(CNN) In advance of the release of Bill Barr's memoir of his time in the Trump administration on Tuesday, NBC's Lester Holt sat down with the former attorney general to talk about his time as the nation's top cop.
Ahead of the airing of the interview, former President Donald Trump sent a three-page letter to Holt repeatedly criticizing Barr, while also continuing to push the 2020 election fraud conspiracy.
Axios obtained the letter, which you can read for yourself here. I went through it and plucked out the lines you really do need to see to believe. They're below.
1. "He was slow, lethargic, and I realized early on that he never had what it takes to make a great Attorney General."
This description of Barr provides a telling window into how Trump evaluates people: It's all surface, no substance. And away we go!
2. "He became virtually worthless to Law and Order and Election Integrity."
Why is "Law and Order" capitalized here? Is it a reference to the long-running show on NBC? Inquiring minds want to know! And don't even get me started on "Election Integrity."
3. "They broke him just like a trainer breaks a horse."
Well, this is an image! Trump's contention here is that Democratic threats to file contempt charges against Barr for his refusal to turn over the full report by Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign essentially spooked the attorney general, who then acceded to all of their wishes. You'll be stunned to know there's no real evidence to back up this claim from Trump.
4. "Despite massive amounts of evidence, with far more produced after his leaving, he refused to go after the fraud and irregularities that had so openly taken place in the 2020 Presidential Election."
"The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit." -- Barr said in an excerpt of his forthcoming book published by The Wall Street Journal.
5. "Even the Mueller investigation, which came out with a finding of NO COLLUSION, should have gone much faster, especially after knowing all of the information that was available and already at their disposal."
What Mueller found was that there wasn't an express agreement between Trump's campaign and the Russians to collude in hopes of getting Trump elected. As Mueller put it: "Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
6. "As everyone knows, my campaign was SPIED on, and Bill Barr did nothing about it."
Way back in 2017 Trump -- without any proof-- suggested that former President Barack Obama had ordered wiretaps of Trump Tower phones during the 2016 campaign. And again earlier this year, Trump insisted that a filing by special counsel John Durham confirmed the spying. It did not. As Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler put it last month: "The Durham filing says much less than what Trump claims. Thus far, Durham has not charged anyone with spying on Trump. In fact, the statute of limitations has already expired for a key meeting cited in the filing."
7. "I imagine that if the book is anything like him, it will be long, slow and very boring."
8. "Now he is groveling to the media, hoping to gain acceptance that he doesn't deserve."
On Monday, Barr told NBC's Savannah Guthrie that he would vote for Trump if the former president ran again in 2024 So, yeah.
9. "When I saw that the Department of Justice was not doing their job, I have every legal right to ask them to so, in accordance with the law and the Constitution."
"Doing their job" should be understood here as "not doing what I wanted them to do." Which is not the same thing as their job.
10. "It is now a fact that my campaign was spied on. This is treason that has now been confirmed by John Durham."
"If third parties or members of the media have overstated, understated, or otherwise misinterpreted facts contained in the Government's Motion, that does not in any way undermine the valid reasons for the Government's inclusion of this information." -- Durham wrote in a court filing.
11. "Despite the many crimes committed by the Biden family, I did not push Barr to go after them."
[narrator voice] There is no evidence that the Biden family committed any crimes, much less "many" crimes.
12. "While the things done were legendarily corrupt, I thought it would be inappropriate for me to get personally involved."
Not just corrupt. "Legendarily" corrupt.
13. "As it turned out, they spied in 2016 and if possible, did far worse than that in 2020 -- they RIGGED the Election."
It's worth repeating Barr here: "The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit."
14. "Barr's lack of energy, drive and curiosity led me to say things to him that should never have ever been necessary -- but he was so lazy and cowardly, he just never quite understood what was going on."
In Trump's view, there are two unforgivable sins: Weakness and low energy. Barr had both!
15. "In other words, Bill Barr was a coward!"
Yes, you literally just said that.
16. "I never said 'You must hate Trump,' rather I said 'If you didn't see corruption in the Election, of which so much has already been revealed (and massive amounts up until this date,) than you are not capable of being Attorney General. You don't have the energy or backbone to stand up to the Radical Left. Please give me your Letter of Resignation.'"
That's not, at all, how Barr explained his departure from the White House. Here's how Barr said it happened: "The next morning, I got a call from Mark Meadows. I told him that I would not surprise President Trump by leaving without warning. On December 14, the day by which all the states had certified their election results, effectively locking in Biden's victory, I went over to tell the president that I would like to leave before Christmas."
17. "The Election was totally corrupt, and we had no one fighting this corruption because Bill Barr did not have to the courage to do so."
Again, here's Barr: "The fact is, we have looked at the major claims your people are making, and they are bullshit."
18. "I was President of the United States and was asked to make a speech on January 6. I went to the site, made my speech and returned to the White House."
Trump conveniently leaves out what he told the crowd gathered for the "Stop the Steal" rally. "We fight like hell," he said. "And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore."
19. "If they had taken my offer, there would have been no 'January 6' as we know it."
Trump has long said that he offered to call up 10,000 or more National Guard troops before January 6, 2021, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea. It's his way of shirking responsibility for what happened that day. It's also not true. "There is no clear evidence that Trump made such a request, and no evidence that Pelosi denied one," said PolitiFact last year.
20. "Now the Witch Hunt continues with Shifty Adam Schiff, RINO Liz Cheney, and others on what I call the Unselect Committee."
Unnecessary capitalization? Check. Name calling? Check. Yeah, this feels like a good place to end.