ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR’S OFFICE SHREDS NBC’S CHUCK TODD FOR ‘DECEPTIVE EDITING’ OF BARR’S COMMENTS:

Todd focused in on the following exchange between Barr and [CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge]:

HERRIDGE: In closing, this was a big decision in the Flynn case, to say the least. When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written? What will it say about your decision making?

BARR: Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history. But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.

Todd only played the first two sentences of Barr’s comments where Barr said, “Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history.”

Given that NBC’s ransom note editing technique is now putting Barr’s exact quote into wider circulation, it’s a reminder of Robert Conquest’s Third Law of Politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”