-line approach to the presidency. (While Barr argued in his familiar just-questioning fashion that the charges Trump faces are likely political, he said Trump “seems like he’s basically always testing the envelope.”) He also pointed out to Mr. Collins that he had a “personal personality.”
Mr. Barr’s decision was prompted in part by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s unilateral letter to the Justice Department in 2018 arguing that it was impossible to indict the president for obstruction of justice. Ta. Less than a year after he became attorney general, Mueller’s investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election was quickly closed. Mr. Barr’s framing of the report’s findings was extremely helpful in dispelling concerns about Mr. Trump’s actions.
Barr then went further, appointing a U.S. attorney to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Mr. Barr was actively involved in this effort to raise questions about the activities of federal law enforcement, an effort that ultimately directly implicated Hillary Clinton in triggering questions about Trump’s ties to Russia. . (It didn’t go well.)
Before Barr was the one to admit Trump had no knowledge of election fraud, he was the attorney general who gave Trump more oxygen by allowing the Justice Department to break with tradition by digging into allegations of fraud. was. Before that, he was the man who came to ask law enforcement responding to protesters in Lafayette Square if the protesters were still there when the president came out of the White House. A few minutes later, the square was violently cleared. A few minutes later, President Trump was posed for a photo at the church.
in front that, he is the man who set up a system in which Rudy Giuliani’s flood of allegations about Biden from Ukrainian sources (including some with ties to Russian intelligence) flowed into the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and the final In short, it is the system that produced discredited bribery claims against Biden. Current president.
All of these actions were taken in the service of a president who saw his power as expanding, allowing him to target his opponents in direct and indirect ways. be. As he made clear in his first letter to the Justice Department, Barr shares this view of presidential power, at least when deployed by a Republican president.
But for Democratic administration officials to bring up the idea of phasing out gas stoves, and then quickly backtrack on the idea, it’s hard to imagine how Biden would implement “collectivist socialist policies.” It’s a sign of presence.
Barr frames his worldview in deeply religious terms, as in his infamous speech at the University of Notre Dame in 2019.
“Today’s militant secularists don’t have a let-live mentality,” he said in his speech, calling these secularists out of the blue as QAnon believers as members of the media and entertainment industry or Identified as a university professor. “They are not content to leave religious people alone to practice their faith. In fact, they seem to take pleasure in forcing people to violate their consciences.”
At another point in his speech, Barr said, “I’m not saying there’s no hope for a moral renaissance in our country, but we can’t just sit back and hope the pendulum will swing back to sanity.” ” he said.
Mr. Barr also raised the issue of morality with Mr. Collins.
“Biden is not a great moral example, okay?” he said. “And is he following the law? He’s giving out forgiving student loans again after losing at the Supreme Court.” On Barr’s morality scale, Trump’s actions fall short of Biden’s. It’s the equivalent of generous student loans.
Partly because he’s willing to excuse what Trump did. Mr. Collins asked Mr. Barr about claims that Mr. Trump had called for the execution of people who leaked disparaging stories about him.
“I remember him being very upset about it. Actually, I don’t remember him saying, ‘Run.’ But I have no objection to that, you know? ” Mr. Barr replied. “I mean, it seems different — I mean, the president would be furious and say something like that. I don’t think he would actually do it.”
Pressured by Collins to go further, he insisted that he was confident Trump could stop such behavior. “My concern about President Trump is not that he’s going to become a dictator and do something like that,” Barr argued. His remarks came a minute or two before he argued that the Biden administration’s efforts to combat internal combustion engine emissions were a symbol of democratic collapse.
Mr. Barr also does not seem to acknowledge that his break with Mr. Trump was due specifically to his position as president. incompetence To get Trump off the shelf. He tried unsuccessfully to distance President Trump from election fraud. But he seems to want viewers to believe that President Trump would not kill someone.
Mr. Collins challenged Mr. Barr on this.
“Name one thing Biden has done that is worse” than trying to overturn the election, she said.
“I think his entire administration is a disaster for the country,” Barr responded.
Collins asked whether that was “worse than destroying the peaceful transfer of power.”
“Did he succeed?” Mr. Barr replied.
The answer is, of course, “yes.” Power was transferred, but the process was not peaceful. But at least no one suggested that reducing the use of natural gas stoves would have potential health and environmental benefits.
