Former Attorney General Bill Barr has been the toast of the media for his willingness to criticize his old boss and his latest appearance on the Sunday morning political talk circuit was like waving a red cape in front of an angry bull as former President Donald J. Trump came roaring out of the chute to give it to his one-time underling with both horns.
The always loquacious Barr drew the ire of Trump for remarks that he made during an appearance on the Easter morning edition of ABC’s “This Week” where he regaled host Jonathan Karl with his keen legal and political insight, opining that while Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the former president lacks merit, that the ongoing special counsel investigation into January 6 and documents recovered from Mar-a-Lago during last summer’s FBI storming of Trump’s South Florida residence will likely be what brings him down.
Barr also suggested that Democrats want Trump to win the party’s nomination because he would be a guaranteed two-time loser in a rematch with President Joe Biden.
“I don’t think anything’s going to happen before a nomination is made and even perhaps until the election, the 2024 election,” Barr said when asked about a timeline of Trump being convicted. “This stuff is going to drag out through ’24, and it’s going to stymie and disrupt the whole Republican primary process.”
“I also think, though, as far as the general election is concerned, it will gravely weaken Trump,” he said of Trump’s legal problems being dragged out. “He’s already, I think, a weak candidate that would lose, but I think this sort of assures it.”
On special counsel Jack Smith, Barr tells @JonKarl: “He is a very dogged, aggressive prosecutor who will get to the bottom of what happened."
"This is one of the things that leads me to believe that if there is a case to be made, it will be brought.” https://t.co/dyQCRKJg64 pic.twitter.com/3q6GoR22TK
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 9, 2023
Barr also weighed in on the ongoing probe by current Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department.
“He had no claim to those documents, especially the classified documents. It belonged to the government,” Barr said of Trump and the documents at Mar-a-Lago. “I think he was jerking the government around.”
“The government is investigating the extent to which games were played and there was obstruction in keeping the documents from them. I think that’s a serious potential case, I think they probably have some very good evidence there,” he continued, suggesting that special counsel Jack Smith could move to indict Trump.
A furious Trump, who has frequently battered Barr over his chumminess with the media, erupted at his former subordinate on his Truth Social platform.
“Slovenly and pathetic Bill Barr, our COWARD former A.G., was on ABC FAKE NEWS this weekend making statements that he knows nothing about (he was long since gone from the White House, I wanted him out!) concerning the BOXES HOAX, a continuation of RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, the Mueller Witch Hunt, & more. While he correctly puts down the N.Y.D.A. case, he plays up the equally ridiculous BOXES HOAX, where Biden should have the problem, not me. Barr is a weak & angry RINO!” Trump raged on Monday morning.
(Image: Screengrab/Truth Social)
It was the second time in less than a week that Trump took a flamethrower to a man whom he hired but then watched the relationship between the two turn sour, hitting the rocks for good after the 2020 election, a contest that the former president continues to maintain was not on the up and up.
“WHY DOES FOX KEEP PUTTING ON BILL BARR. AS ATTORNEY GENERAL HE WAS A COMPLETE COWARD WHO WAS ABSOLUTELY PETRIFIED OF BEING IMPEACHED, WHICH THE DEMOCRATS THREATENED TO DO UNTIL HE BECAME THEIR VIRTUAL ‘SLAVE’ AND REFUSED TO INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE THE MASSIVE ELECTION FRAUD THAT TOOK PLACE IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, BY FAR THE RADICAL LEFT’S GREATEST CONCERN. HE SAID HE DID INVESTIGATE, BUT HE DIDN’T HAVE THE “GUTS” TO PROPERLY DO SO, AND NOW WE HAVE A NATION IN MASSIVE DECLINE!” Trump wrote in an all-caps Truth Social rant on the day of his arrest in Bragg’s trumped-up case over an alleged “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
(Image: Screengrab/Truth Social)
Barr also suggested that Trump only has himself to blame for his problems, saying that the ex-POTUS has demonstrated “reckless and self-destructive behavior.”
“In many respects, he’s his own worst enemy,” Barr added.
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