As his presidency fades ever farther into the rearview mirror, even former Republican President Donald Trump's closest allies are belatedly finding the fortitude to call his lies what they were—and the former President seems unable to handle it.
Following a piece in The Atlantic that featured former Trump-appointed Republican Attorney General Bill Barr bluntly calling Trump's election fraud claims "bullsh*t," the former president issued a statement that can only be described as a meltdown.
Jonathan Karl, who wrote The Atlantic piece, tweeted excerpts of Trump's statement, seen below.
In his statement, Trump lashed out at both Barr and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, among his closest allies and linchpin enablers of his agenda, calling them "spineless RINOs," a Republican buzzword meaning for "Republican In Name Only."
Of Barr, Trump ranted:
"... Barr ... [is] being used in order to try to convince people that the election was legitimate when so many incredible facts have now come out to show conclusively that it wasn't."
All fifty states have since confirmed at least once there was no substantive fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The Atlantic piece, titled "Inside William Barr's Breakup With Trump," provided a number of explosive details about what was going on behind the scenes as Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election—efforts Barr bluntly characterized as nonsense.
As he put it to Karl:
"My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time. If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there..."
"We realized from the beginning it was just bullsh*t... There had been no discrepancy reported anywhere, and I'm still not aware of any discrepancy."
Barr also told Karl Kentucky GOP Senator McConnell prevailed upon him to speak out about Trump's claims beginning in mid-November, just after Democratic President Joe Biden's win was finalized. McConnell felt Trump's "Big Lie" and associated conspiracy theories were damaging the country and the Republican party.
Naturally, Trump lashed out at McConnell in his statement too:
"Now it was revealed that Barr was being pushed to tell lies about the election by Mitch McConnell, another beauty... What really damaged the Senate Republicans was allowing their races to be rigged and stolen... because spineless RINOs like Bill Barr and Mitch McConnell did nothing."
Trump's statement went on to repeat his election fraud lies.
He even threw in a few digs at former Obama administration Secretary of State and 2016 election Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, for old time's sake.
On Twitter, people were astonished at just how deranged Trump's statement was.
Others were just thrilled to see Trump squirming as his former allies continue to turn on each other.
It's not only members of his Administration who seem to be turning on Trump because of his election lies.
Recent reports indicated even his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner distanced themselves from Donald Trump Sr. as he refuses to give up his obsession and accept his loss.
@PokerPolitics/X
@discogorilla/Bluesky
@SenSchumer/X
@WUTangKids/X