CAUTION: Bill Barr Salvage OP Ahead a Lot of Crap to Move off the Pages of History

FYI: I love Droopy – nothing much for Barr

(Droopy's glasses my artistic touch)

Excellent review of former AG William Barr’s sojourn serving under Trump here from The Hill with this headline:

“William Barr cannot so easily remove the stain on his reputation”

Brief Introduction: From the article’s writer is this very apropos quote from the famous Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who once declared: “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future.”

I wonder if Barr feels that same way. Probably not.

Below is The Hill article – formatted in part to fit the blog – it’s a keeper.

Note: I also posted on this same subject earlier here.

Former AG William Barr kept silent about a profound threat to American democracy. He served – at a minimum – as an enabler of false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged. Barr's recent attempt to separate himself from Trump's “Big Lie” cannot remove the stain on his reputation.

In interviews with Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Barr asserts that after he publicly acknowledged on December 1, 2020, that the DOJ had uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud, he spoke truth to power in “a put-up or shut up time meeting at the White House.”

Then Trump asked: “How the f--k could you do this to me? Why did you say it?” Barr claims he replied: “Because it's true.”

Here's what Barr left out of his exercise in selective history:

Throughout the fall of 2020, he echoed Trump's self-serving warnings about voter fraud when he announced: “Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion.”

Pressed to supply evidence in light of the experience of five states: CO, HI, OR, WA, and UT that have relied heavily on mail-in ballots for many years with no evidence of widespread fraud, Barr replied that his concern was based on “logic.”

Following the presidential election, Barr indicated that allegations of ballot tampering were “substantial and could potentially impact the outcome” of the contest.

In mid-November, he told prosecutors not affiliated with the election crimes branch of the DOJ to skip procedural steps and investigate claims before states moved to certify their results ahead of the meeting of the Electoral College.

At this time as well, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), another profile in something-a-bit-less-than-courage, expressed concern that Trump's charges about uncounted or altered ballots would dissuade Republicans from voting in run-off elections in GA and give Democrats a majority in the U.S. Senate.

McConnell reportedly told Barr that the AG was in a better position than himself “to inject some reality into the situation. You are really the only one who can do it.” 

Barr replied that he would speak out “at the appropriate time.”

Other than the far less than definitive statement Barr made on December 1, the appropriate time never came. 

We do not know with certainty whether Barr's resignation was precipitated by the contentious meeting at the White House. Or who made the decision. We do know that Barr did not “put up or shut up” when he announced that he would leave office effective December 23.

Barr's resignation letter to Trump began with an expression of “appreciation for the opportunity to report to the president on the DOJ's review of voter fraud allegations and how these allegations will continue to be reviewed.” 

Noting that the country was deeply divided, Barr maintained: “It is incumbent on all levels of government, and all agencies within their purview, to do all we can to assure the integrity of elections and promote public confidence in their outcome.”

Barr did not assert that there was no evidence of fraud, that none had been discovered, nor did he lay out a justification for further investigations. 

Instead, Barr changed the subject, launching into a list of the “many successes” of the Trump administration.

Barr declared: “The record was all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance. Your 2016 victory speech in which you reached out to your opponents and called for working together for the benefit of the American people was immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds.”

Trump loyalists, no doubt, concluded and still believe that these deceitful partisans were more than willing to rig the presidential election to keep themselves in power. 

In public, William Barr was no truth-teller – he was a sycophant to the end. Barr must live with the pivotal role he played in legitimizing a lie that - long after it has risen up and precipitated an assault on the U.S. Capitol — he now says he knew all along was bullsh*t.

(I note: Yes, he said that now since now he has a book forthcoming and he wants to make it a best-seller and get rich).

My 2 Cents: Simply put and we all now know Mr. Barr is that you too are simply a huge pile of bullsh*t.

Now just go away. I hope your book lands in the trash heap of history for you did not serve the public honestly or faithfully as your oath of office demanded. Just go away.

Thanks for stopping by.