No days for Trump…just one for Barr

President Trump has not spent one day of his 1,449 days in office being president of all the people. While the focus is on his inciting an insurrection at the Capitol to overturn this election defeat, we must not overlook the sorrowful record of former Attorney General William Barr.

Barr served as Trump’s second Attorney General for 678 days, from February 14, 2019 to December 23, 2020. He replaced Attorney General Jeff Sessions, fired for refusing Trump’s command to quash the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. To his credit, Sessions refused to function as Trump’s personal lawyer instead of his constitutional job as the People’s Lawyer.

Barr, who previously served as George H.W. Bush’s Attorney General from August 16, 1991 to January 20 1993, had no such qualms about serving as Trump’s personal lawyer while his AG. He grievously mischaracterized the conclusions of the Mueller Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election before the full report was released, given Trump cover to deflect guilt and impeachment. He bought into Trump’s fantasy that mail in voting, critically required during pandemic, would represent an illegitimate election. He dismissed worries about white supremacist threats and violence, even after the Wolverine Militia were arrested for trying kidnap and possibly kill the Michigan governor.

But Barr gets credit for one day, November 30, 2020, as the People’s Lawyer, when he told Trump and the nation that the election was fair and legitimate. Barr, like Sessions before him, found himself under Trump’s self serving bus, and he soon quit...or was fired.

One day of 678 as the People’s Lawyer is pretty bad. But it pales to Trump’s 0 for 1,449 as the People’s President.