Former Attorney General Bill Barr warned then-President Donald Trump in April 2020 that he may lose the presidential election because suburban voters viewed him as a “f***ing a**hole,” Business Insider reported.
Barr shared his opinion about the 2020 presidential election in an Oval Office meeting, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s reporting in Peril, a book set for release on Sept. 21.
“In my opinion, this is not a base election,” Barr said in the meeting. “Your base is critical, and you’ll get it out.
“And there are a lot of people out there, independents and Republicans in the suburbs of the critical states that think you’re an a**hole,” he continued. “They think you act like an a**hole and you got to, you got to start taking that into account.”
Barr told Trump that he had become “captive” to the Beltway, apparently meaning that he he had become too embroiled in partisan politics and the news cycle.
He said that voters who do not follow politics “don’t give a s***” about Trump’s fight with the administrative state, the spy agencies, Big Tech, and the corporate media.
“Your base cares about seeing [former FBI director James Comey] and the rest of those guys held accountable, but these other people don’t,” Barr reportedly told Trump. “They don’t care about your f***ing grievances. And it just seems that every time you’re out there, you’re talking about your godd*** grievances.”
Barr culminated these remarks by telling Trump, “You’re going to lose.”
In response to these criticisms, Trump said that he needed to fight to defend his presidency.
“I need to be a fighter,” he said. “I’ve gotten where I am because I’m willing to fight.”
Peril contains numerous other startling claims, including that Gen. Mark Milley committed treason in his communications with the Chinese military.
The book’s revelations all confirm a clear theme: Trump had few true allies in the White House and most permanent bureaucrats did everything in their power to thwart his role as chief executive and commander-in-chief.
