Trump refuses to say whether he has confidence in Barr
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President Trump declined to say on Thursday whether he still has confidence in Attorney General Bill Barr, after insisting that Barr "hasn't done anything" to investigate his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
Why it matters: Trump has weighed firing Barr in recent days, seething about the attorney general's statement this week that the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
- Those comments — in tandem with the delay of findings from the Durham investigation, which Trump hopes will damage his political enemies — have come close to pushing Trump over the edge.
- Trump is seeking to install someone at the head of the Justice Department who would unquestioningly do his bidding, but it's not clear which government employee would be willing to go further than Barr in satisfying the president's demands, sources tell Axios' Jonathan Swan.
What they're saying: "Well, he hasn't done anything. So, he hasn't looked," Trump told reporters Thursday when asked about Barr's assertion that the DOJ has not found evidence to back up his claims of voter fraud.
- "When he looks, he'll see the kind of evidence that right now you're seeing in the Georgia Senate ... so, they haven't looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest with you."
Asked whether he still has confidence in Barr, Trump hesitated, before responding: "Uhhh... ask me that in a number of weeks from now."
- "They should be looking at all of this fraud. This is not civil, he thought it was civil. This is not civil, this is criminal stuff. This is very bad criminal stuff."
