According to the former guy’s attorney general Bill Barr, Trump’s election claims were “all bullshit.”
The new comments come from an excerpt of a new book by journalist Jonathon Karl, which were published in The Atlantic. Barr gave Karl a series of interviews this spring about his break-up with Trump, which was spurred by Barr’s comments in December when he stated, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”
“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr told The Atlantic. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullsh*t.”
Barr said he was summoned to the Oval Office and was confronted by an angry, red-faced Trump.
“How the f*ck could you do this to me? Why did you say it?” Trump asked Barr. Barr responded that he said it because it was true. “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump,” Trump said, referring to himself in the 3rd person, according to Barr.
Barr said he discussed with Trump a simple explanation for perceived fraud in Wayne County, Michigan.
“In every other county, they count the ballots at the precinct, but in Wayne County, they bring them into one central counting place. So the boxes are coming in all night. The fact that boxes are coming in—well, that’s what they do.”
Barr said the DOJ had also investigated voting machines, determining that they were not “rigged” and that a hand recount would have discovered any discrepancies.
“It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy.”
Barr told Trump that his legal team fighting election fraud were a “clown show,” and also disclosed that Mitch McConnell had been urging him to stand up to Trump and his false claims since November. McConnell said he couldn’t do it himself because he needed the president to campaign in Georgia.
“Look, we need the president in Georgia,” McConnell said, according to Barr. “And so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now. But you’re in a better position to inject some reality into this situation. You are really the only one who can do it.”
Axios carried the story, but you can find more details of the interview at The Atlantic.