| To: FJB who wrote (338120) | 3/3/2022 12:20:55 PM | | From: Honey_Bee | | | | Hannity is melting down.
Last night, after his unending preaching to the guest (I think it was Governor Abbott), he finally let him speak - then almost immediately started yelling over him.
Either he is drinking or something in his private life is bothering him. |
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| To: the traveler who wrote (338184) | 3/3/2022 12:36:43 PM | | From: Honey_Bee | | | | I've been a fan of Hannity since the "Hannity and Colmes" days, but I agree.
He needs to retire from Fox News and turn it over to one of the several top-drawer hosts/hostesses they have available to them. |
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| From: Sr K | 3/3/2022 12:43:13 PM | | | | | | EXCLUSIVE
EXCERPT
William Barr: When I Confronted Trump About Election Fraud
In an excerpt from his new memoir, the former Attorney General recalls the explosive White House meeting where he rejected President Trump’s claims about the 2020 election.
wsj.com
Attorney General William Barr (left) stands behind President Donald Trump at a White House coronavirus briefing, March 23, 2020. DREW ANGERER/GETTY
By William P. Barr
March 3, 2022 11:00 am ET
The first day of December 2020, almost a month after the presidential election, was gray and rainy. That afternoon, President Trump, struggling to come to terms with the election result, had heard I was at the White House for another meeting and sent word that I was to come see him immediately. I knew what was coming.
Over the preceding weeks, I had been increasingly concerned about claims by the president and the team of outside lawyers advising him that the election had been “stolen” through widespread voting fraud. I had no doubt there was some fraud in the 2020 presidential elections. There’s always some fraud in an election that large. But the Justice Department had been looking into the claims made by the president’s team, and we had yet to see evidence of fraud on the scale necessary to change the outcome of the election.
The data suggested to me that the Democrats had taken advantage of rule changes—especially extended voting periods and voting by mail—to marshal the turnout they needed in their strongholds in key states. I had been a vocal critic of these rule changes precisely because they would increase the opportunity for fraud and thus undercut public confidence in the election results. There was also no question that, in some areas, state rules meant to guard against fraud—for example, the requirement that voters file applications for mail-in ballots—were not followed. This also increased the opportunity for fraud. Still, the opportunity for fraud isn’t evidence of fraud.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani at a press conference on election fraud claims at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia, Nov. 7, 2020.PHOTO: CHRIS MCGRATH/GETTY IMAGES
Under our system, the states have responsibility for running elections. Claims that the election rules are not being followed fall under the states’ jurisdiction, and the burden is on the complaining party to raise the matter with state officials and courts to have it addressed. This often requires pressing the states to conduct in-depth audits of relevant districts needed to resolve alleged irregularities. The Justice Department does not have the authority or the tools to perform that function. Instead, its role is to investigate specific and credible allegations of voting fraud for the purpose of criminal prosecution. A complaint just saying the rules were not followed is not enough.
When I looked at the voting patterns, it also appeared to me that President Trump had underperformed among certain Republican and independent voters in some key suburban areas in the swing states. He ran weaker in these areas than he had in 2016. It seemed this shortfall could explain the outcome. The fact that, in many key areas, the president ran behind Republican candidates below him on the ballot suggested this conclusion and appeared inconsistent with the fraud narrative.
If the American people lose confidence in the integrity of their elections, and the legitimacy of an elected administration, we are headed toward a very dark place. That is why I was so disgusted by efforts in 2016 to delegitimize President Trump and “resist” his duly elected administration. But now the situation was completely reversed. President Trump’s legal team was feeding his supporters a steady diet of sensational fraud claims, without anything resembling substantiation.
Some allegations of election fraud turned out to be patently frivolous; others just were not supported by the available evidence.
In the weeks after the election, accusations of major fraud centered on several specific allegations. I had asked the Justice Department office heads around the country, working with the FBI, to look into these and a number of similar claims. Some turned out to be patently frivolous; others just were not supported by the available evidence. I had repeatedly informed the president through his staff that the department was looking at substantial claims of fraud but so far hadn’t found them to have merit.
I was concerned that the country seemed headed toward a constitutional crisis. On Nov. 29, the president, appearing on Fox News, had claimed the election was rigged and stolen and attacked the Justice Department as “missing in action.” Based on my previous discussions with President Trump and his staff, he knew that the department was playing its proper role, but he appeared to think we were “missing in action” unless we worked with his legal team to reverse the results of the election.
At noon on Dec. 1, I sat down for lunch in the attorney general’s private dining room with Mike Balsamo, the Associated Press reporter who covers the department. Mike asked me about the president’s criticisms over the weekend. I told him that, contrary to the president’s comments, we had been looking into substantial claims of fraud. “What have you been finding?” Mike asked. My response: “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” Moments later, news was blasting out across media outlets that the attorney general had contradicted the president by declaring that the department had yet to find evidence of widespread voter fraud sufficient to change the election’s result.
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When I left that afternoon for my previously scheduled meeting in the West Wing with the president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, I knew what to expect. President Trump hailed me down to meet with him. I knew it would be an unpleasant meeting.
My chief of staff Will Levi and I walked through the Oval Office and along the narrow hallway that leads to a small rectangular dining room that President Trump also used as a work area. He was sitting as usual to my left at the head of the dining table. The opposing head of the table to the right was unoccupied, but looming on the wall behind it was a large-screen TV. It was tuned to the One America News channel covering a Michigan legislative hearing on voter fraud allegations.
A protester holds a placard demanding a recount of votes in the presidential election, Lansing, Mich., Nov. 7, 2020.PHOTO: STEPHEN ZENNER/SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES
Facing me on the far side of the table sat Mr. Meadows, Mr. Cipollone and Deputy Counsel Pat Philbin. Standing to my right was a White House lawyer, Eric Herschmann. The side of the table closest to me was empty. I walked over to the chair on my side of the table close to the president, rested my hands on the top of the backrest and remained standing. The president, holding the remote, turned down the volume a bit but kept it audible in the background.
I looked at POTUS and greeted him. “Hello, Mr. President.”
There was an awkward silence. He put down the remote control, at first not looking at me. I could tell he was enraged, struggling to keep his temper under control. He shuffled through some papers on the table, looking for something, his breathing a little heavier than usual, his nostrils flaring slightly. Finding what he wanted, he thrust a news clipping at me. “Did you say this?” he snapped.
It was the Balsamo article. “Yes, I did, Mr. President,” I responded. “Why would you say that?” he demanded, his voice rising. “Because it is true, Mr. President,” I replied. “The reporter asked me what the department had found to date, and I told him.”
He stopped for a moment and then said, ‘You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.’
“But you did not have to say that!” he barked. “You could have just said, ‘No comment.’ This is killing me—killing me. This is pulling the rug out from under me.” He stopped for a moment and then said, “You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.”
“No, Mr. President, I don’t hate you,” I said. “You know I sacrificed a lot personally to come in to help you when I thought you were being wronged.” The president nodded, almost involuntarily conceding the point. “But over the weekend, you started blaming the department for the inability of your legal team to come up with evidence of fraud. The department is not an extension of your legal team. Our mission is to investigate and prosecute actual fraud. The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit.”
President Trump and William Barr at a Memorial Day service at the U.S. Capitol, May 2019.PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/POOL/BLOOMBERG
The president looked defiant. I continued, “I’ve told you that the fraud claims are not supported...And others have also told you this. But your legal team continues to shovel this shit out to the American people. And it is wrong.”
The president motioned toward the TV. “Have you listened to any of these hearings?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t, Mr. President,” I said, “but I am familiar with the allegations.”
The president leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, rocking a little from side to side, staring at me, his face getting redder. He was seething but appeared willing to let me continue. “Your legal team keeps publicly saying ‘fraud,’ but their arguments in courts don’t claim fraud,” I said. “They’re really saying the state didn’t follow the rules...But that is not the same as evidence of fraud.”
“There is a mountain of evidence,” President Trump protested, gesturing to the hearing on TV.
‘Mr. President,’ I said, ‘the reason you are in this position is that, instead of having a crackerjack legal team...you wheeled out a clown show.’
“Mr. President,” I said, “the reason you are in this position is that, instead of having a crackerjack legal team that had its shit together from day one, you wheeled out a clown show, and no quality lawyers who would otherwise be willing to help will get anywhere near it.”
“Maybe,” he said, almost pensively, “maybe.” But he was not assuaged.
“Look, Mr. President, they wasted a whole month with this idiotic claim about Dominion machines,” I continued. “First, there is no evidence they were compromised. Your team picked the one theory that can be easily disproven.” I explained that the paper ballots are retained, and it is easy to verify the machine’s accuracy by comparing the machine’s tally with the retained stack of ballots. As far as I knew, I said, wherever this had been done, there had been no material discrepancy, and no one had yet pointed to one.
“Have you seen the thousands of Biden ballots dumped in the early morning in Detroit?” he asked. “People saw boxes of ballots being carried into the building in the early morning.”
“We have looked into that also,” I replied. “Detroit has over six hundred precincts, and, unlike other places, all the ballots are transported to a separate processing center for counting. It’s not surprising that boxes of ballots would arrive through the night. Detroit’s votes usually come in late, and this time the vote totals were comparable to previous elections,” I assured him. “In Detroit, you actually did slightly better than in 2016, and Biden did slightly worse than Hillary Clinton. ”
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTSHow does William Barr’s account change the way you look at the Trump presidency? Join the conversation below.
The president seemed a bit taken aback that I seemed to know what I was talking about. “Have you bothered to ask the people who are feeding you this shit how the votes compared to the last election?” I pressed.
The president glared at me and shifted the conversation away from the election, mentioning other areas where he felt I had failed him. The big one was the failure to bring to conclusion before the 2020 election U.S. attorney John Durham’s inquiry into the origins and conduct of the Russian collusion investigation. “I regret it’s taking so long,” I said, “but, as I have told you, a big part of that is Covid.”
“When will it be done?” he snorted.
“I am not sure, but I’m hoping it will be done in the first part of the Biden administration,” I replied.
“The first part of the Biden administration!” the president roared harshly, staring daggers at me. I could not tell if he was mad at the delay or at my explicit recognition that Joe Biden would be the president.
The president then started raking me over the coals about his longest-standing grievance against me: my August 2019 decision not to indict former FBI director James Comey for giving his lawyers memos that were later found to contain a few words of confidential information.
I tried to bring the conversation to a conclusion. “I understand you are very frustrated with me, Mr. President, and I am willing to submit my resignation. But I have—”
Bang. A loud sound, almost like a gunshot, cut me off and jolted us all.
“Accepted!” the President yelled. It took me a second to see that President Trump had slammed the table with his palm. “Accepted!” he yelled again. Bang. He hit the table once more; his face was quivering. “Leave, and don’t go back to your office. You are done right now. Go home!” he barked.
I nodded and said, “I understand, Mr. President.” I gestured to Will, and we started walking out. Just recovering from the surprise themselves, Pat Cipollone and Eric Herschmann both yelled loudly at the same time, “No!”
Pat continued, “This is a big mistake, Mr. President.”
Will and I had gotten only about 50 feet down the hallway leading to the stairs when my cell phone rang.
“Don’t leave!” Eric said insistently.
“I am getting the hell out,” I replied before the call was dropped.
Atty Gen. Barr leaves the White House on Dec. 1, 2020, after discussing election fraud claims with President Trump.PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
It was rainy and dark as I emerged onto the drive running along the side of the West Wing. The FBI agents on my protective detail met me, and Will and I climbed into the armored black Chevy Suburban.
“Where to, boss?” the agent in charge asked.
“The department,” I said, as the Suburban drifted slowly down the drive toward the exit gate.
Suddenly the thudding, heavy sound of fists pounding on the backseat windows on both sides of the vehicle made me and the FBI agents in the front seats jump. In the dark and rain, I could barely make out Pat on one side and Eric on the other. We pulled over. Will climbed back into the third-row seats, followed by Eric, while Pat climbed in next to me.
Pat explained: “Bill, as soon as you walked out the door, the president told us not to let you leave the building. He did not mean it. He is not firing you. Come on back in.”
“I hear you, Pat, but I am not going back in tonight,” I said. “Talking any more about this tonight wouldn’t be helpful.”
“You’re right,” Eric chimed in. “But you agree there’s no change in your status, right?”
“Let’s let cooler heads prevail and talk more tomorrow,” Pat advised.
“Okay,” I agreed. “But I don’t know where he’s going with this stolen election stuff.”
“So, what are you going to say about what happened tonight?” Eric asked.
“Nothing happened tonight,” I said, “except I’m going home and having a stiff Scotch.” Pat and Eric jumped out, and we drove off.
The next morning, I got a call from Mark Meadows. I told him that I would not surprise President Trump by leaving without warning. On Dec. 14, the day by which all the states had certified their election results, effectively locking in Biden’s victory, I went over to tell the president that I would like to leave before Christmas. Within the hour, he tweeted: “Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family.”
Mr. Barr served as U.S. attorney general under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. This essay is adapted from his new book, “One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General,” to be published on March 8 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins (which, like The Wall Street Journal, is owned by News Corp).
Exc. |
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| To: FJB who wrote (338156) | 3/3/2022 12:47:10 PM | | From: Honey_Bee | | | | I have been cringing the last few days as our government makes rules that are designed to hurt the Russian people - even confiscating personal belongings.
I do not recall any rule, any time, anywhere, against the people of other countries in similar circumstances - Saudi Arabia, for example.
But I know this: If they can do it to Russian people, they can do it to us if they declare us enemies. |
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