Saying trump is making it impossible for barr to do his job. Think about that. Now, barr is defending his decision to intervene in the sentencing of trumps longtime friend and convicted felon, roger stone. He tells abc news tonight he was going to break with prosecutors. He was planning to do that. He was planning to push for a lighter sentence than the one they publicly recommended. But then trump got involved tweeting that the recommended sentence was horrible, unfair, miscarriage of justice. So, barr looked like a patsy, like he was doing trumps bidding. Barr says trump forced him into an untenable situation. Once the tweet occurred, the question is well, now what do i do . And do you go forward with what you think is the right decision or do you pull back because of the tweet . And that just sort of illustrates how disruptive the tweets can be. So youre saying you have a problem with the tweets . Yes, i have a problem with some of the tweets. Im happy to say that in fact the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case. However, to have Public Statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in their department that were doing our work with integrity. Mr. Barr, the president does not like to be told what to do. He may not like what youre saying. Are you prepared for those ramifications . Of course. As i said during my confirmation, i came in to serve as attorney general. I am responsible for everything that happens in the department. But the thing i have most responsibility for are the issues that are brought to me for decision. And i will make those decisions based on what i think is the right thing to do. And im not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. And i said whether its congress, newspaper, editorial boards, or the president im going to do what i think is right. And, you know, the i think the i cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me. So, just to be clear here, did you talk to the president at all about your decision regarding your recommendations . The recommendations on this case . Never. Anybody from the white house call you to try to influence you. No. Nope. So, you i have not discussed the roger stone case at the white house. So, barr says he never talked about the stone case with trump. Barr just happened, he says, to want the exact same thing that trump wanted which is many issues for barr from the wish investigation for the bidens to the mueller report. What trump wants from barr, he has tended to get and trump knows it. He talked about it today. Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had picked william barr instead of Jeff Sessions . Yeah, my life would have been a lot easier. Well, there you have it from his mouth. Kaitlan collins is out front live outside the white house. Barr is saying i agree, i wanted to do the same thing. But he got involved with a tweet and it makes it impossible for me to do my job and basically he needs to im trying to find a polite way to put it he needs to stop tweeting. How is the president reacting to barrs comments . Reporter hes saying it looks like the attorney general is taking directions from the president which is the criticism prompted by the tweet from the president. Tonight the white house was caught off guard by this interview based on several officials we have spoke to. Barr is free to air his opinions publicly, but we also note this is a president who does not like to be criticized, certainly not publicly challenged by one of his favorite cabinet members. So, what the president is thinking is likely to play out in the next several hours because often the way he views an event is shaped by the coverage of it. That is going to be the question Going Forward here. When someone disagrees with the president on the record, he has pushed back strongly. Thats the question Going Forward here and what the president does then. Barr was saying he feels like he was put in an untenable position by the president s tweet and what he wanted to do. But the president seems to be in an impuzzled situation because barr is one of his favorite cabinet members. He is carrying out the agenda is president wants but he is publicly challenges him in a defiant way. I think we have to wait to see exactly how the president himself weighs in on all of this. Its a fair point. Barr making it clear, Public Statements and tweets makes it impossible for me to do my job. It could not be more of a direct in your face than that. Kaitlan, thank you. And i want to go out front now to democratic congressman val demings. Shes on the house judiciary. She served as a house impeachment manager. You saw her in the senate day after day making the case. What do you think about the way this is happening . Why is barr choosing to speak out in this way in a Public National interview instead of privately . Its good to be back with you. Let me say this, its interesting to hear attorney general barr talk about what he said in the confirmation hearing. He said all the right things in his hearing. Someone once said dont listen to what i say, look at what i do. If you look at what attorney general barr has done, theres been no daylight between him and the white house. Attorney general barr, as you remember miscategorized the conclusions in the mueller report, basically misleading the American People. The attorney general then helped President Trump congresss in oversight. I have no faith or confidence in what william barr has said. I think roger stone has turned up the heat awe bit. The president has been impeached and just went through a trial really cant take that. And i think i would not be surprised, erin, if the attorney general and the president were not in ka hoots in terms of barr making a Public Statement to the American People. Interesting. So, when barr comes out and tells trump to stop tweeting let me play that part again to the point you just made, i want to play that again. Here it is, congresswoman. To have Public Statements and tweets made about the department, about our people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department and about judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the prosecutors in the department that were doing our work with integrity. So, this is interesting, congresswoman. So, are you hearing there then this isnt about the tweets. Thats the fig leaf. What this is really about is barr saying i wanted a more lenient sentence for roger stone. Yeah, president and i were in agreement. What i want you to take away is i want that separate from him, geez if that guy would stop tweeting, all this would go away. So, the tweet is the fig leaf . I think thats correct, erin. Im not falling for it. I hope the American People are not falling for it. Wo we know the president. He loves to boast and be out front. I do think when the president and his attorney general has a plan that they think can work, when the president tweets about it, it does call complications for the attorney general but not in terms of doing the right thing but in terms of doing the wrong thing and really undermining the department of justice that we have in this country. You, as i mentioned, congresswoman, were one of the house members. You were making the case to remove this president from office due to his actions with the ukrainian president. The point you made repeatedly was that if trump gets away with questions ukrainian president zelensky, he will do it again. I want to be sure you heard what President Trump said about future calls with world leaders. Here he is. When you call a foreign leader, people listen. I may end the practice entirely. I may have to i may end it entirely. Youre on the judiciary committee, intelligence committee, what do you say to that . I say first of all that i am not surprised. But i certainly hope the senators who voted to acquit the president hear loud and clearly what the president has said. Let me also remind you in our case we tried to make it quite clear through documents and evidence that was presented through the senate that the president would not only u use abuse his power to get government powers involved, that he could use his powers in a domestic way to withhold money and funds to coerce people into basically doing what he wanted them to. So, it doesnt surprise me. The president has no intentions on stopping his wrong doing. He just wants to continue to cover it up and will look to people like william barr, others in the senate, and others in the house who have turned a complete blind eye and deaf ear to his wrong doing. All right, congresswoman demings. I appreciate your time together, and i thank you. Next you hear barr rejecting criticism that hes carrying the president s water. Is he his own man or not . You heard congresswoman demings questioning that . More of his own words. Trump lashing out at john kelly. Why did it bother him so much . The president s longtime friend is out front. The cdc giving a dire warning, the coronavirus can spread from people who have no symptoms. This coming as the number of cases spikes. This blt is delicious made it myself. I love this place made that myself, too. Order up. Fries on the side. Right where i like em. Dont forget the grease fire. Burn, baby wait, what . [ alarm beeping ] i said grease fire. 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Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines, and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Tonight attorney general bill barr defending himself against accusations that hes acting like President Trumps personal attorney. We are in a very polarized situation, and so in that kind of situation i expect a lot of low blows and there are a lot of low blows. But i dont respond to that, as you say. But i do think that in the current situation, as ive said, you know, the fact that the tweets are out there and correspond to things were doing at the department sort of give grist to the mill and thats why i think its time to stop the tweeting about department of justice criminal cases. Out front now, my panel. Bill barr coming out and doing this instead of if the whole pount w point was i agree with everything you say on some sense, mr. President , but youre making it impossible for me to do my job by putting out tweets. Why does he need an interview to do that . Why cant that be done in another way . Does this add up . You know, that is actually one of the surprising things here because it does lend itself to interpretations, right . And i think, erin, in the end everyone knows that the president is a voracious consumer of media. You know, frankly you can have conversations with him in the oval office and it sort of just doesnt resonate. But if it gets covered in the press and he gets his tivo, he catches up with his tivo later in the evening and early in the morning, thats when it actually sinks in what is being said. I think that might be the strategy here. Also the other part of this is to give it some consumption for people at the Justice Department who i do think in the last couple of days have been very shaken by the events that the attorney general set into place and that the president s tweets have also kind of called into question. Right. You know, barr is trying to say i came to the same conclusion. I thought the sentence was too aggressive. Hes saying he was surprised these career prosecutors all chose to leave the case. Tonight he says in this interview its a low blow, it feels like a low blow for anybody to say he is the president s personal attorney. But heres the deal. The attorney general is to blame for some of that perception because he has used some of the rhetoric, some of the charged rhetoric that the president has used. And he has chosen to do that. T he didnt have to say some of the things he said about the mueller investigation, about the russia investigation. He has chosen to do some of those things. So, thats part of the reason why there is that perception. So, i know he is sort of like now reinventing history and saying i have no idea why people think of me that way. But he is the cause of that. So, paul let me explain to people it isnt just that he says i thought roger stones sentence was egregious so i was going to move to have it cut back and im doing the president s bidding, im not a patsy. Its things like this on the issues of immigration, on issues of national emergency, on issues of spying on the campaign and its false, here it is. My administration is planning to end the rampant abuse of our asylum system. People are abusing the asylum system. Im going to be signing a national emergency, and its been signed many times before. Your declaration of an emergency on the southern border was clearly authorized under the law and consistent with past precedent. They spied on me. They spied on our campaign. I think spying on a Political Campaign is a big deal. I think spying did occur. Just to be clear, paul, of course the president s own fbi chief said it didnt, was the wrong word to use and was clear about that multiple times under oath. But tonight paul, barr says hes his own man and hes insulted if anyone says anything else. What do you say . I dont see any reason to credit him at all given the history that youve just played for us. It seems pretty clear that hes already internalized what the president wants. Even if its true that the president didnt call him to ask for a lighter sentence for stone, its precisely because he knew that barr already knew what it was that the president wanted. I think even more importantly in order to achieve what the president wanted, barr himself overrode not just four career prosecutors but the sentencing guidelines who put sentencing in place. The recommendation for stone was the recommendation that would have been made for any other person similarly situationed. The problem for barr is that stone was President Trumps friend and he knew he had to act. Thats what reveals him as the president s enabler. This comes the same day the president said this. Let me play it. Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like if you had picked william barr rather than Jeff Sessions . Yeah, my life would have been a lot easier. Sort of says it all, doesnt it . Yeah, it does. I think those clips that were played the and in that comment there goes to why people do think that the Justice Department under barr isnt as independent as it was under sessions and as it was under previous president s. I think in the coming weeks of this Justice Department bears the investigation into russia interference. I think you see that this attorney general is trying to gain some credibility i think in advance of this investigation that the president wanted into russian interference. He of course made claims this was a biased investigation, the whole idea is fine. I think in some ways it has to be looked at in that light. Hes trying to emerge as his own man, so whatever report the Justice Department releases will have some credibility and wont look like this is just the president ordering something from the Justice Department to confirm some of his conspiracy near near theories about russia investigation. The American Public has every reason to believe that the president has been influencing barrs language and his approach to justice. What do you make, paul, of why he did this interview . Was it just so Justice Department employees will believe him . He had an issue with the president s tweets, he could have just told him. I think theres two reasons. First is as weve already said i think there was a revolution going on inside the department of justice. Hes trying to calm those waters. The second of course is the republicans in the house and senate who have their talking points. They can say barr said he wasnt influenced. He was going to do it already. And even though its strange decr creditty to believe thats true, they have a hook to hang their ignoring of this problem. I think thats the other audience out there. All right. I thank you all very much. Next, Michael Bloomberg, why is he getting under President Trumps skin . Trumps longterm friend chris ready is my guest. Plus why wont china let American Health officials into the country . Its time for the ultimate sleep number event on the sleep number 360 smart bed. Can it help keep me asleep . Absolutely, it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. Save 50 on the sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus 0 interest for 36 months. Ends monday. Our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition. For strength and energy whoohoo greattasting ensure. With nine grams of protein and twentyseven vitamins and minerals. Ensure, for strength and energy. 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