Trump and Bill Barr almost got into brawl after ex-AG called vote fraud claims 'bullsh*t', says report
President Donald Trump and William Barr almost got into a heated altercation once as the-then attorney general pushed back on claims that the 2020 presidential election had been "stolen" by the Democrats. A report by Axios claimed that Trump was enraged after Barr told him that theories about widespread election fraud were "bullshit."
“Why would you say such a thing? You must hate Trump. There’s no other reason for it. You must hate Trump,” the president told Barr in the private dining room next to the Oval Office, per the outlet. According to Axios, Barr had told Trump that “these things aren’t panning out” and “the stuff that these people are filling your ear with just isn’t true." Instead, he reportedly insisted that the DOJ had already reviewed claims put forward by the president’s lawyers. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who was reportedly in the same room, was surprised to see Barr confronting Trump.
The emergency meeting reportedly came after Barr publicly undercut Trump's claims about widespread voter fraud, saying that the Justice Department had not come across evidence to back up the allegations. “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,” Barr had told the Associated Press.
Just days later, it emerged that Barr would be stepping down from his position. At the time, Trump slammed the-then AG over his remarks about voter fraud as well as reports that he allegedly knew that Biden's son Hunter Biden was being probed by the feds in the months leading up to the election, but failed to make it public anyway. The Wall Street Journal cited sources to report that in the period leading up to the polls in November, Barr asked prosecutors and senior colleagues not to leak words on investigations into Hunter Biden to the public. The report also said that Barr took more steps to insulate the probe, despite Trump and the GOP allies wanting it.
Trump later expressed his disappointment with Barr as he told Fox News that the latter “should have stepped up”. “All he had to do is say an investigation’s going on,” the president said, adding: “When you affect an election, Bill Barr, frankly, did the wrong thing.”
The president also retweeted conservative pundit Todd Starnes, who wrote, "If the Wall Street Journal story is true and Attorney General Barr knew in the spring about the Biden investigation and kept it quiet — he should be fired by the end of business today." Adding his own comment, Trump wrote, "A big disappointment!" In a subsequent tweet, Trump once again questioned Barr's inaction. "Why didn’t Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the Election, about Hunter Biden. Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong, or going on — Press confirmed. Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls!" he declared.
On December 14, following a face-to-face meeting at the White House with Trump, Barr officially resigned from office. Trump tweeted the same day that Barr did “an outstanding job!” and his relationship with the latter “has been very good." He cited the 70-year-old’s decision as his own and said he will leave before Christmas and “spend the holidays with his family."