Barr: 'I didn't view' Jan. 6 as an insurrection

Former Attorney General William Barr said this week that he does not believe the Jan. 6, 2021, attack carried out on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Trump amounts to an insurrection.

"I didn't view it as an insurrection. I mean, I think it was a riot that got out of control," Barr said during an interview with NPR that was published on Monday.

When asked about calls from the mob that came to the Capitol that day to hang former Vice President Mike Pence, Barr he "thought that that was essentially a propaganda-type thing."

Barr has granted a number of interviews to promote his forthcoming book about his time serving as Trump's attorney general.

Last week, he sat with NBC News anchor Lester Holt for a wide-ranging conversation about serving under Trump, the 2020 election and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference, his handling of which was widely criticized by Democrats and the media.

"I do think he was responsible in the broad sense of that word, and that it appears that part of the plan was to send this group up to the Hill," Barr told Holt of Trump's responsibility in the riot. "I think the whole idea was to intimidate Congress, and I think that that was wrong."

Trump, in a scathing letter to NBC News over the weekend responding to Barr, called his former attorney general weak and lethargic.

"I made many great appointments during my Administration, and we accomplished more than most Administrations could even dream of, but Bill Barr was not one of my better picks," Trump wrote in his letter. "He crumbled under the pressure, and bowed to the Radical Left-And that is not acceptable. Now he is groveling for the media, hoping to gain acceptance that he doesn't deserve."

Barr responded to Trump's letter during an interview on the Today Show on Monday, calling his comments "childish."

"Par for the course," Barr said on Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "The president is a man who, when he is told something, he doesn't want to hear, he immediately throws a tantrum."