Bill Barr reveals most awkward moment of Trump’s presidency

Bill Barr was up close and personal with former President Donald Trump a lot when he served as attorney general.

And while Barr has opened up a good deal about his time in the Trump administration, there’s one leading awkward moment that stands out, he told journalist Bari Weiss on her podcast, “Honestly,” during an extensive interview.

“The president was bellowing at a number of his Cabinet secretaries and especially the military guys, the DoD secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and calling all of us f-cking losers at the top of his lungs,” Barr said.

Barr appears to be talking about the incident on June 1, 2020, when the Cabinet was debating what to do about protesters across the US who filled the streets after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

The details of that meeting were first laid out in “A Sacred Oath,” a book by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Esper wrote that Trump wanted to shoot racial justice protesters in the legs, and threw a fit when Gen. Mark Milley, the then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told him he didn’t have command authority over active duty or national guard forces.

Barr’s answer about his most awkward moment came during the “lightning round” Weiss has at the end of her interviews, where guests have to quickly answer a series of quickly fired questions. Barr’s book, “One Damn Thing After Another,” recounted the incident as well.

Barr, who also served as attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush, was critical of Trump throughout much of the “Honestly” podcast, saying he opposed the way Trump attacked people who didn’t agree with him, as well as his leadership style.

“One would think that an executive would have a better idea how to operate with people and manage people, and he’s a poor manager of people,” Barr said of Trump, who was a real estate mogul with no government experience when he became president.

Barr also said he regretted that Trump was closed to taking advice from the people close to him. He referred to the 2016 election, when the “Access Hollywood” video leaked in which Trump said women would let him “do anything” to them, including grabbing them between the legs.

Barr said Trump “behaved himself for a few weeks and he just squeezed through” to win the presidency, referring to how Trump won the electoral vote against Hillary Clinton but lost the popular vote by 3 million people.

“This time he felt he knew better than everybody else,” Barr said of Trump’s leadership as president. “And so he didn’t follow anybody’s advice.”

Read the original article on Business Insider