OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr is on a media blitz for his new book and has wasted little time speaking negatively about former President Donald Trump.
During an interview on NBC News with host Lester Holt, Barr spoke about his new memoir, particularly an “awkward” moment in the Oval Office.
Barr first saw then-President Trump after The Associated Press reported on an interview in which Barr said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud that determined the outcome of the 2020 election.
Barr told the AP’s Michael Balsamo that the DOJ explored some of these claims, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Barr said Trump was “enraged” over this and “slammed his fists” on the Resolute Desk.
Below is a transcript:
BARR: “And I told him that all this stuff was bulls**t and — about election fraud. And, you know, I was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was, and he started asking me about different theories, and I had the answers. I was able to tell him, this is wrong because of this.”
HOLT: “You’re trying to set him straight.”
BARR: “Yes. And, you know, he listened. He was obviously getting very angry about this. I said okay, look, I understand you’re upset with me and I’m perfectly happy to tend to my resignation, and then — boom!”
HOLT: “He slaps the desk?”
BARR: “He slapped the desk and he said ‘accepted, accepted.’ And then — boom! He slapped it again. ‘Accepted. Go home, don’t go back to your office, go home. You’re done.’”
WATCH:
Barr didn’t stop there.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Barr claimed he “confronted” Trump about his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election and told him they “bullshit.”
The former attorney general wrote that, during their meeting on December 1, 2020, he told Trump that the latter had “wheeled out a clown show” of lawyers to pursue his baseless claims. Barr also described how Trump angrily slammed his hands on his desk after accepting Barr’s resignation.
Barr wrote:
The first day of December 2020, almost a month after the presidential election, was gray and rainy. That afternoon, President Trump, struggling to come to terms with the election result, had heard I was at the White House for another meeting and sent word that I was to come see him immediately. I knew what was coming.
Over the preceding weeks, I had been increasingly concerned about claims by the president and the team of outside lawyers advising him that the election had been “stolen” through widespread voting fraud. I had no doubt there was some fraud in the 2020 presidential elections.
There’s always some fraud in an election that large. But the Justice Department had been looking into the claims made by the president’s team, and we had yet to see evidence of fraud on the scale necessary to change the outcome of the election.
