Barr doesn’t believe Trump should run again: ‘Obviously bent on revenge more than anything else’

Trump-era Attorney General Bill Barr believes former President Donald Trump is in it solely for “revenge.”

Speaking this week with CBS News’ Catherine Herridge, he expressed excitement over the GOP’s future and even projected a Republican candidate winning two straight terms in the fashion of legendary Republican President Ronald Reagan.

However, he made it clear that he wasn’t referring to Trump but rather somebody else — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, perhaps?

“I think the future is bright for the Republican Party. I view 2024 as setting up another 1980, when [former President] Reagan won two terms and then [former President George H.W.] Bush won a third term. And that’s what I think you really need to make America great again, you know, [a] decisive victory and the reaction to the excesses of the progressive Democrats,” he said.

Keep in mind that Trump’s already been president once, meaning he could be president only one more time — not twice.

And I think we could do that again and really achieve a decisive victory with the right candidate, but I don’t think Trump is that candidate. The day he’s elected, he’ll be a 78-year-old lame duck who is obviously bent on revenge more than anything else,” the former AG then added.

Listen:

Is that really Trump’s sole motivation, though? To hear Trump tell it, this isn’t the case at all.

During his latest rally Friday evening in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he vowed that he’s in the fight for the American people and nobody else. As proof, he cited the fact that he could easily return to living a life of luxury if he wanted to but would rather suffer the persecution of the establishment than give up.

“If I renounce my beliefs, if I agree to stay silent, if I stayed home, or if I stayed in my basement like Joe Biden did, the persecution would stop immediately. That’s what they want me to do, and it would all be very nice. I’d have a very nice life. But I can’t do that, and I will not do that, because I love our country and the people of our country. I love them so much,” he said.

“And I’m not doing this for me because I had a very good and luxurious life before entering the wonderful world of politics. I’m doing this for you, and it’s my honor to do it,” the former president added.

That being said, Trump currently leads all GOP primary polls, meaning Barr’s desire for someone else to take up the mantle — someone like DeSantis, perhaps — is unlikely to be fulfilled. Or is it?

If by chance Trump is charged with a criminal offense of some kind, convicted, and then imprisoned, then Barr would get his wish.

Speaking of which, continuing his remarks to Herridge, Barr then turned to the Jan. 6th committee’s investigation.

“Barr called the newest federal grand jury subpoenas probing the Jan. 6, 202, Capitol riot ‘a significant event,’ one that suggests that government prosecutors are probing high-ranking Trump administration officials and allies, and even former President Donald Trump,” according to CBS News.

“The Justice Department’s criminal investigation into Jan. 6 now includes questions for witnesses about the communications of people close to Trump and his reelection campaign, though it is not evident from CBS News’ reporting that Trump himself is a target of the investigation — only that that prosecutors have been asking questions related to him and his aides.”

It is, however, apparently evident to Barr.

“This suggests to me that they’re taking a hard look at the group at the top, including the president and the people immediately around him who were involved in this,” he told Herridge.

Maybe, maybe not, though according to the president’s supporters, the fact still remains that no evidence has emerged to prove that the former president ever committed any crime.

“President Trump did nothing wrong,” Rep. Jim Jordan said to the Washington Examiner during a phone interview last December.

“People who did something wrong are being held accountable, as they should be. There’s been like 600 prosecutions. But President Trump didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, he told people to — as has been said many times, but it’s worth repeating — peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. And he didn’t do anything wrong,” Jordan added.

Of course, given that the Biden administration has charged four police officers for the supposed crime of defending themselves from a drug-dealing gangster who’d opened fire on them, it’s not clear the notions of right and wrong even matter to this administration …

Vivek Saxena

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