Hillary Clinton says Barr put America on the 'road to tyranny' by arguing the president can fire prosecutors he doesn't agree with

MSNBC

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton spoke to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday May 1

• In an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton warned that Attorney General William Barr's beliefs risked putting America on the "road to tyranny."
• Barr had in testimony before a Senate committee argued that presidents have the right to fire prosecutors investigating them if they don't think accusations are true. 
• "The president could terminate that proceeding, and it would not be a corrupt intent, because he was being falsely accused," remarked Barr. 
• During the testimony Barr defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. 
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Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton issued a stark warning on Wednesday, claiming that Attorney General William Barr's beliefs risked setting America on the "road to tyranny."

Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Wednesday night, Clinton responded to Barr's testimony earlier in the day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he argued that if the president believes accusations against them to be false, they are within their rights to fire a prosecutor investigating them. 

Barr told lawmakers Wednesday that "in the situation of the president" if "a proceeding was not well founded ... if it was based on false allegations, the president does not have to sit there, constitutionally, and allow it to run its course."

"The president could terminate that proceeding, and it would not be a corrupt intent, because he was being falsely accused." 

Maddow said Barr was arguing "the president can't be investigated if the president doesn't want to be investigated."

Clinton warned that Barr's views placed America's democratic system under threat.  "That is the road to tyranny," the former secretary of state told Maddow. 

"That is what authoritarians believe and those who service them argue. The positions being taken and advocated by Barr were unlike anything that I've ever heard of, that were ever accepted with any level of seriousness before."

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Barr has come under attack from Democrats following his testimony on Wednesday, where he defended his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report, amid accusations that he misrepresented its findings.

He defended his decision not to bring obstruction of justice charges against the president, despite the report exposing Trump having attempted to have Mueller fired.