Before Trump was elected, the Democrats (none on any ballot were “Left”) claimed Trump is Hitler! Trump is a disgrace! Sexist! Homophobic! Islamophobic! Racist! Fascist! Incompetent - yet also an evil genius.
All lies. They also claimed Trump lied, was a braggart, no government experience, was a narcissist, was unfaithful to his wives - which were more truthful critiques but far less strong.
After 4 years of mostly good outcomes from good policies, the Dems won an election which few would argue was 100% free and fair, and Trump claimed it was stolen, and continued claiming it was stolen up thru a huge Jan 6 protest when Congress was certifying the election. Before the protest, Trump wanted more troops, but the Capitol Police rejected that and had minimal forces. That protest included some physical confrontations between the many protesters and the few police. Even before Trump finished his (too long, as usual) speech 20+ minutes walking away, some protesters were trying to Occupy the Capital - much like others had done, also illegally. It’s likely there were FBI agents among the crowd, but who they were and what they did remains undocumented.
More Barr critique here, mostly not repeated below, and more about the Mar-a-Largo raid: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/08/trumps-attorney-general-explains-raid-trumps-lloyd-billingsley/
Most of this comment originally left at
When I read Bill Barr's interview, I was sure Arnold would like it. It's the best Trump critique I've read, yet what are Barr's actual criticisms, other than Orange Man Bad?
"Trump is his own worst enemy. He’s incorrigible. He doesn’t take advice from people."
Arnold also claims Trump surrounds himself with lousy folks - so not taking advice from lousy folks should actually be better, no?
+"Russiagate was very unjust and I was suspicious of it from the very beginning. I was also upset at the way the criminal justice process has been used and, I thought, was being used to interfere with the political process."
"continued to be self-indulgent and petty and turned off key constituencies that ultimately made the difference in the election."
No mention of the increase from 62 million up to almost 75 million in votes. No key constituency was turned off. No mention of 65% voting turnout, far far higher than the usual 58-ish% since WW II except 1960's 60% (when JFK stole the election from Nixon with dead votes in Chicago).
+"these [Russia hoax] ideas really got going because of a political ploy by the Clinton administration to try to hang Putin around Trump’s neck and claim they were in cahoots. I never thought there was any basis for this. ... It was pretty clear not too long after the election that this whole thing was a farce. Yet that’s when both the F.B.I. doubled down on it, and the mainstream media kicked in."
+"The F.B.I. is like all of our institutions. I wish the F.B.I. was the extent of the problem, but government institutions are generally infected by this. All our other institutions—the medical profession, journalism, science—are also being politicized. "
"BW: Did you underestimate Trump’s disregard for the truth and disregard for the results of the election?
AG BARR: I underestimated how far he would take it. ... very whacky legal theories"
"the president came downstairs early in the morning and started saying there was major fraud underway and pointing to the fact that votes at the end of the evening were overwhelmingly Democrat. ... The Department of Justice has control over investigating fraud, but not challenging rule changes or allegations that the rules weren’t being followed. ...
I thought it was irresponsible to keep on talking about the election being stolen unless we had some evidence of it. And there was none at that point. "
Pres. Trump was basically correct - it was NOT a 100% free and fair election (this means "fraud" unfair). The censorship of Hunter Biden's laptop info, after FBI having it since Dec 2019 and "knowing" it was true, not Russian dis-info. How much does this censorship affect the election? 10%? 5%? at least 1%?
How much of the $450 million of Zuckerberg unfairly, tho maybe not illegally, targeting only high Dem areas for vote increases counts as unfair? 5%?
"[Trump had] already wasted five of your six weeks with this crazy stuff about the Dominion machines. He’d wheeled out this clown show of lawyers"
voting machines that can not always be audited, over which there are questions. But the machine counts mostly matched hand recounts.
The fraud was based on mail-in ballots without good signature verification, not miscounting accepted ballots. 1-2% rejection is usual with absentee ballots, less than 1% for many mail-in states with much higher volume expecting a higher than usual rejection rate.
https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2021/02/wisconsins-miraculous-vanishing-ballot-rejection-rate/
"the legal community in the administration was telling him that there was not sufficient evidence of fraud. ...
what he should do was focus on all his achievements and leave with dignity. Whether he thought there was fraud or not, he had his day in court and he lost. "
Actually, most of the courts refused to look at the evidence and threw out the lawsuits - so he mostly didn't have a day in court, including the multiple states complaining to SCOTUS. The US legal system doesn't have a good method for resolving mail-in signature questions of fraud.
"I was demoralized that he was going out the way he was. I thought it was very unfair to all the people, especially the younger people, who had worked in the administration. It hurt them getting jobs and it also hurt the Republican Party, which I thought up until then, could take the high ground as the party of law and order."
Bill Barr would rather be a good loser - like most GOPe professionals. Trump is NOT a good loser; Rep voters tired of losing in the culture wars AND the economic issues want more winning and are enraged by the Dems cheating, and by GOPe blaming Trump for being upset that the Dems cheated.
+"I just want to make it clear that I supported President Trump. I liked his policies."
"I think things went off the rails after the election because I think he felt he had nothing to lose at that point."
No. Trump is convinced the Dems stole the election. I, too, think the election was stolen -- so 'what is to be done' now? Barr & Weiss are both assuming the election was 100% free and fair; the fact that it wasn't isn't mentioned nor addressed.
+"he did accomplish a lot. And it was historic. The economic growth and the fact that people who had been left out previously were starting to participate more."
"[Jan 6 protest] This is outrageous, and the federal agencies have to get up there and clear those people out. That was my reaction. I couldn’t believe that this thing had been allowed to get out of control. The next day, I said to a reporter that I thought the president’s behavior was shameful.
“Where’s the F.B.I.? Where’s federal law enforcement?" "
Where WAS the FBI??? How many agents were there, who were they, and what were they doing? In testimony, FBI director Wray refuses to be honest about the FBI. Which had, in Oct. 2020, done some entrapment type activities to create a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer, 2 of 4 not guilty, recently 2 found guilty (tho it looks a bit unfair in trial).
I believe the FBI helped incite more violence from the peaceful, unarmed protesters, and lots more illegal trespassing that didn't justify getting locked up without trial for 18 months and counting. Not mentioned by BW nor Barr.
"I was disgusted and mortified and feeling very angry. I felt this whole thing had hurt the Republican Party and hurt the reputation of the administration even more than before. I was angry about that. Everyone I knew in the administration was angry about that. I also felt that it was just a Keystone Cops exercise. There wasn’t a genuine threat of overthrowing the government, as far as I was concerned, it was just a circus. That’s true of a lot of things that Trump arranges. ...
I would say that it was a riot that got out of control. People breached the Congress, and were attacking police. Obviously not all the demonstrators were doing this.
I would say it was an effort to intimidate Congress and the vice president. I haven’t heard words from the president that I would consider incitement under the law. That’s a very high bar because of our First Amendment, and it should be a high bar. But I did feel that he was morally responsible for it because he led these people to believe that something could happen on Capitol Hill that would reverse the election. That there’s something they could do involving pressuring the vice president and Congress that would overturn the election. ...
it was a shameful episode. It was a shameful riot. And the president certainly precipitated it. "
The Capitol Police shot and killed Ashli Babbitt a small, white, unarmed women climbing thru a broken door window (somebody else broke, who?) -- far worse brutality than against George Floyd.
I think a massive protest against a Deep State stolen election is not so shameful - but the FBI, CP, and US Congress response to the protest has been.
Barr being OK with MAL is marking him as likely untrustworthy now. Garland as AG and FBI director Wray need to verify, first, their justification for further persecution of Trump - before I trust them. They have proven themselves untrustworthy.
No intellectually serious critiques of Trump by Barr, but plenty of Orange Man Bad along with more substantive credit for his policies.
(I plan to do more Trump updates here, rather than other posts - he really was unfairly treated, he really did some good policies, he really does have some bad personality characteristics [don’t like them!], but he sucks up conversation oxygen AND my own mental space.)
We can all agree that the 2020 Presidential election was not "100% free and fair." But you can't then jump to claiming that the election was stolen. To be stolen, any irregularities, fraud, or bias in the election would have to be shown to be systematically and significantly in favor of Biden. There is no documentary evidence of this. Deducing it from circumstances, without that evidence, is an insufficient demonstration of the election being stolen. Those who continue to allege it anyway, especially Donald Trump, but you too Tom, delegitimize the election system and make it easier for citizens to cheat at the next election. If you pronounce the system to be so corrupt that the presidential election was stolen, than there is little reason to play within the rules. Then we descend into chaos. We need losers to be good sports. Too bad Trump is incapable of being one.