AG Barr was interviewed yesterday on CBS’ Face the Nation where he was grilled about the clearly of Lafayette Park by host Margaret Brennan. But AG Barr hit back at the mistruths from the media, explaining exactly what happened and even at one point telling Brennan that it’s the media’s job to tell the truth it.
The interview is cued up to 13:31. Watch below:
AG Barr started off explaining that the ‘big lie’ was that these were peaceful protesters when they were not. At one point Brennan challenged AG Barr, saying three CBS reporters were there and they didn’t see any bricks being thrown. But Barr hit right back, interjecting that he was there and that he personally saw the bricks being thrown at police.
Another interesting point in the interview was when Brennan played what people saw on TV, the side by side of Trump speaking with the Park Police moving protesters with smoke canisters. She was trying to get Barr to admit that he had regrets about moving the protesters, but Barr simply responded that it was the media’s job to tell the truth about what happened there.
Barr again noted that there was no tear gas used to move the crowd, despite Brennan continually saying this. He said that the tear gas canisters found were from the night before, when they were used against rioters setting fire to St. John’s church.
He also explained what some have seen as contradictions in the reporting on the decision to move protesters up one block, with the US Park Police saying they had decided to do it because of the crowd. AG Barr said that was true, that on Sunday night after dealing with these riots that Park Police had decided that the crowd needed to be moved up one block. When he came in Monday morning, he decided the Park Police were right and gave the order to move the crowd. Brennan asked why it didn’t happen earlier than it did, and Barr noted that it was a manpower issue. He said the Park Police were spent from the night before, with quite a few officers having to go to the hospital with concussions. He added that, frankly, officers have to sleep and it wasn’t until the 6pm hour that they could get enough trained officers to move the crowd.
I highly recommend you watch the interview above, as Barr handled Brennan very well and there’s simply more in the interview that you’ll want to see.