The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-01)

A4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, MARCH 1 , 2022

BY MATT ZAPOTOSKY AND JOSH DAWSEY

Former attorney general Wil-
liam P. Barr says in a new book
that the prospect of Donald
Trump running for president
again is “dismaying” and urges
the Republican Party to “look
forward” to other candidates,
concluding after a searing, be-
hind-the-scenes account of his
time in the president’s Cabinet
that Trump is not the right man
to lead the country.
In the book, “One Damn Thing
After Another,” Barr takes shot
after shot at Trump, especially
over his leadership during the
coronavirus pandemic and his
false claims that the election was
stolen from him.
Barr, who had a famous fall-
ing-out with Trump late in his
presidency, writes that Trump’s
“constant bellicosity diminishes
him and the office,” and that in
the final months of the adminis-
tration, he came to realize that
“Trump cared only about one
thing: himself. C ountry and prin-
ciple took second place.”
“We need leaders not only
capable of fighting and ‘punch-
ing,’ but also persuading and

attracting — leaders who can frame, and advocate for, an up- lifting vision of what it means to share in American citizenship,” Barr writes. “Donald Trump has shown he has neither the tem- perament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed.” Barr styles the book, to be published March 8, as a memoir of his life. He recounts events as far back as his childhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He l aunches blistering attacks on liberals and the news media — whom he views even more dimly than the former president — while outlining his conservative views on crime, religion, gender and sexuality. He also defends his handling of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report, and details how the Justice De- partment navigated allegations that Trump had committed a crime in pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate Joe Biden. Most notably, he unloads on Trump, casting him as an “incor- rigible” narcissist who, “through his self-indulgence and lack of self-control,” blew the 2020 election and then did “a disservice to the nation” in falsely claiming his defeat was due to fraud. “The election was not ‘stolen,’ ” B arr w rites. “Trump l ost it.” As attorney general, Barr faced withering criticism that he politicized the Justice Depart- ment to serve Trump’s interests,

such as by intervening in crimi- nal cases to benefit the president’s allies and launching inves- tigations that targeted the president’s foes. Though he casts himself in his book as resisting pressure to take inappropriate steps, critics are likely to accuse him of offering a self-serving retelling of events to sell books and rehabilitate his own public image. Barr writes that he and White House lawyers had regular Mon- day lunches, where they would “inventory the legally problemat- ic ideas floating around the administration.” A “fair share” of those — such as using an execu- tive order to end citizenship for children born in the United

States to parents who were here illegally — came from Trump himself, Barr writes. He writes that the lawyers “operated like a tag team, so that neither of us would provoke too much of the President’s ire at one time.” “We referred to this as choos- ing who would ‘eat the gre- nade,’ ” Barr writes. Barr says his relationship with Trump faced one of its first major tests in the summer of 2019, when he declined to prosecute James B. Comey because there were a “few words” of classified information in memos the former FBI director gave to his private lawyers. He writes that Trump raged at him after the

decision was revealed: “I’m shocked, Bill. I’m disgusted. I’m not happy about this, Bill.” Even as time wore on, Barr writes, Trump “never let me forget how unhappy he was.” Barr said that even though he made the right call, it did not matter to the president. “People are worthwhile to Trump only as means to his ends — as utensils,” Barr writes. “When they don’t help him get what he wants, they are useless. In my case, Trump’s disenchant- ment started — as it was bound to — when he saw I was not willing to bend the law to do his bidding.” Barr describes how he grew increasingly frustrated by the president’s public and private comments about Justice Depart- ment business, and the president’s wanting him “to deliver scalps in time for the election.” In mid-October 2020 , he writes, Trump called him and broached the subject of Hunter Biden, who was then under Jus- tice Department investigation and whose name was in the news because of the discovery of a laptop belonging to him. “Dammit, Mr. President, I am not going to talk to you about Hunter Biden. Period!” Barr says he responded. The breaking point for Barr and Trump’s relationship seems to have come after the election, when Barr refused to back Trump’s claims of widespread

fraud. In more detail than he has previously shared, Barr describes how he marshaled the Justice Department and the FBI to explore various fraud claims. And in each instance, he writes, they could find no evidence to support those claims — though that did not deter the president. “I got calls from senators and members of the House asking me what I thought about all the claims of fraud,” Barr writes. “On this trajectory, the peaceful tran- sition of power was not an obvi- ously attainable goal.” Barr takes particular aim at those who had the president’s ear — i ncluding former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who Barr says will be remembered as “the man who helped President Trump get impeached not once but twice.” (Giuliani was involved in the pressure campaign in Ukraine, which was at the heart of Trump’s first impeach- ment, and the effort to overturn the election, which fueled the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and was at the heart of the second.) He writes that Trump’s legal team “had a difficult case to make, and they made it as badly and unprofessionally as I could have imagined,” taking particular note of a news conference Giuliani held at a Philadelphia landscaping company to pro- mote his claims. “It was all a grotesque embar- rassment,” Barr writes.

In new book, Barr says prospect of Trump running again is ‘dismaying’

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST In his forthcoming book, former attorney general William P. Barr, right, takes shot after shot at former president Donald Trump.

F ormer attorney general

critiques false claims that

2020 election was stolen

BY MICHAEL SCHERER, SEAN SULLIVAN AND TYLER PAGER

When House Democratic lead-
ers met with President Biden in
February in the Map Room, they
brought with them an unexpect-
ed request: Could he identify a
senior White House point person
to work with them on the mid-
term elections?
The fact that the question
needed to be asked at all, in a
room filled with several of
Biden’s top aides, spoke to the
Democratic disorganization just
nine months before elections
that will shape the second half of
Biden’s term. Lawmakers’ frus-
tration had been building, ac-
cording to multiple people famil-
iar with the situation, as cam-
paign strategists struggled to
work with Biden’s team while the
administration tried to craft a
consistent strategy for dealing
with hot-button issues such as
the coronavirus pandemic and
inflation.
House Democratic campaign
chairman Sean Maloney (N.Y.)
and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca-
lif.), who traveled to the White
House on Feb. 2, decided that the
best route was to take the issue
directly to the president. They
made the request as part of a
broader discussion about how
Biden would help in the coming
elections and the ways the White
House can more succinctly sell
its agenda and accomplishments.
“We wanted to make sure that
the proper attention was being
paid to the midterms,” Maloney
said in an interview, explaining
their request. “They have an
enormous amount of talent down
there. We just wanted to know
who our point of contact was.”
That meeting and another
with Senate strategists have
proved to be turning points of
sorts, according to people on all
sides of the conversations, result-
ing in regular coordination on
planning and freeing up $15 mil-
lion from the Democratic Nation-
al Committee to be used to help
House and Senate campaigns. It’s
a pivot Biden hopes to take
public on Tuesday, when the
president steps onto his biggest
stage, a televised prime-time
State of the Union address, with a
focus on Democratic accomplish-
ments and plans for the future.
But the efforts to define for
voters the Democratic case
against Republicans comes at a
time of significant internal un-
certainty among the party’s lead-
ers, with many lawmakers and
strategists questioning whether
the White House’s emphasis on
political issues has been suffi-
cient and whether there is still
time to shift, according to inter-
views with officials and strat-
egists, more than a dozen of
whom spoke on the condition of
anonymity about private conver-
sations.
“I don’t see a message. That
troubles me. I think Democrats

are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Democrat Gilda Cobb-Hunter, the longest- serving member of the South Carolina State House. “They’ve done some good things. They don’t s eem t o be able to figure out how to talk about it.” Biden made clear in the meeting that he would step up his personal involvement in the coming months, and he said several senior advisers would continue to be involved in the midterm effort. They include Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon, who is coordinating the political efforts, senior adviser Mike Doni- lon, who o versees the Biden strategy, and Counselor to the Presi- dent Steve Ricchetti, who often works w ith lawmakers on Capitol Hill, according to a Biden adviser familiar with the conversation. “They have all been incredibly accessible since the meeting with the president,” Maloney said. Democratic concerns have been particularly acute around the party’s pitch on the economy, which has recovered quickly under Biden, even as costs have begun to grow at the fastest rate in decades. After pivoting away last fall from talking about “tran- sitory” price increases, Biden focused this year in his speeches on concerns about inflation and what he is doing to fight back. When Biden met separately with top Senate Democrats, Ma- jority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) urged the president and his team to help the party turn up the volume on what they are doing to lower prices, according to a Democratic aide familiar with the conversation. In the eyes of some top congressional Democrats, the issues at the White House have less to

do with Biden than with his staff and its sometimes ill-defined structure. Sen. Gary Peters (D- Mich.), who leads his party’s Senate campaign effort, ex- pressed an upbeat view of the president’s engagement on the eve of the White House meeting. “The president has communicat- ed to me in no uncertain terms that he will do whatever he can to make sure we not only hold the majority, that we expand the majority,” Peters said. The Biden adviser said the increase in planning and coordination was occurring on sched- ule, as the White House shifted from a year focused on governing to an election year. “I think you’re just going to see a lot more focus on defining the choice for the American people and making it easy for them to see who’s in it for them and who’s in it for political gain,” the adviser said o f the meeting. “We talked about how do we put a simple frame around all that we have done and accomplished together so that it really reaches people more clearly.” But significant skepticism re- mains. Biden’s approval rating has fallen below 40 percent in at least one competitive Senate state; a Post-ABC poll published Sunday set his national approval at 3 7 percent. In a s hift from early in Biden’s presidency, more Americans now say they would like to vote for a Republican congressional candidate than a Democrat, according to national polling averages. Democratic senators have urged the White House to do more to establish a clear economic message, and both the House and Senate have begun to chart new legislative strategies

on issues such as China, drug prices and crime to help move beyond the Democratic infight- ing that so far has doomed legislative efforts to expand social programs and voting rights. Several Democratic operatives worry that the Biden White House focus on legislating in 2021 and preparing for the elections in 202 4 has pushed the immediate election challenge to the back burner. “This is a White House issue,” said one Democrat involved in midterm planning. “They are j ust waking up to the fact that the midterms are an issue.” Pelosi has acknowledged the frustrations in private meetings with her own members. At a recent weekly “Crescendo” meeting with representatives from each of her caucuses, she described the difficulties she had with the White House during the Obama and Clinton years when it came to strategizing for the midterms, according to a Democrat with direct knowledge of the exchange. She has urged her lawmakers to develop their own plans, and then to push for the Senate and White House to get on board, according to multiple people familiar with the comments. A recent polling memo from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, shared with Capitol Hill aides, urged candidates to be aggressive in response to Republican attacks on defunding the police and critical race theory. Democrats have begun work on bills to combat crime and increase fund- ing for police. In recent weeks, Pelosi, Biden and Rep. Ritchie To rres (D-N.Y.), a liberal lawmaker from the

South Bronx, have all clearly rejected “defund the police” as a policy. “ Enough is enough,” Biden said in a February visit to New York City about rising crime rates, reprising his campaign po- sition. “The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to give you the tools and training and fund- ing.” Biden advisers point to histor- ic investments they have already made in the fall campaigns. Building Back To gether, an out- side group backed by Biden, spent more than $25 million on ads in competitive districts last year, mostly focused on the failed effort to pass legislation to expand social programs. In addi- tion to the $15 million for the House and Senate efforts given this year, the Democratic Nation- al Committee has set aside $20 million for a coordinated campaign effort in competitive Senate states that are also likely to be 202 4 presidential battle- grounds. Millions more have been earmarked for voter protec- tion efforts across the country. DNC Chairman Jaime Harri- son met with Biden on Feb. 18, according to Biden advisers, for a long-scheduled meeting about the coming year. The meeting came amid numerous reports that he is frustrated in the job, since most of the strategic deci- sions at the party are being run through the White House, as is typical under a Democratic president. The pandemic has also limited Harrison’s travel for fundraising, which some Demo- crats hope will change as coronavirus cases decline. “The message the president had for Jaime was, ‘We want to see more of you,’ ” the Biden adviser said of the meeting. “ ‘ You

have a unique role only you can do. You can set up a choice in a very political way.’ ” Harrison was recently in Flori- da raising money, according to a person familiar with the situation. In a statement, Harrison said the DNC and its partners are “a cohesive team that is firing on all cylinders.” He added, “I am proud to be a part of this team and the critical work we are doing, which w ill only increase in the coming weeks and months.” But Harrison and the White House will first have to overcome the frustration of Democrats out in the states, who feel months were lost last year because of internal debates over Senate pro- cedural rules and the giant legislative package, called Build Back Better, that many voters did not understand. Legislative success- es on infrastructure and coronavirus relief have failed to stop the decline in Biden’s approval rat- ings. Lawmakers in some competitive districts said they already are looking beyond the national dy- namics of the race. “I care about what the president says because I want him to do well, but I don’t care about it in the context of my election because I don’t think that’s what my voters are focused on,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) said. “They are focused on having a personal connection with me and feeling like I care about their problems.” Still, some Democrats said they wonder whether the White House has been too slow to deflect political liabilities. “We need to continue elevating the really significant accomplishments in fighting covid, moving economic progress, including fighting inflation, and other chal- lenges like anti-crime measures,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who is running for a third term this year. “I think what’s really important is to sim- ply present clearly and accurate- ly the really solid record of ac- complishment of the Congress and the administration.” But consistent messages re- main elusive. On Feb. 17, weeks after his White House meeting, Maloney was asked on MSNBC how Democratic candidates should respond to voter concerns about higher inflation. “Don’t talk about Nobel laure- ates, because n o one cares,” Malo- ney said, referring to a frequent Biden talking point. “Ta lk about the price of a gallon of milk.” Hours later, Biden’s official Twitter account posted: “17 Nobel Prize winners in economics say the Build Back Better Agenda will ease longer-term inflationary pressures. We can get this done.” In an interview, Maloney said it was understandable that the White House would have a differ- ent set of policy talking points on Twitter, with its audience of political insiders, than Democratic candidates would have with voters. He said the relationship between the White House and the midterm campaign team was strong. “We feel pretty good about what we’re getting right now,” Maloney said. “It’s right where it should be, is the way I would say it.”

Democrats work to regain footing for midterm elections

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN/THE WASHINGTON POST President Biden made clear that he would step up his personal involvement in midterm efforts in the coming months, and he said several senior advisers would maintain that focus as well. Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon, above, is coordinating the political aspects.

Lawmakers, strategists watch clock and try to decide on sales pitch

The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-01)

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