Trump calls Barr a ‘Bushie’ who went to the other side

Former President Trump referred to his former Attorney General William Barr as a “Bushie” in an apparent reference to Barr’s time served under former President George H. W. Bush, who died in 2018.

“He was so afraid of being impeached, that he went to the other side—and they left him alone,” Trump said of Barr in a statement Monday night. “Barr was a ‘Bushie’ who never had the energy or competence to do the job that he was put in place to do.” 

Trump’s statement referenced comments made by Barr in which he suggested the Trump campaign had been spied on and comments Barr has made related to election fraud.

“Bill Barr said, and just reiterated, that the Trump campaign was ‘spied on’ but did nothing about it. He then said, ‘mail-in ballots are prone to fraud,’ and then did nothing to catch the fraudsters,” Trump said.

Barr faced criticism from Democrats and some former officials and critics of Trump for saying in the past that he believed the 2016 Trump campaign was spied on.

In an op-ed published last week, Barr said that there is “always some fraud” in large elections but that the Justice Department had yet to see it on a large scale as Trump had repeatedly and falsely suggested was the case leading to his defeat in 2020. While Barr said he believed Democrats made voting changes that resulted in their advantage, he maintains that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Barr has been making the rounds to promote his new memoir, “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General,” in which he suggests Trump “lost his grip” following his 2020 election loss and urges the Republican Party to find a different candidate for 2024.

Under Bush, Barr served as deputy attorney general from 1990 to 1991 before becoming the 77th U.S. attorney general from 1991 to 1993.

Prior to his death, Bush confirmed in a book that in 2016 he voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 

“I don’t like him,” Bush told the book’s author, Mark K. Updegrove, about Trump. “I don’t know much about him, but I know he’s a blowhard. And I’m not too excited about him being a leader.”

Updated 11:14 p.m.