Barr Seems To Make Excuses For Capitol Riots After Mocking ‘Liberals’ For Concerns

Attorney General Bill Barr waits before President Donald Trump signs an executive order about social media in the Oval Office on May, 28, 2020. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Former Attorney General Bill Barr totally saw this coming, really!

On Monday, Barr told ITV News that he was “sad to see but not surprised” by the pro-Trump insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, asserting that loss of faith in the elections was “the thing that precipitated” the violence.

However, the former attorney general seemed to give some cover to President Donald Trump’s primary role as the instigator of the mob attack.

“I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘inevitable,’ but I think that when you start suppressing free speech, when people lose confidence in the media, and also when they lose faith in the integrity of elections, you are going to have some people resort to violence,” Barr said.

Yet the ex-attorney general refused to mentioned President Donald Trump, who persistently regurgitated lies about election fraud and was the one who incited his supporters to attack the Capitol on the basis of those lies, by name.

“I’ll leave it to the people who are looking into the genesis of this to say whether incitement was involved,” Barr said.

The former Trump official’s remarks on Monday marked a glaring contrast with the way he had mocked “liberals” in September who (accurately) predicted that Trump would undermine the election results and refuse to concede if he lost to Joe Biden.

“All this bullshit about how the President is going to stay in office and seize power? I’ve never heard of any of that crap,” Barr told Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass. “I mean, I’m the attorney general. I would think I would have heard about it.”

“They are projecting,” he continued. “They are creating an incendiary situation where there will be loss of confidence in the vote.”

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for danny danny says:

    I looked into the genesis. Incitement was involved.

  2. Avatar for tao tao says:

    Barr was not surprised by what he enabled.

  3. “All this bullshit about how the President is going to stay in office and seize power? I’ve never heard of any of that crap,”

    Any bets he wouldn’t repeat that under oath?

  4. No pardon for you, Fat Boy…

  5. Oh do go away and don’t show your face again until you’re subpoenaed

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

153 more replies

Participants

Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for jw1 Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for rollinnolan Avatar for teenlaqueefa Avatar for inversion Avatar for thebigragu Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for texastwostep Avatar for smoscom Avatar for khyber900 Avatar for canyoncountry Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for katscherger Avatar for maximus Avatar for seamus42 Avatar for greenman66 Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for garrybee Avatar for rogerhead Avatar for Volvo_Birkenstock Avatar for old_guru Avatar for JorgeP

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: