House Jan. 6 panel played footage of former AG William Barr calling Trump’s election claims ‘bullshit’

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In the waning weeks of 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr told Donald Trump that his claims of widespread election fraud were “bullshit” and entirely unsupported by evidence.

Barr recounted his remarks to Trump in a closed-door interview with the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. As the panel kicked off the first of six hearings planned for this month, it played footage of Barr’s interview in which the former attorney general recalled making clear to Trump that he did “not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen” and saw no evidence of fraud that would have affected the election outcome.

“Frankly a year and a half later I’ve seen nothing to change my mind on that,” Barr said.

Barr told the House committee that he spoke with Trump on at least three occasions between November and December 2020.

Recalling those conversations, Barr said he described Trump’s claims of election malfeasance as “crazy stuff” and said the falsehoods were influencing the public, doing a “great, great disservice to the country.” Barr credited the timing of his December 2020 resignation, in part, to Trump’s baseless election claims.

“You can’t live in a world where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that the election that there was fraud in the election,” Barr said.

The clip of Barr was the first piece of footage played by the House January 6 committee from the more than 1,000 interviews it has conducted in its months-long investigation. Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chair, said forthcoming footage would display other members of Trump’s cabinet.

Before playing the footage of Barr — who was nicknamed the “buffalo” at the Justice Department for his hard-charging style — Thompson warned viewers that the video included strong language.

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