‘Voting for Biden Is National Suicide’: Former AG Delivers Backhanded Trump Endorsement
America’s former top lawyer is warning against another four years of President Joe Biden. According to Axios reporter Mike Allen, former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr told the Forum Club of Southwest Florida on Friday that although he has issues with former President Donald Trump, incumbent Joe Biden is significantly worse. Barr said, “Voting for Trump is playing Russian roulette with the country. Voting for Biden is outright national suicide.”
Despite serving as Trump’s attorney general for nearly two years, Barr has been critical of the 45th president over the past three years. As recently as last June, for example, Barr took to CBS News to label his former boss “a consummate narcissist” and a “fundamentally flawed person.” Barr’s 2022 memoir “One Damn Thing After Another” was also critical of Trump’s presidency. For his part, Trump responded with an equally-scathing letter calling Barr “slow and lethargic,” alleging that the AG shied away from difficult decisions out of fear of Democrat-led political retaliation. “Bill Barr cares more about being accepted by the corrupt Washington Media and Elite than serving the American people,” Trump wrote. “When the Radical Left Democrats threatened to hold him in contempt and even worse, to Impeach him, he became virtually worthless to Law and Order and Election Integrity. They broke him like a trainer breaks a horse.”
Ex-Republican Representative Liz Cheney lashed out at Barr for his implicit Trump endorsement, saying the former AG is “absolutely wrong” for denigrating Biden’s presidency. Cheney said, “So electing Donald Trump’s not Russian roulette — electing Donald Trump would mean putting in power a man who’s committed to unraveling our constitutional framework. So Bill Barr is just wrong on that.” She added that she isn’t endorsing any candidate yet, but “the most important thing is to defeat Donald Trump, and I’ll do whatever it takes to do that.” The former congresswoman, who was kicked out of her own state’s Republican Party and censured by the Republican National Committee (RNC), also said that she isn’t ruling out her own presidential bid.
Trump is currently leading in the Republican presidential primaries, having won in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. The only remaining Republican challenger is former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who lost the Nevada Republican primary to “None of These Candidates,” since Trump did not appear on the ballot. Trump is currently leading Haley (65% to 32%) in the polls in her home state.
The 45th president is also tied with or leading Biden in the majority of national polls. An Emerson College poll released late last week shows Trump beating Biden 45% to 44% and any other potential Democrat challenger by margins of three to 12 points. A Financial Times/University of Michigan Ross School survey published last week shows Trump beating Biden 42% to 31%, with particular emphasis laid on both men’s handling of the economy. A poll from The Economist updated on Monday shows Trump leading Biden by two points and a CNN/SSRS poll shows Trump leading Biden by a slightly wider margin.
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.