Former AG Bill Barr: Trump was “detached from reality” with stolen election claims

The House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack held its second public hearing Monday since completing its initial investigation and the focus was on showing that former President Trump’s own staffers repeatedly told him he lost the election, but that Trump refused to listen.

“All the early claims that I understood were completely bogus and silly and usually based on complete misinformation,” said former Attorney General William Barr in a deposition played by the committee. “My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud.”

“This wild claim was thrown, which you know on its face didn’t seem you know realistic or possible to me,” said William Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager.

The committee played clips of former President Trump making false claims about supposed faulty voting machines.

“We have a company that is very suspect. Its name is Dominion,” said Trump in the clip. “You can press a button for Trump and the vote goes to Biden. What kind of a system is this?”

Barr’s testimony said the claims about the Dominion voting machines were among the “most disturbing” because it wasn’t based on any actual evidence.

“I thought, boy if he really believes this stuff, you know he’s lost contact with, he’s become detached from reality,” said Barr. “There was never an interest in what the actual facts were.”

The committee worked to demonstrate the power of Trump’s false election fraud claims by playing clips of Trump’s supporters on Jan. 6 echoing the same false claims.

“Can’t really trust the software. Dominion software is all over,” said one Trump supporter.

“We voted and right on the top of the Dominion voting machine we used, there was a Wi-Fi symbol with five bars so that most definitely connected to the internet. So, they stole that from us twice,” said another Trump supporter.

“He ignored the will of the voters,” said Jan. 6 Select Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS). “He lied to his supporters and the country.”

As Monday’s hearing was underway, House Republican leadership bashed the committee, calling it an “illegitimate political witch hunt” on Twitter.

There are two more Jan. 6 hearings scheduled for this week.

Committee member Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said we can expect to learn more about Trump’s efforts to pressure his Vice President, the Department of Justice and state election officials to overturn the election results in upcoming hearings.

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