Former Attorney General William Barr reportedly called former President Trump’s false claims of election fraud “bullshit,” according to a new book on the final days of the Trump administration.
The revelation comes from the book “Betrayal,” authored by ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl. The book is set to be released in November.
The Atlantic published an excerpt from the book on Sunday, providing key details of Barr’s relationship with Trump in the waning days of the administration and a peek into the then-attorney general’s thoughts on Trump’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr told Karl in an interview, referring to why he decided to give prosecutors approval to probe the fraud allegations and why he opened his own unofficial inquiry into the claims.
“If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit,” Barr added.
The former attorney general also said that allegations that voting machines across the country were rigged to switch votes from President Biden to Trump were not true.
“We realized from the beginning it was just bullshit,” Barr told Karl.
“It’s a counting machine, and they save everything that was counted. So you just reconcile the two. There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I’m still not aware of any discrepancy,” he added.
Barr also revealed that then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) repeatedly urged the attorney general to speak out against Trump’s claims of election fraud.
McConnell reportedly told Barr that the allegations were damaging to the country and the GOP and hurt the party’s efforts in the two Georgia Senate runoff races that were crucial to Republicans maintaining control of the chamber.
McConnell confirmed the account to Karl, according to the book excerpt.
“Look, we need the president in Georgia,” McConnell told Barr.
“And so we cannot be frontally attacking him right now. But you’re in a better position to inject some reality into this situation. You are really the only one who can do it,” he added.
“I understand that,” Barr reportedly said. “And I’m going to do it at the appropriate time.”
During the conversation, Trump reportedly lambasted Barr for his comment, asking him “How the f— could you do this to me? Why did you say it?”
“Because it’s true,” Barr responded.
Trump then responded, “You must hate Trump. You must hate Trump.”