Appearing on Fox News Channel’s Special Report on Monday evening in a two-part interview to promote his new book, former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr ripped the “mainstream media” for their role in promoting the Trump-Russia collusion hoax to take down former President Donald Trump.
Anchor Bret Baier kicked off this portion of the interview by mentioning how Barr thought the whole Russiagate scandal was horrible.
"The mainstream media is talking about the big lie of the stolen election. They're forgetting that there was a big lie at the beginning of the administration of the Trump administration. And that was one that was propelled and fanned by the media largely," Barr replied.
When addressing the merits of the left’s claim that Trump colluded with Russia, Barr noted that it “was completely false it was never any [sic] basis for it. And, yet, it kept the President pinned down for the first half of his administration.”
Barr also relitigated the controversy over the redacted Mueller report: “ I felt I had to put out something that says, you know, is he gonna be indicted or isn't he gonna be indicted? Was there a crime or wasn't there a crime?”
Baier noted that “many in the media saw that as trying to protect the President. That you were trying to shape what the results of that investigation were.”
Barr shot swiftly dismantled that notion by ripping the media claiming that they had a “collective temper tantrum” because they were “heavily vested in the Russiagate scandal” because they wanted to bring Trump down over Russiagate.
It’s sad that this controversy needs to be rehashed by Barr, but sadly the leftist media have worked to cover up the origins of Russiagate and the Clinton campaign’s role in spreading the lie that the Trump campaign “colluded” with Russia.
To read the relevant transcript click “expand”:
FNC’s Special Report
3/7/2022
6:07:18 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: You say Russiagate was horrible.
BILL BARR: The mainstream media is talking about the big lie of the stolen election. They're forgetting that there was a big lie at the beginning of the administration of the Trump administration. And that was one that was propelled and fanned by the media largely. The Clinton administration played a big role in getting that ball rolling, the idea that Trump victory [sic] was illegitimate because of collusion with Russia. It was completely false it was never any [sic] basis for it. And, yet, it kept the President pinned down for the first half of his administration.
BAIER: On the Mueller investigation, after meeting with Mueller, you write: After meeting [sic] broke up, Rod and I walked toward my office. We paused in the anteroom and looked at each other with concern. Wow, I said, Bob has lost a step. That is not the Bob I know. Rod said equally surprised I wonder if he’s ill.
(...)
BARR: I was concerned about Bob when I saw him physically. I was concerned that he had -- he was ill. He was trembling and his voice was tremulous. He delivered the report that wasn’t redacted. Which meant there was gonna be a gap of a few weeks between the time I got the report and the time it could be made public. And so I felt I had to state what the bottom line was while we worked to redact the full report. So I felt I had to put out something that says, you know, is he gonna be indicted or isn't he gonna be indicted? Was there a crime or wasn't there a crime? Bottom line.
BAIER: Obviously, many in the media saw that as trying to protect the President. That you were trying to shape what the results of that investigation were.
BARR: Well, that's wrong there was no confusion after my statement. It was basically a collective temper tantrum by a lot of the media that was heavily vested in the Russiagate scandal. And they were upset that this wasn't going to bring down Trump.
