People who've known Barr for 30 years are 'gobsmacked' by his 'outrageous' Trump defense

An MSNBC host on Friday noted that many people who've known Attorney General William Barr for decades are surprised by his televised defense of President Donald Trump during congressional hearings earlier in the week.

Host Chris Jansing noted that earlier in the day, reporter and political commentator Mike Barnicle told her he'd spoken with people who've "known William Barr for 30 years and they are just gobsmacked."

"They do not understand what's going on here," Jansing said.

It's not the first time that people close to the attorney general have reportedly told journalists that his behavior — including his claim that the Obama Justice Department may have been "spying" on the Trump campaign — is out of character.

Washington Post reporter Robert Costa told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday that Republicans have taken to calling up Barr's friends to ask them for insights on his congressional testimony — and those people have been told, in private, that the AG may be "more interested in having scrutiny of the intelligence agencies" than acting as a "traditional" head of the DOJ.

Watch Jansing's revelation below, via MSNBC: