Fox News anchor helps AG Bill Barr lie about why peaceful protesters were assaulted

Barr claims that protesters threw projectiles at him — though no video or eyewitness evidence of it exists

Written by Eric Kleefeld

Published

Attorney General William Barr sat down for an interview with Fox News, in a segment shown on Monday’s edition of Special Report with Bret Baier, during which the eponymous anchor did not challenge Barr’s claim — contradicted by multiple news outlets — that protesters had thrown objects at him on June 1, before the law enforcement cleared out Lafayette Square with tear gas and rubber bullets.

From the June 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier

WILLIAM BARR (ATTORNEY GENERAL): Well, the image has somewhat been created and miscreated, in the sense that I haven't seen any videos on TV of all the violence that was happening preceding that.

BRET BAIER (ANCHOR): You were hit or something, or thrown — something was thrown at you?

BARR: I did go to the park before the actual operation to move out the perimeter, and I personally saw projectiles thrown into — or thrown at me. And the police officers there in my security detail made me move back, because they said that projectiles had been landing in a certain area — rock, things like rocks, bottles thrown at me.

But according to CNN’s Megan Trimble, “CNN did not witness any water bottles being thrown at the attorney general. Camera footage shows him standing and watching the crowd for several minutes, flanked by a security detail and two senior department officials.”

Alejandro Alvarez, digital editor at local radio station WTOP, also posted a brief clip of Barr’s public appearance to survey the area, in which a lot of chanting and booing against the attorney general could be heard. Nobody appeared to have thrown anything in this snippet either.

And from NBC News: “Reporters and protesters outside the White House on Monday said that although some protesters had thrown water bottles and bricks across the barrier separating them from the police earlier, the protests that day were entirely peaceful.”

In contrast to Baier — who prodded Barr by claiming that an object was thrown at him, giving him a chance to repeat his talking point — CBS’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan repeatedly challenged Barr during her interview with him.

From the June 7, 2020, edition of CBS’ Face the Nation

MARGARET BRENNAN (MODERATOR): On Monday, you’re saying there were projectiles.

WILLIAM BARR: On Monday, yes, they were.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Because, as I'm saying, three of my colleagues were there. 

BARR: Yeah. 

BRENNAN: They did not see projectiles being thrown —

BARR: I was there.

BRENNAN: — when that happened. 

BARR: I was there. They were thrown. I saw them thrown.