Former Attorney General Bill Barr suggested Friday that people might take former President Trump “too literally” and that Trump would not take serious actions that threaten other people.
When CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Barr if he remembered the former president saying the person who leaked information about going to a bunker during the 2020 protests over the death of George Floyd should be executed.
“I remember him being very angry about that. “I don’t actually remember him saying ‘execute,’ but I wouldn’t dispute it,” Barr said, highlighted by Mediaite. “The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would have actually carried it out.”
Collins pressed Barr, asking if Trump would say things like this on other occasions.
“I think sometimes people took him too literally and you know, he said similar things sometimes to blow off steam, but I wouldn’t take him literally every time he did that,” Barr said.
The former attorney general said he would not take Trump’s threats literally because “ultimately they would not be carried out.”
The former president’s reported threats to execute the person who leaked information about his actions during the protests are not the only time he has argued that someone should die.
A president who threatens SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent should be covered by presidential immunity from prosecution, Trump’s legal team suggested earlier this year. It was a refrain in the defense against his 2020 federal election interference case, and the Supreme Court began hearing the argument Thursday. for presidential immunity in this case.
Barr, who served as attorney general for the final two years of Trump’s term in the White House, has supported the former president in the upcoming election despite his criticism.
He said he would vote for the “Republican ticket” in the November election, which will likely be the presumptive nominee, Trump.
For the latest news, weather, sports and streaming video, visit The Hill.
