'Bulls**t, crazy and complete nonsense': Bill Barr explodes on Donald Trump's 'great lie'
The House select committee leaders who lead the public hearing presented never-before-seen documents and videos from previous undisclosed interviews, including from top officials in former President Donald Trump's administration who condemned the riot. During the two-hour hearing, the panel's Democratic and Republican leaders used a methodical multimedia presentation to describe what they called a wide and deep plan to overturn the 2020 election results.
One of the most important moments during the committee's opening act was when they disclosed the interviews and statements from top Trump officials, such as former Vice President Mike Pence and former Attorney General William Barr, who called the claims about the 2020 election being stolen "b******t."
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Rep Liz Cheney played footage of Barr's closed-door interview with the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. In the clips, 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.
Thompson plays a clip of Bill Barr's interview with the January 6 committee where Barr describes Trump's big lie as "bullshit" pic.twitter.com/cL7StPySxU
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 10, 2022
In the waning weeks of 2020, Barr, then-Attorney General, told Donald Trump that his claims of widespread election fraud were "b******t" and entirely unsupported by evidence. Barr told the House committee that he spoke with Trump on at least three occasions between November and December 2020.
Cheney plays more clips of Bill Barr telling the January 6 committee that Trump's election fraud claims were a bunch of bunk pic.twitter.com/D0jlGlPsti
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 10, 2022
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.
Immediately after the panel played parts of Barr's testimony, it showed testimony from Ivanka Trump, the former president's daughter, who worked as a special assistant in the White House.
She said she "accepted what Barr was saying." Other clips showed Jason Miller, a longtime Trump spokesman, testifying on how data analysts had told the former president he was going to lose the election.
The clip of Barr was the first piece of footage played by the House January 6 committee from more than 1,000 interviews it has conducted in its months-long investigation.
