Bill Barr: Trump Is ‘Consummate Narcissist’ Who Will Put ‘His Own Ego Above Everything Else’
Donald Trump and his former attorney general, Bill Barr, have been trading public barbs as Barr turns on his ex-boss, calling Trump a “consummate narcissist” who will “put his own interests, his own ego above everything else.”
Barr was on Face the Nation just a week after Trump called him a “gutless pig” in an appearance on Roger Stone’s radio show, during which Trump unleashed a torrent of insults against his former attorney general. In the wake of that interview, Barr on Sunday compared Trump to a “defiant nine-year-old kid” and a “fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct.”
Discussing the government’s case, recently filed in Florida, accusing Trump of mishandling classified information, Barr made it clear that Trump has culpability. “This is not a circumstance where [Trump is] the victim or that this is government overreach,” he said. “He provoked this whole problem himself. Yes, he has been the victim of unfair witch hunts in the past. But that doesn’t obviate the fact that he’s also a fundamentally flawed person who engages in reckless conduct, and that leads to situations, calamitous situations like this, which are very destructive and hurt any political cause he’s associated with.”
When host Robert Costa asked if he believed that Trump lied to the Justice Department, Barr said, “Yes, I do,” and also stated that Trump is mischaracterizing the Presidential Records Act to make his defense.
“The legal theory by which he gets to take battle plans and sensitive national security information as his personal papers is absurd,” Barr said. “It’s just as wacky as the legal doctrine they came up with for having the vice president unilaterally determine who won the election. The whole purpose of the statute, the Presidential Records Act, was to stop presidents from taking official documents out of the White House. It was passed after Watergate. That’s the whole purpose of it.”
Barr added that the government’s case against Trump regarding his handling of classified documents is “very strong because a lot of the evidence comes from his own lawyers.”
Barr also said that Trump could put the nation at risk if he returned to the White House. “He will always put his own interests and gratifying his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interest, there’s no question about it… He’s like a nine year old, defiant nine year old kid who’s always pushing the glass toward the edge of the table, defying his parents to stop him from doing it. It’s a means of self assertion and exerting his dominance over other people. And he’s a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country’s, his personal gratification of his ego, but our country can’t be a therapy session for a troubled man like this.”
But even after all the insults and name-calling, Barr has stood somewhat behind Trump. When Face the Nation anchor Robert Costa asked whether Trump should serve a prison sentence if he is convicted of one or more crimes, Barr responded, “I don’t like the idea of a former president serving time in prison.” In March 2022, Barr also refused to fully throw Trump to the wayside, saying that even though he believes the former president is “responsible” for Jan. 6, he would still vote for him in 2024.
