Trump critic Bill Barr effectively endorses campaign: 'I will vote the Republican ticket'

Former Attorney General Bill Barr is effectively endorsing Donald Trump for president after years of decrying the former president's, according to a new report.

“I’ve said all along, given two bad choices," Barr reportedly said on a Fox News appearance. "I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country, and in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket."

Barr, a lifelong Republican, served as attorney general under Trump from 2019 to 2020, when he resigned over the former president's 2020 election interference claims, the Washington Post notes.

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Barr became a vocal critic of Trump's, both cooperating with the House select committee investigation of the Jan. 6 riots and throwing support behind special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution, the Washington Post notes.

His comment stands in direct comment to one made during the Republican presidential primary, when he compared a vote for Trump to a game of “Russian roulette.”

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“I have made clear that I strongly oppose Trump for the nomination and will not endorse Trump,” Barr also told NBC News last year.

Barr'srocky relationship with the former president is detailed in former U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman's 2022 book "Holding the Line."

"Barr seemed always eager to be of service to the president—to be, as I said, the most valuable player in his cabinet," Berman wrote. "He has no way of knowing where it might go—and really, nobody does—but it looks to him as if it has the potential to spiral."

Berman also argued Trump used the Justice Department as his own personal law firm, and Barr allowed it to happen.

In December, Barr argued Trump would pursue an “abuse of government power" if elected president again.

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