Bill Barr in his forthcoming book wrote that Trump went "off the rails" after the 2020 election.- He said that Trump "surrounded himself with sycophants," according to excerpts.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr in a forthcoming book wrote that then-President
In the book, "One Damn Thing After Another," Barr stated that despite the "menacing mannerisms" that Trump projected as a "schtick" to give a perception of strength, the former president actually governed within many of the parameters that his advisors set, which paved the way for conservative legislative victories.
However, Barr wrote that Trump eventually "lost his grip" after the election, when voters opted to replace him with now-President Joe Biden.
"He stopped listening to his advisers, became manic and unreasonable, and was off the rails," the former attorney general wrote. "He surrounded himself with sycophants, including many whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories."
Barr served as attorney general from February 2019 to December 2020, and during most of his tenure, he was seen as an ardent ally of Trump.
But in the waning months of the administration, Barr wrote that he began to notice flaws in the then-president's temperament that troubled him.
"Country and principle took second place," he claimed in the book.
The former attorney general also suggested that he would not support a Trump White House bid in 2024, describing the potential for such a campaign as "dismaying."
"We need leaders not only capable of fighting and 'punching,' but also persuading and attracting — leaders who can frame, and advocate for, an uplifting vision of what it means to share in American citizenship," he wrote. "Donald Trump has shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed."
According to excerpts published by The Washington Post, Barr wrote that conservatives needed to "look forward" to the party's emerging slate of future presidential candidates, arguing that they can govern with similar policy goals but without Trump's personality traits.
After Barr disputed Trump's election claims in an Associated Press interview that was published in December 2020, the relationship between the two deteriorated, with the then-attorney general leaving his role shortly before the former president departed the White House.
Last June, Trump launched a tirade into Barr after details of the former attorney general's views about the 2020 election were chronicled in the book "Betrayal," which was written by ABC News chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl and published last November.
"I lost confidence in Bill Barr long before the 2020 Presidential Election Scam," the former president said in a statement last June in response to the book. "He was afraid, weak, and frankly, now that I see what he is saying, pathetic."
Barr — who previously served as attorney general under then-President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 to January 1993 — succeeded Jeff Sessions, who had a tumultuous tenure in the administration after recusing himself from the Russia investigation and drawing the constant ire of Trump.