He was on the job for less than two years, but he was in the eye of the storm of some of the biggest controversies during the Trump Administration.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr had harsh words about the former President, but also about the Democratic party, and the news media during a Monday night appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Barr was Attorney General under George H.W. Bush, and then was re-appointed to the office in 2019 by President Donald J. Trump. He admits he thought twice about taking the job a second time.
"My business friends up in New York were telling me you really don't want to deal with Trump, he's hard to deal with," said Barr. "But, I didn't feel I was going in to become his buddy...I felt they weren't giving his Presidency his due."
The former Attorney General talks about the allegations of collusion involving Trump and the Russian government.
"This story was put out there during the election, of collusion...that Trump colluded," said Barr. "In my mind, from what I saw, there was no basis for that investigation."
Barr appointed U.S. Attorney John Durham as a special counsel to conduct an investigation of the FBI’s handling of its probe, and whether it was biased or politically motivated.
"I thought the thing that really had to be investigated was how did this thing get going...was it an attempted coup against the President," said Barr. "Durham obviously has been looking at the FBI's conduct, but the other players are the Clinton campaign...what was the game here."
Barr wrote a book called One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General. He spoke about the book, and did a book signing at the Presidential Library.
Barr drew Trump’s ire when he said that Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 election.
"There was just not evidence of fraud on a scale which would have made any difference," said Barr. "All these stories would go out, and we would look into them, and there was nothing to them."
And, he said Trump was responsible in a broad sense for the 2020 attack at the capitol.
"I think it was a stupid, and hair-brained thing, because it completely turned the tables on the Republican Party, and put us on the defensive," said Barr.
The former Attorney General also says Trump damaged the Republican Party in another major way.
"He sabotaged the Republican Party in Georgia, and is responsible for the fact we don't control the Senate," said Barr
Barr was also very critical of the media. He says it has a huge liberal bias, and is largely controlled by Democrats. And, he had strong criticism of the Democratic Party.
"It used to be politics was within a spectrum. Yeah, there's a right and a left, but you would sort of struggle to find a compromise," said Barr. "The progressives are now outside that system, and are trying to tear the system down."
