Rick Wilson: Bill Barr is engaging in 'weapons-grade gaslighting' of the media

On Thursday, longtime GOP strategist and Never Trump conservative commentator Rick Wilson chastised the media for seriously entertaining Attorney General William Barr's supposed remonstrances of President Donald Trump's tweeting, and threats to resign from office in a biting column for The Daily Beast.

"With Bill Barr’s transparently obvious leaks, we’ve reached the apotheosis of weapons-grade, ratfuck gaslighting," wrote Wilson. "In two articles in the last 24 hours, Bill Barr — and don’t buy the bullshit of 'people close to'; I’d bet good money it was Barr himself — has told The Washington Post and the Associated Press he’s considering resigning due to President Donald Trump’s tweets. This is a pile of horseshit so tall it could leave orbit. Bill Barr is doing nothing of the sort, and the press should know better."

"The theory that Bill Barr’s leaks are sending Donald Trump warning signals, or trying to modify the lawless and reckless behavior of a lawless and reckless president, is entirely absurd," continued Wilson. "Barr’s 19-page job application to become attorney general was all Trump ever needed to know; Barr is a devotee — perhaps even the ruling high priest — of the school of unlimited executive power. No matter what sweet nothings Barr whispers in the ears of D.C. reporters, the scope of his actions screams a thousand times louder."

"Barr is running the DOJ with an iron fist when it comes to efforts by U.S. Attorney’s Offices investigating everything from Deutsche Bank to Rudy Giuliani’s Ukraine shenanigans," wrote Wilson. "He’s trying to kill off investigations into the Turkish Halkbank’s role in breaking sanctions against Iran, all because Trump wants Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdogan to let him in the Li'l Autocrats 2020 pledge class. If an investigation is even Trump-proximate, Barr has shown his intent to bury it, the deeper the better."

As proof, said Wilson, look no further than the fact that Trump hasn't once criticized Barr for what should be a major affront — and the fact that Barr completely let it slide when Trump falsely anointed himself the "chief law enforcement officer" of the United States.

"I’ve called Barr the most dangerous man in America before, and for good reason," continued Wilson. "Barr is old enough, wise enough, and crafty enough to know precisely how all the processes, folkways, and behaviors of the Washington media can be manipulated and how he can throw up a defensive cloud of faux-institutionalist phony outrage ... Though he dons the protective camouflage of the slightly beleaguered government bureaucrat, Barr is, in fact, a radical actor on the American political stage, a revolutionary hiding the extremism of his plan behind a dull, off-the-rack suit, and a hangdog expression."

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