Barr slams Dems for 'grossly irresponsible' mail ballot push, 'systemic racism' in failed schools

Attorney General William Barr sharply rebuked Democrats on Thursday night, saying their plan to rapidly expand mail-in voting was "grossly irresponsible" and their failure to fix inner city schools smacked of racism.

"People talk about implicit racism or systemic racism: rhe racism in this country, look no further than our public education system," Barr said during an interview with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity. "That's a racist system maintained by the Democratic party and the teachers union, keeping inner city kids in failing schools instead of putting the resources in the hands of the parents to choose the schools to send their kids to. That's empowering kids, that's giving them a future." 

The attorney general also issued scathing criticism of Democrats' efforts to push mail-in voting for the upcoming general election.

"It is grossly irresponsible to be doing what the Democratic Party is doing now," he said. "We've had very close races in recent history, the country is divided. If anything we should be assuring the integrity of our elections so that government going forward will be legitimate and will be accepted as legitimate. The idea of conducting elections by wholesale mail-in ballots is reckless and wrong."

He also said that there would be some sort of "development" in the Durham probe on Friday, though he said it isn't "earth shattering." He assured that if wrongdoing is discovered, it will be prosecuted.

"Well when we feel we can prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt it will be charged, I can tell you that," the attorney general said.

Barr discussed the violence in American cities and the fact an individual has been charged in connection with the fatal shooting of a sleeping 4-year-old named LeGend Taliferro who was slain in his bed in Kansas City back in June.

"What's involved here is the will to deal with this violent crime in these inner cities. It can be handled. We need the will," Barr said. 

Barr noted that the federal effort to assist local authorities in ending violence was named after that young victim.

"And we called it Operation Legend in honor of this 4-year-old boy who was shot. So he became a symbol of the black lives that were being lost in the inner city, the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds that have been killed with the demonization of the police."