From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome once again to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker, the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal,

where we talk about some of the big issues facing us politically, economically and elsewhere.

This week,

fascinating discussion, looking forward to, with former Attorney General William Barr,

who is out with a memoir called One Damn Thing After Another, Memoirs of an Attorney General.

Mr. Barr, of course, served twice as Attorney General. He was the 77th and 85th Attorney Generals of the United States, first under President George H.W. Bush. And then we all remember very vividly for the last two years

of the Donald Trump administration from 2019 to the end of 2020. Mr. Barr's memoir is a story

of his life, of his upbringing in New York, his turn to the law,

coming along, and then of course serving in that George H.W. Bush administration and serving

in private practice. Much of the attention inevitably has focused on what Mr. Barr has to say

about his time serving with Donald Trump, and we're going to talk a lot about that. But I do also

want to say the book contains a lot of fascinating observations and insight into Mr. Barr's philosophy and what he

thinks about the some of the challenges that we face at the moment is in with regard to the

attacks on freedom of religion and freedom of speech and other freedoms from the progressive left and I do do want to get into some of those larger questions with him. But inevitably, as I say, a lot of the focus has been on what Mr. Barr has had to say with his book that's published this week has to say about former President Donald Trump, in particular what he said about Mr. Trump's behavior after the 2020 election. And Mr. Barr, thank you very much indeed for joining us. Sure, glad to do it, Jerry. I'm going to start then, if I may, with this, with what you say about President Trump. You say right at the end of the book, you are harshly critical. You say a lot of positive things about Donald Trump. I think we should say that, and we will talk a little bit more about that. But at the end of the book, you are very critical of Mr. Trump, and you say that particularly his behavior after the election and up to an including and after January the 6th, you say Trump's shown neither the temperament nor the persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed, and you're very critical. You say say he went off the rails in many ways and you're critical of his entire approach.

I should say, of course, President Trump has shot back today, Monday, accusing you of being,

saying you were a coward, saying that you bowed to the radical left, that you refused to take

seriously or examine seriously his allegations of electoral fraud and that he really won the

election. So having seen now what Mr. Trump, perhaps inevitably, thinks of your own observations,

Attorney General Barr, what do you have to say in response to that? Well, you know, my criticism

of Trump after the election was that he would not listen to any advice. He would only listen to people

who were telling him exactly what he wanted to hear. And that was a change because before that,

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