Former Attorney General Bill Barr says the 2020 presidential election was not stolen: 'Trump lost it'

• Bill Barr disavowed Donald Trump's claims of a stolen 2020 election, The Washington Post reported.
• "The election was not 'stolen,'" he wrote in his forthcoming book, per The Post. "Trump lost it."

Former Attorney General Bill Barr in a forthcoming book unequivocally rejected former President Donald Trump's claims casting doubt on the integrity of the 2020 election, according to excerpts published Sunday in The Washington Post.

Barr wrote in the book, "One Damn Thing After Another," that Trump didn't win the 2020 presidential race against Joe Biden.

"The election was not 'stolen,'" the former attorney general wrote, per The Post. "Trump lost it."

While Trump's interactions with Barr regarding the presidential election have been mentioned in other books, the attorney general's memoir is expected to detail some of the tensest moments between the two men as it related to Trump's unfounded voter-fraud claims.

After Barr told an Associated Press reporter in December 2020 that there wasn't evidence of mass voter fraud, the attorney general met with Trump in the White House to discuss the interview, according to the book.

Barr's statements, which had become part of the public record, threw cold water on Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate.

"This is killing me — killing me. This is pulling the rug right out from under me," the book says Trump told Barr, according to The Post. "He stopped for a moment and then said, 'You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.'"

The former attorney general also wrote that he informed Trump of how he had "sacrificed a lot personally to come in to help you when I thought you were being wronged" but was adamant that the Department of Justice couldn't verify the debunked claims of fraud that many Republicans argued had tipped the election to favor Biden.

Barr, who served as attorney general under Trump from February 2019 to December 2020, also called on conservatives to embrace "an impressive array of younger candidates" in 2024 whom he described as ideologically aligned with the former president but lacking his "erratic personal behavior," per the book.

He did not identify any favored candidates by name.

In the book, however, Barr is said to blast Trump for what he describes as the former president's lack of character.

"Country and principle took second place," he remarked in the book, per The Post, recalling his personal revelations about Trump while navigating the last few months in his role.

He added: "People are worthwhile to Trump only as means to his ends — as utensils."

Barr, who also served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 to January 1993, succeeded former Sen. Jeff Sessions, who had a tumultuous tenure in the administration after recusing himself from the Russia investigation and drawing the scorn of Trump.

Barr's book is set to be released March 8.