Bill Barr didn't take Trump's "execution orders" too literally

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who endorsed Donald Trump after quitting the White House and sharply criticizing the former President for years, says Trump often lost his temper when speaking about government officials, but that he didn’t take his comments “too literally.”

In an appearance on CNN, Barr told Kaitlan Collins that he didn’t exactly recall Trump speaking about killing a leaker, but that it wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary.

“I actually don’t remember him saying ‘executing,’ but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know… The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would’ve actually carried it out,” Barr said.

Collins pushed Barr on whether Trump often said things of that nature.

“People sometimes took him too literally,” Barr said. “He would say things similar to that on occasions to blow off steam. But I wouldn’t take them literally every time he did it.”

When asked why he didn’t take the threat more seriously, Barr justified his response by saying, “At the end of the day, it wouldn’t be carried out, and you could talk sense into him.”

Barr said it was just a “feeling” he had that Trump wouldn’t pose a threat to democracy. 

“Having worked for him and seen him in action, I don‘t think he would actually go and kill political rivals and things like that,” Barr told Collins.

Barr was also asked about Trump’s brutal rebuke of his endorsement, in which he called him “weak, slow moving, gutless, and lazy” on Truth Social.

“Classic Trump," he said to that.