But in the next breath, Barr downplayed the former president’s threats.
Instead, Barr told “The Source” anchor Kaitlan Collins that it was his “feeling” that Trump wouldn’t actually act on his chilling rhetoric.
Collins brought up Trump’s reported rants and noted how former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin has claimed Trump suggested executing an unknown White House staffer who’d “leaked a story about him going to the bunker during the George Floyd protests.”
“I remember him being very mad about that,” Barr told Collins. “I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it.”
Barr recalled how Trump “would lose his temper and say things like that” but said he doubted “he would’ve actually carried it out.”
People “sometimes took him [Trump] too literally,” claimed Barr.
Trump “would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam but I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it,” he added.
Bill Barr suggests Trump talked about executing people on several occasions, unable to recall the specific instance @alyssafarah referenced but thinking of others. “The president would lose his temper and say things like that…” pic.twitter.com/z3pJIquHug
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 27, 2024
Collins asked why he didn’t.
“Because at the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out and you could talk sense into him,” Barr replied. “I don‘t think the threat is there. The thing that I worry about President Trump is not that he’s going to become an autocrat and do those kinds of things.”
Collins pressed Barr on why.
Barr said it was just his “feeling, having worked for him and seen him in action, I don’t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that.”
Barr became a critic of Trump following the latter’s 2020 election loss. He has repeatedly called out his former boss’s baseless claims of voter fraud. However, Barr last week said he’ll vote for the GOP ticket in November even if Trump is the nominee. The about-turn prompted a withering response from Trump.
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