Don't buy into Bill Barr's rehabilitation tour: conservative

The post-Donald Trump presidency has brought a series of books detailing shocking stories about the volatility of the former president. As tales of clashes with his attorney general surface, more is becoming known about the shocking things that Bill Barr did to protect Trump.

At the same time, Barr appears to be on his own rehabilitation tour, cleaning up stories that reveal his corruption. Writing for the Bulwark, editor Charlie Sykes urged readers not to cry for the horror story that Barr dealt with while in office.

"Bill Barr is many things. But 'tragic figure' is not one them," wrote Sykes responding to the bombshell report in The Atlantic that Trump was trying to force Barr to overthrow the election.

His opposition to Trump is great, Sykes argued, "but not sufficient to launder Barr's reputation."

Colleague Amanda Carpenter noted that while Barr continues to tell his story about defending democracy, he still refuses to appear publicly to denounce things like the Republican Party's fake "audit" in Arizona. He hasn't stepped up to defend the Michigan report from Republicans that there was no fraud, despite Trump's claims.

Sykes cited CNN legal analyst Elie Honig who tweeted, "Barr tells tales of denying the big lie *after* the election, but he omits that he aggressively promoted that lie in the crucial months *before* the election."

"There is, however, a lesson here. For Barr, as with Mike Pence, there was a line that even the most devoted toadies were not willing to cross," wrote Sykes.

He explained that on one level there's hope that finally there's some transparency about the corruption, but at the same time it's hard not to be disturbed about "the amount of denial, delusion, and self-loathing that went into their performative sycophancy."

He closed by writing that Barr's breakup with Trump may deliver some form of relief that there is some Republican willing to push back against Trump. But as Americans have seen over and over, "those who initially showed a willingness to break with Trump," then end up "scurrying back into his favor. (We see you, Nikki.)"

Read the full editorial at The Bulwark.