Former attorney general Bill Barr said it would be a “tragedy” if his ex-boss, former president Donald Trump, is the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee, according to excerpted comments from his appearance on PBS’s Firing Line with Margaret Hoover.
Barr’s comments, set to air in an episode on Friday night, come days after Trump announced his intention to run for president for a third time.
Barr told the show he was “disappointed” with the announcement and suggested Trump should “stand aside.”
Asked if he believes Trump is running to “insulate himself” from “unprecedented federal, state and congressional investigations,” Barr replied: “I think that could be part of the reason. But I think he, you know, he has a monumental ego, and he doesn’t want to go down in history as a loser. And he also would like to get revenge on the people that he feels didn’t give him his due.”
Asked if he would vote for Trump if the former president does win the nomination, Barr said, “It depends on the circumstances.” He said he cannot imagine voting for a progressive Democrat.
“I think the reason our republic is in jeopardy is because we are not throwing out the best and the brightest for these offices,” he said. “We’re not giving the American people good choices. Too frequently, they’re picking the lesser of two evils. And we can’t last very long if that continues to happen.”
While Trump is the only candidate to formally announce his 2024 ambitions, recent polling has shown Florida governor Ron DeSantis surging ahead of Trump.
Barr also spoke about the January 6 Capitol riot, which occurred shortly after he left the administration in December 2020. He said that while there was a “delay” in the peaceful transfer of power, “I feel it is an exaggeration, a little bit of melodrama to, to treat this as the virtual or, you know, almost the collapse of the American government.”
He told the show he has not seen evidence that proves the former president was involved in a criminal scheme to stop the electoral vote count, though he said “certainly the president…precipitated it.”
Barr previously testified before the House January 6 Committee investing the Capitol riot that Trump seemed to be “detached from reality” after the 2020 election when Trump refused to accept that claims of widespread voter fraud were baseless.
Barr testified that he told Trump of “how crazy some of these allegations were,” but that Trump did not appear interested in the facts of the matter.
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday announced plans to name a special counsel to oversee two criminal investigations into Trump. The special counsel, Jack Smith, will take over investigations surrounding the extent of Trump’s involvement in the events leading to the January 6 Capitol riot and his alleged mishandling of sensitive government documents, Garland said at a press conference.
Smith will be tasked with determining whether criminal charges should be filed against the former president.
Asked whether it is ever appropriate to indict a former president, Barr told the show, “Oh, yes,” especially in the case of a “serious crime.”
The former attorney general suggested it is “increasingly more likely” that the DOJ will indict Trump in the classified documents case.
“I personally think that they probably have the basis for legitimately indicting the president,” he said, adding that the case may involve “serious charges.”
He declined to say whether he would indict the president, if he were attorney general.