Bill Barr Remarks About Donald Trump Floating Executions Sparks Alarm

Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr's Friday comments related to Donald Trump's reported threats to execute a White House leaker has sparked alarm and concern on social media.

In an interview with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Friday night, Barr was asked if he recalled when the former president said the person should be executed who leaked information about him going to a bunker during the protests over George Floyd's death outside the White House in 2020.

"I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don't remember him saying 'executing,' but I wouldn't dispute it," Barr said. "The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would have actually carried it out."

Collins then asked Barr if Trump would say things like that on other occasions.

"I think people sometimes took him too literally and he would say things like similar to that, in occasions, to blow off steam, but I wouldn't take him literally every time he did it. At the end of the day, it wouldn't be carried out and you could talk sense into him."

During the interview, Barr also doubled down on his comments that he will vote for Trump over President Joe Biden in 2024, and said, "I think the real threat to democracy is the progressive movement and the Biden administration."

However, last year, Barr told Collins about Trump's alleged role in the 2020 election interference probe, "Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn't be anywhere near the Oval Office."

In response to Barr's CNN interview, Representative Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, posted to X, formerly Twitter, "So the AG of the UNITED STATES heard a sitting President speak of killing people & it was no BIG deal to him??? Bill Barr said of course I'd vote for Trump again... he's not the threat...it's the liberals and their appliance AGENDA!"

"'At the end of the day, it wouldn't be carried out.' Maybe it wasn't carried out because at the end of the day, he figured he'd probably go to jail if he did," former FBI Special Agent and attorney Asha Rangappa also posted to X.

"Barr says he wouldn't take Trump 'literally every time' he talked about executing people—meaning there were times Barr did take him literally?" ABC News journalist Will Steakin posted to X.

"Big surprise Trump thirsts for the power to order individual executions and mass repression," Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University, wrote on X.

"Also, it's pretty alarming that no one resigned upon hearing that to tell the American people. And that was when the adults were the room. Imagine what will happen next time," attorney Daniel Miller posted on X.

In an email reply to Newsweek on Saturday regarding Barr's comments to Collins, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung referenced Trump's Wednesday post on Truth Social.

"Wow! Former A.G. Bill Barr, who let a lot of great people down by not investigating Voter Fraud in our Country, has just Endorsed me for President despite the fact that I called him "Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy" (New York Post!). Based on the fact that I greatly appreciate his wholehearted Endorsement, I am removing the word "Lethargic" from my statement. Thank you Bill. MAGA2024!" the former president wrote.

On Friday, Collins prefaced her question to Barr about Trump's alleged execution comment by noting a post on X by former Trump aide, Alyssa Farah Griffin, who posted Thursday, "I was in the Oval Office with Trump when he said a WH staffer he believed leaked an embarrassing story about him should be executed."

Griffin's post was in response to the former president's attorney, D. John Sauer, arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday on behalf of Trump's claims that presidential immunity should shield him from criminal charges in the federal election interference case brought by Jack Smith, a special counsel at the Department of Justice. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Sauer if that would include granting former presidents immunity for ordering the military to assassinate a political rival. Sauer then suggested it would be eligible for immunity "depending on the circumstances."

"That Trump repeatedly floated executing people while he was in office is especially terrifying in the context of his current push for total presidential immunity," journalist Aaron Rupar wrote on X.

Griffin said on X, along with herself and Barr, Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense and Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also heard Trump talk about executing the leaker of his May 2020 White House bunker stay amid the Floyd protests.

The death of Floyd, a Black man who died after he was pinned at the neck by a white Minneapolis police officer, set off protests across the country in the spring and summer of 2020. The demonstrations in Washington, D.C. sparked one of the highest alerts on the White House complex since the September 11 attacks in 2001. According to the Associated Press, Trump spent nearly an hour in the White House bunker, which was designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks.

In response to Collins' interview with Barr, Griffin concluded on X on Saturday morning, "Bill Barr doesn't even seem to believe what he's saying. He can barely look @kaitlancollins in the eyes throughout this interview. A masterclass by Kaitlan."

Update: 4/27/2024, 3:13 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information.