Barr worried Trump was ‘detached from reality’ in aftermath of 2020 election

Former Attorney General William Barr said he worried in the aftermath of the 2020 election that then-President Trump had become “detached from reality” as Trump made repeated claims about voting fraud. 

Barr told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot in recorded testimony that Trump was making increasingly outlandish claims about rigged voting machines and fraudulent vote dumps that the former president claimed were swinging the 2020 election against him. 

“And the statements were made very conclusory, like, ‘These machines were designed to engage in fraud,’ or something to that effect. But I didn’t see any supporting information for it,” Barr said in testimony aired Monday during a public committee hearing. 

“And I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, ‘Boy if he really believes this stuff, he has lost contact with — he’s become detached from reality, if he really believes this stuff,’” Barr continued. 

Barr, in his deposition to the House committee, repeatedly dismissed Trump’s claims of fraud as “bullshit,” “nonsense” and “crazy stuff.” But he told the panel Trump did not show an interest “in what the actual facts were.” 

“My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud. And I haven’t seen any since the election that changes my mind on that,” Barr said. 

Barr has been a key witness for the House panel in demonstrating those close to the former president made clear to Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election that there was not widespread fraud or evidence to back up his claims that voting machines were rigged against him. 

The former attorney general’s deposition was also played in the committee’s hearing last Thursday, and he was shown dismissing Trump’s claims as “bullshit.” Barr resigned in December 2020 after he had publicly broken with Trump and said he’d found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.