An excerpt from Former Attorney General William Barr's newly released book showed he was dubious of former President Donald Trump's election fraud allegations, though he launched unofficial probing into a number of them to appease Trump. Barr's comments were published in "The Atlantic" as part of an excerpt from "Betrayal," a book slated to be published in November. The book focuses on the last days of the Trump administration and offers insight into the Trump loyalist's perspective in the waning days of the previous administration.
"My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time," Barr recounted. "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 bulls***," he added, as per Yahoo News.
'Ballot Dumps'
He also personally rummaged into many of the allegations, including supposed "ballot dumps" in Detroit. He discovered them to be untrue. In addition to his own hunt, Barr green-lighted a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into the claims, which gave them a veneer of validity. This was prior to his public announcement that there was no prevalent voter fraud almost a month following the election.
As articulated in the excerpt, Barr knew at one point, the former president was going to confront him regarding the claims so he tried to show Trump that he looked into his voter fraud assertions.
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Following Barr's interview with the AP, he and Trump traded barbs during a seared meeting at the White House.
Trump reportedly asked Barr why he said that there was no evidence of election fraud, reported CNN. According to Barr, he told Trump that he was saying the truth. Barr resigned from his post almost two weeks after telling the Associated Press that the Justice Department was not able to discover such proof of fraud.
Sen. Mitt Romney: 'Move on' From Election Fraud Claims
Meanwhile, GOP Sen. Mitt Romney called on Republicans on Sunday to "move on" from the former president's 2020 election claims. He equated the former president's return to rally-style events to wrestling entertainment as he goes after those who defied him. Calling it "a bit like WWF," he said that it was entertaining but is not rooted in reality. He also emphasized that it is going nowhere, reported Creators Empire.
Romney stressed out that the election is over and that the most meaningful thing to do is to move forward.
However, Trump still maintains his claims on the election. Following now-President Joe Biden's narrow win in Florida in the 2020 presidential race, Trump prodded Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to convene the conservative-led state legislature for the overturning of the results and pressured Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to search for additional votes to affirm a statewide win. The former president's appeals were rejected. He said that the GOP might have been better off if Stacey Abrams was Georgia's Governor instead of Brian Kemp. Trump has continued to attack both officials for what he deemed as an unfair election process in Florida.
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