Marc Short: Nothing Wrong With Barr Serving As Trump 'Wingman'

There’s no shame in Attorney General William Barr being President Donald Trump’s “wingman” — just as Eric Holder was for former President Barack Obama, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, said Sunday.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Short insisted Barr is an “independent” force in the Department of Justice.

“Barr is doing a great job and [has] a lot of confidence within the White House,” he said, pushing back on perceptions that Barr and President Donald Trump are at odds over the president’s tweets about DOJ cases.

“The president's frustration is one that a lot of the Americans have, which feels like the scales of justice are not balanced,” he said.  

“Today I read in The Washington Post that the attorney general is the president's wingman, and that is what [former] Attorney General Eric Holder said he was the wingman of Obama, and now this is different," he added. “And when Eric Holder said that I am the president's wingman and the media was silent and the fact is that Attorney General Barr is independent, and he came to decisions on his own and not according to the president.“

According to Short, Barr is fixing what's wrong at the DOJ.

“There has been a bias within the Department of Justice that Attorney General Barr is trying to correct,” he said. “He said that the president has not called him directly to do these things, but he is [doing it] independently … and I think that he is doing a terrific job with it.”

Related Stories:

• Sanders, Warren Join Call for Barr to Quit Over Stone 'Interference'
• Michael Steele: Barr Attack on Trump Is a 'Carefully Staged Message'