Barr
© Office of Public Affairs/FlickrUS AG Bill Barr
Attorney General Bill Barr blamed "the left" for America's hyperpartisan political environment, saying Democrats created a "secular religion" which views conservatives and the GOP solely as "the enemy."

Barr, who previously served as attorney general under President George H.W. Bush between 1991 and 1993, said American politics has fundamentally changed since the last time he was head of the Justice Department. Speaking with Fox News' Mark Levin Sunday, Barr accused Democrats of wanting to "tear down the system," instead of making changes within the country's framework. Barr said Republicans and Democrats used to mutually believe "there was some truth to arrive at," but that liberals have completely withdrawn from all discussion or compromise.


Barr, in the Life, Liberty & Levin interview aired Monday, said:
"In the old days, you could have friends across the aisle; politics was a part of your life but it wasn't all-consuming, it wasn't everything and you could have communications with others. I think what's happened is the left wing has really withdrawn and pulled away from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded our society since our founding."
The attorney general said both sides used to believe in "arriving at the truth, we had the idea there was some truth to arrive at." And if polite debate and discourse did not work, Barr added, then things would come to a vote. By contrast, Barr says today's Democrats mimic a French Revolution style of response to everything and only believe in "tearing down the system."

Barr repeatedly accused members of "the left" of simply wanting to get rid of the institutions the country has built for hundreds of years. He lamented that Democrats and liberal allies hold the narrow view that their political opponents are simply "evil."
"[T]hat we have to tear [institutions] down and they're only interested in complete political victory, they're not interested in compromise, they're not interested in dialectic exchange of views — it's a secular religion, it's a substitute religion. They view their political opponents as evil because we stand in the way of their 'progressive' utopia they are trying to reach."
Levin, the smarmy host of the Fox News program, routinely refers to Democrats and the news media as "evil." The host has referred to countless members of "the left" as evil, ranging from liberal billionaire financier George Soros to former FBI Director James Comey.

"That's what gives the intensity to the partisan feelings that people feel today...everything is reduced to politics," Barr added.

Both Levin and Barr agreed that Democratic members of Congress have been "devoured" by political movements including Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Barr said he asked Senate Democrats in the wake of several violent protests,

"Can any of you come out and say it's not OK to burn down federal courthouses? I mean, they talk about the rule of law, they talk about the protection of civil rights," Barr continued. He described all of today's congressional Democrats as a combination of cowards who are only concerned with getting reelected and others who are truly revolutionary and want to "burn the system down."

Newsweek reached out to Barr's office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.