Episode 4: Trump turns on Barr

[demmiblue]

Attorney General Bill Barr stood behind a chair in the private dining room next to the Oval Office, looming over Donald Trump. The president sat at the head of the table. It was Dec. 1, nearly a month after the election, and Barr had some sharp advice to get off his chest. The president's theories about a stolen election, Barr told Trump, were "bullshit."

White House counsel Pat Cipollone and a few other aides in the room were shocked Barr had come out and said it — although they knew it was true. For good measure, the attorney general threw in a warning that the new legal team Trump was betting his future on was "clownish."

Trump had angrily dragged Barr in to explain himself after seeing a breaking AP story all over Twitter, with the headline: "Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud." But Barr was not backing down. Three weeks later, he would be gone.

The relationship between the president and his attorney general was arguably the most consequential in Trump's Cabinet. And in the six months leading up to this meeting, the relationship between the two men had quietly disintegrated. Nobody was more loyal than Bill Barr. But for Trump, it was never enough.

https://www.axios.com/trump-barr-relationship-off-the-rails-b33b3788-e7e9-47fa-84c5-3a0016559eb5.html

[servermsh]

1. Better to read Marcy Wheeler's analysis of Barr and that article

https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/01/18/the-press-continues-to-help-billy-barr-whitewash-his-complicity-in-january-6/

[marble falls]

3. She makes a lot of unfounded accusations ...

Like "those very same clowns had gotten Barr to squander the credibility of DOJ". Lets see some backing on that.

Barr is no kind of hero, but he could have made it much worse on his way out.

[marble falls]

2. Thanks for a great read! And a podcast, yet!

[highplainsdem]

4. Barr reportedly said privately it was "always Groundhog Day trying to explain things to Trump."

Both funny and terrifying/tragic.