Attorney General Barr admits there is no evidence foreign country planning to fake US election ballots

‘I think we have to be careful about throwing the idea of racism around,’ says country’s top lawyer

Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday was unable to cite any evidence but “logic” that foreign governments are trying to fake ballots in the US presidential election and was unable to give even an estimate of how many people his Justice Department has prosecuted for voting fraud.

Donald Trump‘s hand-picked top federal attorney defended the president over and over during a combative interview on CNN, saying China – not Russia – is the country trying the hardest to shape the outcome of November’s election.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressed Mr Barr on a range of topics, getting back short and clipped responses as the AG repeatedly appeared annoyed by a question’s premise. At one point, Mr Barr claimed Beijing is pressing the hardest to shape the election’s outcome, but he would not say which candidate the Chinese government prefers. (His finger-pointing at China comes as Democrats say Mr Trump has been too light on Russia over a number of actions, including taking bounties out on US soldiers in Afghanistan).

Near the end of the contentious 30-minute interview, the CNN host asked Mr Barr for even a ballpark number of how many people Justice has brought up on voter fraud charges since he returned to the office under Mr Trump. “Several,” Mr Barr said, unable to produce a specific number or even a ballpark figure.

Mr Blitzer also played a clip of Mr Trump recently using a Fox News interview to pressure Mr Barr and other Justice Department officials into helping his re-election chances. But the AG denied feeling any presidential nudging one way or another.

“I don’t feel any pressure,” he said when asked about Mr Trump saying he could go down as one of the greatest AGs of all time if a coming internal report shows top Obama administration officials unfairly “spied” on the 2016 Trump-Pence campaign. “When we’re talking privately, he doesn’t talk like that.”

On Democrats and minority activists claiming the United States has a culture of “systemic racism” that fuels black deaths at the hands of white police officers, Mr Barr dismissed such notions.

“To me the word systematic means that it is built into the institutions. I think our institutions have been built [with] safeguards against that,” he said. “I think we have to be careful about throwing the idea of racism around,” saying that means one person sees someone of a different race as a “lesser human being”.

“I think there are people in the United States that feel that way, but it’s not as widespread as some would suggest,” Mr Barr contended. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress in the last 60 years.”

But when Blitzer pressed him on the widespread feeling among blacks that when interacting with police they are treated as suspects first, the attorney general backtracked a bit.

“I think there is some situations where statistics would suggest they are treated differently, but I don’t think that’s racism,” he said, noting civil rights activist Jesse Jackson once admitted he feels nervous when walking in front of a group of young black men.

He also dismissed many in the black community feeling like there is one justice system for white people and another for blacks.

Absentee ballots are ‘fine’

Meantime, Mr Barr said that coming probe of the Obama administration’s 2016 actions likely would not amount to an October surprise that could shape the outcome of the November presidential election.

“I don’t think” that investigation will produce anything to be “influencing the election ... I don’t think anything we’re going to do would violate our policy, it would be consistent with our policy” on influencing domestic elections.

Mr Barr also was asked to respond to the president earlier in the day in North Carolina appearing to endorse people testing what he calls an ineffective and unproven mail-in voting system by trying to also cast ballots in person.

“Well, they’ll go out and they’ll go vote, and they’re going to have to go and check their vote by going to the poll and voting that way, because if it tabulates then they won’t be able to do that. So let them send it in, and let them go vote,” the president said.

“And if the system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote,” he added. “If it isn’t tabulated they won’t be able to vote, so that’s the way it is. And that’s what they should do.”

Mr Barr at first shrugged off the remark, then said the president was “trying to make the point” that a system of mass mail-in ballots will be flawed and rife with uncounted ballots or even fraud.

Repeating a distinction Mr Trump often makes, the AG, who said he has voted absentee, said voting under that system “is fine”.

The president and other administration officials contend absentee ballots are more secure because a voter has to request a ballot, and their personal information must be verified.