Appearing on NBC’s Today show for a live interview Monday morning to promote his new book, former Attorney General Bill Barr called out the left-wing media for pushing the “lie” that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election. He also defended his decision to accurately summarize the nothing-burger findings of the Mueller investigation in 2019 regarding the “phony scandal.”
“You decided when Robert Mueller chose not to analyze whether there was criminality on obstruction, you decided, ‘I’m attorney general, I’m going to make the decision,”Savannah Guthrie was co-host and lamenting as Barr asked her about the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. The anchor snorted: “And you acknowledge in the book, you thought it was a phony scandal. You made that choice for yourself. Why did you do that?”
Barr countered by attacking the untruety of the investigation. “Well, it is a phony scandal. And people, in talking about the big lie after the election, forget that there was a big lie before – you know, at the beginning of the Trump administration.”
As Guthrie continued to bemoan Barr’s rejection of the Mueller probe, he pointed out how political it was from the beginning: “The reason he [Mueller]Rod Rosenstein chose him because he wanted to create the illusion of no partisanship. Then he hired many partisan Democrats. And so half the country didn’t have confidence in what was going on.”
Following Guthrie’s complaint that Barr behaved like a Trump “defense lawyer,” the former attorney general hit back hard: “It was a lie. The media propagated it. It was a feeding frenzy that hobbled the administration and was unfair to the President and I dealt with it accordingly.”
You can watch the live interview here Act NowA one-hour, taped special aired by NBC on Sunday. Barr was interview in a contentious exchange with Lester Holt (Nightly News Anchor).
Holt touted how “controversial” Barr supposedly was by playing liberal media soundbites. Barr retorted: “The narrative – and we live in the age of narrative, not facts. The narrative was I was a toady to Trump and I would do Trump’s bidding. And the media constantly went out with that story.”
Holt, speaking about Mueller’s investigation moments later said:
Critics claim Barr exonerated the President. He said Mueller’s evidence did not establish that Trump committed a crime. What Barr left out of his four-page letter, Mueller’s description of multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations. Mueller cited the President’s effort to have the special counsel removed, his attempts to limit the scope of the probe, as well as his public attacks on the investigation. Mueller’s full report would not be released for nearly a month, Trump’s voice filled the vacuum.
Barr was the anchor’s concern. “This four-page letter, this summary, was immediately met with wide criticism that it didn’t really accurately reflect what Mueller was saying.”Barr was retorted: “That’s not true. What it was, was a tantrum by the people who were hoping that Mueller would be able to bring down Trump.”
It’s year two of the Biden presidency, there are multiple crises on the national security and economic fronts, yet NBC is still obsessed with the Mueller investigation that concluded in 2019 and found no evidence of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. Holt and Guthrie did not ask one single question to Guthrie about the handling of the nation’s growing crime wave or the uncontrollable illegal immigration crisis at the U.S. south border.
Guthrie’s grilling of Barr was brought to viewers by American Express and Holt’s similar back-and-forth with the former attorney general was brought to viewers by Citi. These advertisers can be criticized for sponsoring content like Guthrie’s.
Here is a transcript of Guthrie’s live March 7 exchange with Barr:
7.42 am ET
(…)
SAVANNAH GUTRIE : The Russia investigation is not complete in the short time that we have.
BILL BARR
GUTHRIE – But I have a question for you. You decided when Robert Mueller chose not to analyze whether there was criminality on obstruction, you decided, “I’m attorney general, I’m going to make the decision.” Now why did you do that when the whole point of the special counsel was to take it out of the political chain of command and to remove either the conflict or appearance of conflict? It is clear that it was a scandal, as you admit in the book. That was your decision. That’s why you did it.
BARR: It is a fake scandal. And people, in talking about the big lie after the election, forget that there was a big lie before – you know, at the beginning of the Trump administration.
GUTHRIE: Well, be that as it may, I’m more focused on the issue, you’re attorney general, you believe it to be a phony scandal before you have any facts and the special counsel is appointed to take it out of the political arm –
BARR: He discovered the facts, and did so as special counsel. He used – working for the attorney general, by the way – and he used the compulsory power, grand juries and so forth, to extract evidence. That is – that process is permitted precisely to make a decision.
GUTHRIE: Yeah, here’s the thing. You could have said, “Mueller, I don’t like your approach, you did this investigation, you make the decision. You could have ordered him to do that, couldn’t you, instead of taking it upon yourself?
BARR
GUTHRIE: But you could have said, “It’s better if I don’t, I’m the attorney general, I’ve got, you know, I want to protect the Department of Justice and its reputation for impartiality.” You could have told him, “You make the decision.”
BARR: Well, you know, that’s another area were I was critical of Bob. I’m not sure it was that impartial when you go back and look at the way it was handled. Rod Rosenstein chose him because he wanted to create the impression that there wasn’t any partisanship. He then went out and recruited a lot more partisan Democrats. And so half the country didn’t have confidence in what was going on.
GUTHRIE. After Russia’s affair ended and Mueller testimonies were over, you talk about meeting up in your office. You said, “We felt we had finally put Russiagate behind us – and behind the President. My tray of single malts was brought out, and there was a lot of laughter and glasses clinking. We felt lighter. Now the President can focus on his positive agenda.”
This doesn’t sound like an independent attorney general, as you claim you were during this decision-making.
BARR: Well, that was in – during the summer –
GUTHRIE: In July, after the Mueller testimony –
BARR: Long after I made the decision –
GUTHRIE: Yeah, I just –
BARR: While he was testifying.
GUTHRIE: Yes, but do you see why somebody sees that, that sounds like a defense lawyer’s party.
BARR: Well, I don’t think so. The department worked hard at this, and I certainly made much of it. This was a fabrication. This was propagated by the media. This was a media feeding frenzy, which hobbled our administration. The President was not fair and we dealt with the situation accordingly.
(…)
Here is a transcript of Holt’s taped exchange with Barr aired on March 6:
9:07 pm ET
(…)
LESTER HOLT: You’re controversial.
BILL BARR: Yeah, that’s okay
HOLT: Though it ended in a blow-up, for most of his tenure as Trump’s attorney general, Barr faced criticism that he was too close to the President, putting Trump’s interests before the country’s.
TOM LLAMAS [ABC’S WORLD NEWS TONIGHT]: Justice Department officials are accusing Barr and the President of interfering, quote, “in the fair administration of justice.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH [MSNBC’S MORNING JOE]To rig the system, he has appointed a hatchetman to be his attorney general.
SARA MURAY [CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT]: A lot of blowback coming Bill Barr’s way.
BARR: The narrative – and we live in the age of narrative, not facts. The narrative was I was a toady to Trump and I would do Trump’s bidding. The media echoed that narrative over and over again.
HOLT: Are you there?
BARR, Well I believe no. Because I attempted to address every issue and then decided the best thing for myself. And I didn’t really care what people thought about me.
HOLT: The criticism that framed Barr’s time in the Trump administration actually started before he even took the job.
BRIAN WILLIAMS [MSNBC]: The Russia Investigation is now headed by a Special Counsel.
HOLT: Barr was a private citizen when the Trump presidency began, and had deep concerns about the investigation into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia
BARR, I had doubts about the Russia-gate. It was possible that the Russia-gate thing could be used to a political tool, and I became more convinced of this as the more information I received.
(…)
9:00 PM ET
HOLT: Mueller’s investigation expanded, targeting the President for possible obstruction of justice. Barr thought Mueller’s legal theory was flawed, and that the power of the presidency was in jeopardy. Barr wrote an unread memo explaining why Mueller’s legal theory was flawed and emailed it the Department of Justice.
Many people look at that memo as an audition for the job of attorney general – “Look at this, this is, this is how I lean.”
BARR: Well, first, I wasn’t interested in being attorney general. You also know that there are more ways to audition for the position of attorney general if you want it.
HOLT: It sounds as if your mind was already made up long before this stage of the Russia investigation.
BARR: Oh, no, it wasn’t
HOLT: It was a fake investigation.
BARR: No, it wasn’t made up I was – as I say in my book, I was suspicious of it, it didn’t ring true to me.
(…)
9:11 ET
HOLT: Five weeks into the job, the Mueller report was in Barr’s hands
ANNOUNCER : This is a NBC News Special Report
PETE WILLIAMS [NBC NEWS JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT]: Bob Mueller’s report has been submitted to the attorney General. Period
HOLT. Mueller was done with his investigation. Barr, however, did not release the complete report. Instead, he wrote a four-page letter for Congress on Mueller’s findings
If you could, would the complete report be available?
BARR: I’d be glad to publish the entire report as soon as I get it.
HOLT: But, you didn’t.
BARR: Right.
HOLT: Then, I wrote this summary of four pages.
BARR: Well, the reason I didn’t was because there’s material in there that under law cannot go out and be made public. So I said that I would put out the principal conclusions of the report and the conclusions were there was no collusion and that he didn’t make a decision on obstruction, but he lays out all the facts in the report. But he doesn’t exonerate Trump.
HOLT. But, critics claim that Barr exonerated the President. He said Mueller’s evidence did not establish that Trump committed a crime. What Barr left out of his four-page letter, Mueller’s description of multiple acts by the President that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations. Mueller cited the President’s effort to have the special counsel removed, his attempts to limit the scope of the probe, as well as his public attacks on the investigation. Mueller’s full report would not be released for nearly a month, Trump’s voice filled the vacuum.
DONALD TRUMP: So it’s complete exoneration, no collusion, no obstruction. We are very grateful. We are very grateful.
HOLT: This four-page letter, this summary, was immediately met with wide criticism that it didn’t really accurately reflect what Mueller was saying.
BARR: That’s not true. It was actually a tantrum of those who hoped that Mueller could bring down Trump.
HOLT. Mueller wrote you a complaint. He said, “The summary didn’t capture the substance of his report and that there was now public confusion.”
BARR: No, he didn’t say “the substance” of his report.
He did. Mueller wrote Barr’s letter “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions.” It wasn’t just Mueller. In court, the letter of four pages was brought up to request the Mueller report. One judge said Barr, “distorted the findings” and questioned whether Barr was trying to, “create a one-sided narrative.”
The second judge said it was misleading and that there wasn’t enough candor. So the complaints are piling up that this four-page summary didn’t really capture the essence or the heart of what was in the report. These should be rejected.
BARR: This is a complete rejection of my opinion. The summary was not the entire report. It contained his top-line findings. You know if people are waiting outside of the courthouse and want to know what the verdict is, you don’t go out and give them a 16-page summary of the trial, you say guilty or not guilty. That’s what I did.
(…)
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