Trump Claims Teaching Kids About Racism Is “Child Abuse,” Wants It Abolished From Schools and Replaced With a “Patriotic Education”

As Barr surely knows, slaves were literally restrained in chains, while people told to stay at home this spring to avoid the spread of COVID-19 were actually free to leave their homes so long as they weren’t going to 500-person pool parties and spitting in people’s faces. Barr also made sure to slander the Black Lives Matter movement, which is fairly unsurprising given his belief that systemic racism doesn’t exist:

Barr also attacked the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that while he agreed Black lives matter, “They’re not interested in Black lives. They’re interested in props, a small number of Blacks who are killed by police during conflicts with police—usually less than a dozen a year—who they can use as props to achieve a much broader political agenda.” A Washington Post tracker found that 250 Black Americans were killed by police last year. Black people are also killed by police at a higher rate than white people, the Post found.

Finally, just to round things out, the attorney general criticized people for discussing the fact that the president has likely committed multiple crimes, telling the audience, “Now you have to call your adversary a criminal, and instead of beating them politically, you try to put them in jail,” claiming that the U.S. was approaching Eastern European–level status. Weirdly, at no time did he mention that his boss spent most of his time on the 2016 campaign trail demanding Hillary Clinton be locked up, or that he regularly tries to use the criminal justice system to go after his enemies. Barr did, however, manage to work in an attack on the free press. “If you’re not in power, you’re in jail,” he said. “Or you’re a member of the press.” Which would be slightly more amusing if one didn’t get the sense that Barr would imprison journalists if he thought he could get away with it.

Elsewhere!

Former Pence aide says she will vote for Biden because of Trump’s ‘flat-out disregard for human life’ during pandemic (Washington Post)

DeVos’s former top aide joins anti-Trump group (Politico)

Schumer, Warren urge Trump to cancel student loan debt due to coronavirus (CNBC)

How Everyone From Foreign Governments to Federal Contractors Is Lining Trump’s Pockets (Hive)

The Wild Summer of 2020 Turned Small Investors Into Whales (Bloomberg)

Florida city repeals 13-year ban on saggy pants (AP)

Martha Stewart, Blissed Out on CBD, Is Doing Just Fine (NYT)

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— Melania Trump Sounds a Lot Like Her Husband in Stephanie Winston Wolkoff’s New Book
— Jesmyn Ward Writes Through Grief Amid Protests and Pandemic
— How Trump’s Handling of White Supremacists Could Create a Homegrown Crisis
— Ashley Etienne May Be Biden’s Deadliest Weapon Against Trump
— What’s the Reality Behind Netflix Hit Selling Sunset?
— How to Abolish the Police, According to Josie Duffy Rice
— The Pandemic Is Creating an Endless Summer in the Hamptons
— From the Archive: The Perks and Perils of Being Donald Trump’s Daughter

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.