Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday he will vote for the “Republican ticket” in the November presidential election.
“I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country,” Barr said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.” “And in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket.”
Barr’s comments come in spite of past criticism of his ex-boss, former President Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. In December, Barr said his successor in a potential second Trump administration would have to be against the former president’s “abuse of government power.”
“Trump needs people around him who will push back and help keep him on the straight and narrow,” Barr said.
“During his first term, the main way that could be done is by pointing out to him how this would hurt his prospects for a second term,” he continued. “Once he wins a second term, I don’t know you know what considerations can be used to push back against bad ideas.”
Barr said Wednesday he thinks “the real danger to the country — the real danger to democracy, as I say, is the progressive agenda.”
“And while … Trump may be playing Russian roulette, but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide, in my opinion,” Barr continued.
Barr recently went after Trump’s call for Congress to shoot down the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
“I think it’s crazy and reckless to not move forward with FISA. It’s our principal tool protecting us from terrorist attacks. We’re living through a time where those threats have never been higher, so it’s blinding us, it’s blinding our allies,” Barr told The Hill in an interview.
“I think President Trump’s opposition seems to have stemmed from personal pique rather than any logic and reason. The provision that he objects to has nothing to do with the provision that’s on the floor,” he said.