Bill Barr has spoken out about the Capitol riot that took place on January 6 and suggested that Trump’s continuous election fraud allegations led to the violence at the Capitol Hill.
As the former Attorney General revealed in his first TV appearance since he stepped down from his position, Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud were “the final straw.”
“I think that was the thing that precipitated the riots on the Hill,” William Barr told ITV News when asked if “the debate about the integrity of the election was the final straw.”
“I’m sad to see, but not surprised in a way to see, the kind of violence we saw on Capitol Hill. I consider it despicable, and – I was not attorney general, I had already left office when that occurred – but I felt that they should move very quickly to disperse that crowd, regardless of which side of the political spectrum is involved,” Barr told ITV News’ Global Security Editor Rohit Kachroo.
“I think it’s always important to remember most people are exercising their First Amendment rights but there is a substantial group obviously that went far beyond that and broke into the Capitol and tried to interfere with the proceedings and that’s unacceptable.”
When asked whether he also believes that Trump incited the MAGA mob to riot, however, Barr took a step back and suggested he will “leave it to the people who are looking into the genesis of this to say whether incitement was involved.”
“I think that when you start suppressing free speech, when people lose confidence in the media, and also when they lose faith in the integrity of elections – you are going to have some people resort to violence,” the former AG added during the interview.
He also pointed out that “violence interfering with the processes of government” should not be tolerated no matter which political side it is connected to.
Barr’s comments follow almost a month after he resigned from his position as Attorney General after taking a swipe at Trump by branding his fraud allegations “bull****” and calling his legal team “clownish.”
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