Barr brushes off critics of his reputation: ‘Everyone dies’

Attorney General William Barr brushed off critics attacking his reputation and handling of matters concerning President Trump, stating in a new interview: “Everyone dies.”

Barr, who previously served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, was asking during a “CBS This Morning” interview that aired Friday whether he was concerned about his reputation following allegations that he has protected Trump at the conclusion of the federal Russia probe.

“When you came into this job, I mean, you had a good reputation on the right and on the left. You’re now someone who’s accused of protecting the president, enabling the president, lying to Congress. Did you expect that coming in?” CBS’s Jan Crawford asked Barr.

{mosads}“Well, in a way I did expect it because I realized we live in a crazy, hyperpartisan period of time and I knew that it would only be a matter of time if I was behaving responsibly and calling them as I see them,” Barr replied. “That I would be attacked because nowadays people don’t care about the merits or the substance, they only care about who it helps, who benefits, whether my side benefits or the other side.”

“Everything is gauged by politics,” he continued. “And, as I said, that’s antithetical to how the department runs, and any attorney general in this period is going to end up losing a lot of political capital, and I realize that and that’s one of the reasons that I was ultimately persuaded, that maybe I should take it on because I think that [at] my stage in life it really doesn’t make any difference.”

“I am at the end of my career,” Barr, 69, said.

“Everyone dies, and I am not, you know, I don’t believe in the Homeric idea that, you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?” he added. 

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani shared similar remarks in an interview with The New Yorker last year when asked whether he was concerned about how his time working with the Trump administration would impact his reputation. 

“I don’t care about my legacy,” he said. “I’ll be dead.”