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Speaker 1

00:00

♪♪ I'd now like to talk about William Barr, Trump's attorney general and constipated shaman bear. And let's immediately answer the question that's undoubtedly top of your mind. Do you have a clip of Bill Barr playing the bagpipes? Well, relax, the answer is yes.

Speaker 1

00:18

♪ BAGPIPE MUSIC ♪ You're welcome. Now, did that tell us anything about Barr, aside from the fact that he's the kind of guy who, given the option to learn literally any musical instrument, actively chose the bagpipes, which is basically a noisy sex doll for octopuses? No, it didn't. Did we have to show you anyway?

Speaker 1

00:45

Absolutely. Because any time we have footage of the subject of 1 of our stories playing the bagpipes, we will show you a clip of that. And that's not just a promise. It's a bagpipe promise.

Speaker 1

00:54

♪♪ Exactly. Now, since becoming AG, Barr has been in the news constantly, and almost never for good reasons. In just the past few months, he has, among other things, shown distrust in mail-in voting and also dismissed public health measures in the middle of a pandemic in the grossest possible way.

Speaker 2

01:14

You know, putting a national lockdown, stay-at-home orders is like house arrest. It's not... It's, you know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history.

Speaker 1

01:28

-♪

Speaker 3

01:28

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Speaker 1

01:29

♪ -♪

Speaker 3

01:31

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1

01:33

yeah ♪ Now, I know that's ridiculous for, let's say, a hundred different reasons, but do spare a thought there for his description of slavery as a different kind of restraint. That phrase is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Much like slaves did when, and this is true, they were literal slaves.

Speaker 1

01:49

And what is particularly striking about Barr's extreme behavior over the last year and a half is that when Trump first nominated him, the news was basically greeted with relief.

Speaker 4

01:58

Barr will be seen as a relatively non-controversial choice, an establishment choice. William Barr is sort of an old establishment hand.

Speaker 1

02:06

He's an institutionalist, he's got, he's a grown-up.

Speaker 5

02:09

He's an adult, he's a grown-up. This is someone who is an adult in the room.

Speaker 6

02:14

I think someone like Bill Barr, who has experience, you know, seems like he'd be a better adult in the room for us.

Speaker 1

02:21

Adult in the room? Look, not only is being an adult an absurdly low bar to set for the highest levels of government, but it also implies that the main problem with Trump is that he is childish. And I know that it makes for a fun balloon now and again, but at its core, I wish that white nationalist with an authoritarian streak would act his age.

Speaker 1

02:40

He's sort of missing the point here. But you can kind of see why people were so willing to embrace Barr. He had previously served as Attorney General under George H.W. Bush, so he at least knew what the job involved.

Speaker 1

02:52

And his 2 immediate predecessors as Trump's AG were the racist goblin formerly known as Jeff Sessions, and then, for a few crazy months, Matthew Whittaker, a man who was once embroiled in a scandal over a patent company he was involved in, whose clients included the inventor of a masculine toilet for the well-endowed. So, yeah, by that standard, Barr was the adult in the room. But it's worth remembering, some adults are assholes, And Barr is very much 1 of them. But he is also very much more.

Speaker 1

03:21

He is a driven, deeply moralistic man with extreme views on executive power. Actually making him 1 of the more dangerous figures in the Trump administration. Which I know is saying something. But if Trump gets a second term, Barr is only going to be more dangerous going forward.

Speaker 1

03:36

So tonight, let's talk about Bill Barr. And let's start with the fact that from a very early age, he was simply a nightmare. Here is his old boss, at Barr's swearing-in, sharing a fun anecdote from his childhood.

Speaker 7

03:49

The newspapers report Bill Barr was giving Eisenhower for president speeches when he was in kindergarten. And his parents passed along the word that young Bill was discoursing about separation of powers before he gave up his pacifier.

Speaker 1

04:05

What a weird thing to share on someone's first day in a new job. Hey, everyone, please welcome Bill. He's from New York, and fun fact, as a child, he was a little narc who devoted himself to an unhealthy worship of authority instead of cultivating any meaningful relationships.

Speaker 1

04:19

We're so glad to have Bill on board. Now, veneration of authority has been a consistent through line of Barr's life. At Columbia University in the anti-war 60s, he stood out for being incredibly pro-law enforcement. So much so, that he brought police coffee as they encountered protesters, and once got into a fist fight with students who were demonstrating on campus.

Speaker 1

04:40

A story that he told the New York Times while letting out a big laugh. And that is just sad. He's supposed to tell his grandkids fun, inspiring college stories about how you burnt your draft card or went streaking across campus. But Barr's wild tales seem to be more like, 1 time, I licked the boot of the state so hard, I was shit in Aglet's for a week.

Speaker 1

05:01

Best 4 years of my life." So it's frankly not surprising that at just age 41, after quickly climbing the ranks at the DOJ, Barr was picked as Bush's AG. And immediately, he made a name for himself as an absolute hardliner on immigration, signing off on a mass surveillance program, and having a view of criminal justice, perhaps best summed up by a memo that his DOJ produced, titled, The Case for More Incarceration. So he presented himself as a strong proponent of law and order. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, if Bill Barr has anything to say about it.

Speaker 1

05:33

Although, interestingly, that philosophy had some key exceptions when it came to his own bosses.

Speaker 5

05:39

New York Times columnist William Safire, a conservative Republican, often referred to Barr then, not as Attorney General, but as the Cover-Up General, suggesting he covered up Bush's role in Iraqgate, burying the investigation of how the Bush administration allegedly helped finance Saddam Hussein's weapons.

Speaker 1

06:01

Yeah, that was a major scandal at the time, and yet Barr refused Congress's request to appoint an independent counsel. And not just that, he also supported the pardon of 6 defendants in the Iran-Contra scandal. So his cover-up general nickname is really pretty fair, in that it takes something that he is, Attorney General, and adds an apt descriptor.

Speaker 1

06:21

You know, the same way that Steve Mnuchin's nickname is Secretary Sprinkler. Why? Because he's Secretary of the Treasury, and he makes things wet. Not a dry seat in the house when the old squirt locker opens his hot little mouth, you see it right.

Speaker 1

06:33

Everyone definitely sees it. And it's not just that Barr was forgiving of past presidential excesses, he also worked to expand executive power. From advising Bush that he had the legal authority to wage war against Iraq without Congress' consent, to writing a legal opinion that said the FBI could seize a suspect abroad and return them to the U.S. Without first obtaining the foreign state's consent.

Speaker 1

06:55

And who would have thought that just 30 years later, Barr would get to work for a man who shared his exact views on consent? And at this point, it's probably worth pausing for a moment to talk about the basis for a lot of Barr's actions, because he is a fervent believer in something known as the Unitary Executive Theory. Although, he wouldn't like me even bringing this up.

Speaker 2

07:15

1 of the more amusing aspects of modern progressive polemic is their breathless attacks on the unitary executive theory. Ugh!

Speaker 1

07:26

-... -... -... -...

Speaker 1

07:27

-... -... -... -...

Speaker 1

07:33

What are you doing? He not only belittled an extremely reasonable legal concern, he topped it off with a... Of a creepy uncle trying to interact with his baby niece, who even though she's pre-verbal already knows this guy is bad news. But the reason people breathlessly attack Barr's embrace of the unitary executive theory is that it takes a lot of breath to explain just how wrong and dangerous it is.

Speaker 1

07:58

Very basically, The theory holds that the president has virtually complete and total executive power. And some go further, arguing that the mainstream understanding of the separation of powers, that the 3 co-equal branches of government check and balance each other, is wrong. And instead, that each branch has near total authority over its own domain. But Barr goes even further than that, once arguing that the only checks on the president should be through the election process or the impeachment process, and that is it.

Speaker 1

08:27

Which is pretty startling, because that interpretation gives the president an enormous amount of leeway. Although, as Barr tells it, George H.W. Bush was actually a little more hesitant, telling him, I don't want you stretching. I think the way to advance executive power is to wait and see, move gradually.

Speaker 1

08:44

So, Barr didn't really get a chance to fully test his belief that the president answers to absolutely nobody, until that is, this guy moved into the White House. And pretty soon, Barr seemed eager to get back into the game. In June 2018, he sent the DOJ an unsolicited memo criticizing the Mueller investigation, which is basically a lawyer's version of sliding into Trump's DMs. And in it, Barr argued that Mueller's core premise, that the president acts corruptly if he attempts to influence a proceeding in which his own conduct is being scrutinized, is untenable because it would violate Article 2 of the Constitution, which places no limits on the president's authority to interfere with matters that concern his own conduct.

Speaker 1

09:24

Now, that is an extreme interpretation of the law with potentially massive implications. And yet, in his confirmation hearings, Barr went to great lengths to make it seem palatable. At 1 point, he employed 1 of his signature moves, using boring but smart-sounding legalese to cover up a batshit proposition. He even lectured the panel about what the word corruptly actually means.

Speaker 2

09:47

What it means is using it in the 19th century sense. It meant to influence in a way that changes something that's good and fit to something that's bad and unfit. Namely, the corruption of evidence or the corruption of a decision maker.

Speaker 2

10:03

That's what the word corruptly means, because once you dissociate it from that, it really means... Very hard to discern what it means. It means bad? What does bad mean?

Speaker 1

10:14

Bad. It means bad. Babies and dogs know that. But that is almost an impressive amount of pseudo-intellectual nonsense there.

Speaker 1

10:22

I kind of wanted him to keep going. What does bad mean? What does any word mean? Is speech itself not merely a collection of sounds?

Speaker 1

10:28

And in that sense, specifically the 12th century sense, isn't bad simply a noise to which we have ascribed meaning? Bad is a human construct, but from a purely objective standpoint, it has no more meaning than the sound... Or... It's a vocal noise and nothing more.

Speaker 1

10:43

Anyway, that is why I think the president should be allowed to be a tyrant. And the thing is, if you strip all of that rhetorical bluster away, the argument you're basically left with is this. Article 2 allows me to do whatever I want.

Speaker 4

10:55

It's a thing called Article 2. Nobody ever mentions Article 2. Then I have an article 2, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president, but I don't even talk about that.

Speaker 1

11:07

That's right. He has the right to do whatever he wants, but he doesn't even talk about it. Which you have to admit, is pretty cool of him.

Speaker 1

11:14

It's what leadership is all about. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, carry a big stick and speak loudly about how softly you speak about what a big stick you're carrying. And while Trump has been grumbling lately that Barr should have done more to punish his political enemies, when it comes to playing defense for Trump, Barr has been relentless. He famously provided an exculpatory summary of Mueller's report weeks before making it publicly available.

Speaker 1

11:38

And since then, his DOJ has suggested a lighter sentence for Roger Stone. He's trying to drop the charges against Michael Flynn, who remember, had pled guilty, removed an attorney from office who was investigating Trump's associates, sued John Bolton to try and stop the release of his book, and at 1 point, tried to have the U.S. Government replace Trump as the defendant in a defamation suit arising from Trump's statement that a woman who had accused him of rape was, quote, not my type. All of which is definitely what the founders had in mind when they drafted Article 2.

Speaker 1

12:09

So you can see why some have argued that Barr is Trump's dream AG. But more interestingly, Trump may also be Barr's dream president. Someone who is the ideal vessel for Barr's decades-long pursuit of a unitary executive. And not just that, because Trump may also give Barr a chance to push his uncompromising moral vision onto the rest of the country.

Speaker 1

12:30

And it is uncompromising. Barr blames what he sees as society's ills on moral decay. He once said, in an attack on the liberalism of the 60s, we see around us the grim harvest of the permissive society. Broken homes, fatherless children, widespread drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, over a million abortions a year, crack babies, and drug wars.

Speaker 1

12:52

And time has not moderated his views, especially when it comes to criminal justice. When protests erupted this summer in the wake of George Floyd's murder. He repeatedly said that systemic racism in police departments does not exist. And late last year, seemed to threaten communities who even dared to protest against the police.

Speaker 2

13:13

They have to start showing more than they do... The respect and support that law enforcement deserves. And if communities don't give that support and respect, they may find themselves without the police protection they need.

Speaker 1

13:30

Yeah, that's not how it should work, Bill. A community shouldn't earn protection by respecting the police. Police should earn respect by protecting the community, because 1, they work for us, and 2, they work for us.

Speaker 1

13:44

At his core, Barr is clearly the same kid who took so much joy in beating up protesters at Columbia, only now, he has the force of the federal government at his disposal, and he has been willing to use it.

Speaker 8

13:57

Police forcibly removing demonstrators Monday to clear a path for President Trump to walk to St. John's Church, damaged by arson, for a photo op that sparked outrage. The AG was there too, and the Trump administration says he gave the order to increase the secure perimeter around the White House.

Speaker 8

14:13

But now Barr says It was not his call to use aggressive measures. I'm not involved in giving tactical commands like that, he told the Associated Press. Adding his attitude was, get it done, but he didn't say, go do it.

Speaker 1

14:26

Okay, that is clearly unbelievably Weasley. But I will say, I am glad that someone finally found the perfect words to describe the role that I believe the Queen played in Diana's death. Maybe she didn't say, go do it, but her attitude was definitely, get it done.

Speaker 1

14:41

But regardless of whether that operation was a result of Barr's direct orders or just his general attitude, He made his support for it afterwards very clear.

Speaker 2

14:50

Here's what the media's missing. This was not an operation to respond to that particular crowd. It was an operation to move the perimeter 1 block.

Speaker 9

14:59

And the methods they used, you think, were appropriate.

Speaker 2

15:01

Is that what you're saying? When they met resistance, yes. They announced 3 times they didn't move.

Speaker 2

15:07

By the way, there was no tear gas used.

Speaker 9

15:09

There were chemical irritants the party...

Speaker 2

15:10

No, there were not chemical irritants. Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It's not chemical.

Speaker 9

15:16

Pepper spray, you're saying,

Speaker 2

15:17

is what was used. Pepper balls. Pepper balls.

Speaker 1

15:19

Okay, he is clearly splitting hairs with the word chemical there, but he's also entirely fucking wrong. Pepper balls are made with a chemical irritant. You can just check the website of the company that supplied them to the federal government, which says they are made with a chemical irritant that provides versatility for any situation, because that is what we're all looking for in our projectile weapons, versatility.

Speaker 1

15:42

A way to transition this civil violation from day to night, And the answer there is, as always, add a statement lip, ditch the blazer, and change those flats to pumps. It's Thirsty Thursday, bitches. Time to pep, pep, pep it up. But he has gone even further than sanctioning pepper balls, telling federal prosecutors to consider charging rioters with sedition, a charge that can carry a 20-year prison sentence.

Speaker 1

16:07

And then, there was this. Attorney General William Barr specifically pointed out Seattle, Portland, and New York City as being designated anarchist jurisdictions and are at risk of losing federal money. It's true. The DOJ identified Seattle, Portland, and New York as anarchist jurisdictions because they were permitting violence and destruction of property, with Barr saying, the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance.

Speaker 1

16:33

And protests against police brutality in black and brown communities during an economic downturn caused by a mismanaged pandemic that has disproportionately ravaged those same communities is not anarchy. It's well-targeted, fully justified fury at, to borrow a phrase, a lack of safety for the citizenry. Let's put it this way, if there ever is real anarchy, it won't be poor people getting shot. Now, those threats are likely meaningless, since Congress, not the president, has the power to determine how federal funds are spent.

Speaker 1

17:04

But that is clearly not the point here. The point is that by Barr even saying that, he is bolstering his and the president's case that a moral order must be imposed and by force. And ultimately, that is why he is so very, very dangerous. He gives radically conservative views, the veneer of seasoned legal analysis, delivering utter nonsense while hiding behind whoopee Goldberg glasses.

Speaker 1

17:29

And as much as he may think that he's the only objective, fair-minded man left in government, Barr has made it very clear what battle he is really fighting and who he is fighting it against.

Speaker 2

17:40

The left wants power because that is essentially their state of grace and their secular religion. They want to run people's lives so they can design utopia for all of us, and that's what, you know, that's what turns them on.

Speaker 1

17:55

Oh, come on, Bill. That's just ridiculous. We all know that There's only 1 thing that turns on the left, and that is Wallace Shawn.

Speaker 1

18:03

He's a socialist, as if he needed to get any hotter. Redistribute my assets, you glistening gnome. Nationalize my healthcare, you soft-boiled egg. Barr isn't just fighting to give the president power on principle, he wants to give this president power so he will use it against the people that Barr thinks are ruining society.

Speaker 1

18:23

Coincidentally, the same people that Republican politicians have blamed for exactly that, since Barr was beating up hippies and giving coffee to cops. Barr sees a country that needs to be whipped into shape and is doing everything he can to make sure that this president can whip freely. And if Trump is re-elected, and Barr is given a chance to keep serving what he views as a one-man executive branch that has the fucking Supreme Court on its side, then there is only 1 way to breathlessly describe that.

Speaker 3

18:52

Ugh!

Speaker 1

18:53

Yeah, no shit.

Speaker 3

19:00

You