Bill Barr, an ex-attorney general, blasted some conservatives for “pandering to outrage” following the dramatic FBI raid on ex-president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. Barr further explained why he made that statement. Barr praised how the Department of Justice (DOJ) handled the raid in an episode of the “Honestly” podcast hosted by journalist Bari Weiss. However, he acknowledged that the politically motivated examination into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign for President Trump harmed people’s faith in federal law enforcement and “created the condition” for people to assume “the worst.”
“So what do you say to conservatives who say, ‘Why should we possibly trust these institutions to prosecute people — let’s say who protested on Jan. 6 — or agents of the state going after a president they so obviously despise? Why should we trust them anymore?'” Weiss asked. “You still give them the benefit of the doubt, but many other people in your party don’t.”
“Well, the Russiagate thing, I think, to the extent the FBI was misused was decisions made toward by high-level officials in the FBI, I don’t think that [FBI Director] Chris Wray is that type of leader nor do I think the people around Chris Wray are those types of leaders. I think there are problems in the FBI, but it’s not that. It’s not Chris Wray. Wray is going to wake up and say, you know, ‘How do I throw the FBI’s weight around to interfere in the political process.’ Just the opposite. I think he’s very cautious about that.”
But Weiss persisted, calling Barr’s comments “unsatisfactory.”
“You know, something I’m pretty tired of from — from the Right is the constant pandering to outrage and people’s frustrations,” Barr said. “And picking and picking and picking at that sore without trying to channel those feelings in a constructive direction,” reported Daily Caller.
Barr acknowledged that some institutions “need reform” and said this reform will only be feasible if one party gains a “decisive majority that allows you to put a program into effect and deal with some of these problems going forward and fix them.” “That is not done by throwing fuel on the fire of outrage on one side of the equation while the other side does the same thing on their side. That leads to stalemate,” he said.
Barr went on to accuse Donald Trump of outraging and upsetting his base to get out the vote, something his supporters and Republicans will criticize Barr for, for sure.
A majority of Independents and Republicans feel the raid was politically motivated, according to a poll conducted two days after the raid. Republicans seem to be more motivated to vote in November as a result of the Mar-a-Lago raid (over 84% of them). The same goes for nearly 72% of Independents.
Trump has been vocal in his criticism of the FBI and the Biden administration since the raid, claiming that President Joe Biden was aware of the raid in advance.
Trump wrote: “Even though I’m as innocent as a person can be, and despite MY campaign being spied on by the Radical Left, the FISA COURT being lied and defrauded, all of the many Hoaxes and Scams that were illegally placed on me by very sick and demented people, and without even mentioning the many crimes of Joe and Hunter Biden, all revealed in great detail in the Laptop From Hell, it looks more and more like the Fake News Media is pushing hard for the Sleaze to do something that should not be done!”
Bill Barr took a lot of heat for doing an interview with Chuck Todd on MSNBC. Chuck Todd was recently demoted on MSNBC to a streaming platform, likely because of the low quality content and ratings on his show.
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