‘That Was Wild!’ CNN Anchors Stunned By Bill Barr’s Searing Trump Interview With Kaitlan Collins
CNN anchors were stunned by Bill Barr’s harshness in a marathon interview with Kaitlan Collins in which he destroyed ex-President Donald Trump — but wouldn’t rule out voting for him.
Barr was a guest on Wednesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, during which he covered a variety of topics related to Trump’s indictment by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election before and on January 6, 2021. Trump faces charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Collins was a guest on Thursday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning for a lengthy post-mortem on the interview. co-anchors Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly expressed amazement at several “stunning” segments of the interview, as did Collins, who called the interview “amazing.”
Collins also revealed that the interview ran much longer than intended, and noted that while Barr was relentlessly “harsh” to Trump, he wouldn’t rule out voting for him:
PHIL MATTINGLY: I mean, on one level, I pause because the former president, when he was the attorney general of the United States of America, was attacking his prosecutors and his Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement entities. And he didn’t say anything about it for the most part. But these are very pointed and cutting comments from last night.
KAITLAN COLLINS: They were. And he was essentially saying, you know, what Trump has said about Jack Smith? It kind of gets glossed over sometimes just because there is so much to talk about. But if you look at Trump’s social trued social feed, I mean, he calls him a crackhead, he calls him deranged. He imply that he had something to do with the cocaine that was found in the White House. And so that’s why I was curious what Bill Barr makes that.
I mean, Trump has attacked every prosecutor that’s ever looked into into him in personal terms. And Barr was saying there’s no basis for that, that he thinks that from what he’s observed, Jack Smith is doing a better job. He pushed back on people who say that the Justice Department is being weaponized against Trump, saying this is of Trump’s own making. And he said he had no doubt fill in, poppy, that if Trump is reelected, that he will try to use the Justice Department to go after his political opponent, something that Trump himself has foreshadowed. I mean,.
It was just a remarkably candid interview, Phill. You talked about how long it was. It was not supposed to be that long. We were just going to do two segments with him, get his take. But but he was so candid and so blunt in what he views about Trump.
And he made clear that the reason he’s speaking out like this is because he does not think Trump belongs near the Oval Office again. And I know that we live in this kind of alternate reality where nothing seems normal. But to hear someone who is just the attorney general for Trump, for the president of the United States coming out so harshly against his 2024 run is notable.
But I will say when I asked Bill Barr what he would do if Trump is the 2024 Republican nominee, he did not rule out voting for him.
PHIL MATTINGLY: That’s wild! Also, I have to be candid in that statement, Kaitlan, when I woke up and I pulled the transcript from last night because I was sleeping and I saw how long it was, I was like, oh, yes! This was, this had to have been good because this was definitely not the plan! It really was good. It was fascinating and wide ranging as well.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
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