Former Attorney General Bill Barr says the 2020 presidential election was not stolen: 'Trump lost it'

Bill Barr disavowed former President Donald Trump's claims of a stolen 2020 election, The Washington Post reported.
"The election was not 'stolen,'" he wrote in his forthcoming book. "Trump lost it."
Barr wrote in his book that the Justice Department could not substantiate the claims of mass fraud.

Former Attorney General Bill Barr in a forthcoming book unequivocally rejected former President Donald Trump's 2020 election claims, according to excerpts published Sunday in The Washington Post.

Barr wrote in the book, "One Damn Thing After Another," that Trump did not win the 2020 presidential race against President Joe Biden.

"The election was not 'stolen,'" the former attorney general stated. "Trump lost it."

While Trump's interactions with Barr regarding the presidential election have been mentioned in other books, the attorney general's memoir will detail some of the tensest moments between the two men as it related to Trump's unfounded voting fraud claims.

After Barr told an Associated Press reporter in December 2020 that there wasn't evidence of mass voter fraud, the then-attorney general met with Trump in the White House to discuss the interview, according to the book.

Barr's statements, which had become part of the public record, threw cold water on Trump's debunked claims that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate.

"This is killing me — killing me. This is pulling the rug right out from under me," Trump told Barr, according to the book, The Post reported. "He stopped for a moment and then said, 'You must hate Trump. You would only do this if you hate Trump.'"

The former attorney general also wrote that he informed Trump of how he had "sacrificed a lot personally to come in to help you when I thought you were being wronged," but was adamant that the Department of Justice couldn't verify the debunked claims of fraud that many Republicans argued had tipped the election to favor Biden.

Barr, who served as attorney general under Trump from February 2019 to December 2020, also called on conservatives to embrace "an impressive array of younger candidates" in 2024 who are ideologically aligned with the former president but lack his "erratic personal behavior," per the book.

Though, he did not identify any favored candidates.

In the book, however, Barr blasts Trump for what he describes as the former president's lack of character.

"Country and principle took second place," he remarked in the book, recalling his personal revelations about Trump while navigating the last few months in his role.

He added: "People are worthwhile to Trump only as means to his ends — as utensils."

Barr, who previously served in the role under then-President George H.W. Bush from November 1991 to January 1993, succeeded former Sen. Jeff Sessions, who had a tumultuous tenure in the administration after recusing himself from the Russia investigation and drawing the scorn of Trump.

The book is set to be released on March 8.

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