It has been startling to see former Attorney General Bill Barr, at one time Donald Trump's most powerful henchman, turn on him so viciously, both during the post-election period and the latest Trump scandal regarding the theft of government documents. Barr published a memoir a few months ago in which he vociferously defends Trump's four years in office (even while saying his former boss was "prone to bluster and exaggeration" and may not have had the ideal temperament for a president). He proudly stands by all of his ham-handed interference in the justice system on behalf of Trump and his cronies behalf but then, almost inexplicably, seemed to draw the line at boosting Trump's Big Lie after the election was over. Now we see Barr testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee and appearing on Fox News to call Trump's excuses in the Mar-a-Lago document scandal a "crock of shit." Apparently Barr is a champion of the FBI and the Department of Justice all over again.
Most people, including myself, originally viewed this as the usual rehabilitation tour by a Trumper who belatedly realized that he had trashed his reputation in service of an irredeemable sore loser. But now I think it's clear that is just happening because Trump lost. It's nothing more than that. Had he won the 2020 election, there's every reason to believe Barr would still be in there, pushing Trump's political and personal agenda without the slightest compunction. But once it was clear there would be no second term, Barr cut his losses: Trump was no longer useful to him.
