A trio of past allies and members of former President Trump's Cabinet showed up on the Sunday news programs, and it wasn't to sing his praises. First up: erstwhile Attorney General Bill Barr, who the New York Times notes used "extraordinary language" to describe his ex-boss during an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation. Barr accused Trump of "reckless conduct" in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, deemed him a "consummate narcissist" and "fundamentally flawed person," and compared him to a "defiant" 9-year-old. "Our country can't be a therapy session for a troubled man like this," Barr noted.
He said that Trump's defense of holding on to the classified materials was "absurd," but Barr still added in what Axios calls his "yes, but": "I don't like the idea of a former president serving time in prison." Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also compared Trump to a child, a "petulant" one, noting his treatment of those who disagree with him. On CNN's State of the Union, Christie referenced all the officials who'd worked under Trump, noting how Trump soured on them after initially boasting about picking them.
"If you believe what he said when they left, that means he didn't pick the very best people and doesn't know how to pick personnel," Christie said, per USA Today. "If you believe ... what he said at the beginning, the great stuff, then this guy is the worst manager in the history of the American presidency." Meanwhile, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper also aired his grievances on State of the Union, noting that Trump holding on to classified documents was "unauthorized, illegal, and dangerous," ticking off ways in which mishandling such info could put the United States in a bad spot, per Politico.
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Esper—whom Trump fired shortly after the 2020 election, just over a year after he'd hired him—was asked by SOTU host Jake Tapper if he thought the former president could be trusted with national secrets again if he's reelected. "Based on his actions, again, if proven true under the indictment by the special counsel, no," Esper replied. "It's just irresponsible action that places our service members at risk, places our nation's security at risk. You cannot have these documents floating around." Trump's response to the on-air attacks, via spokesman Steven Cheung, per USA Today: "Of course these morons would rather protect a corrupt and politicized system of justice," the statement reads. "Their entire pathetic existence is rooted in swampy DC insider behavior." (More William Barr stories.)
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