GOP Should Pick Candidates Without Trump's 'Erratic Personal Behavior': Barr

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr urged the GOP to pick new candidates who don't exhibit the "erratic personal behavior" that former President Donald Trump had.

In his new book, One Damn Thing After Another, which releases next month, Barr criticized Trump and his behavior towards the 2020 presidential election as he urged Republicans to drop the former president as the party's dominant figure.

He said Republicans should focus on "an impressive array of younger candidates" who share Trump's conservative agenda, according to extracts from his book. However, the former attorney general didn't reveal the names of specific candidates.

Barr noted in his book that Trump could have won the 2020 presidential election if he had "just exercised a modicum of self-restraint, moderating even a little of his pettiness," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Barr also noted that it is time for Republicans to move on from Trump who has "shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed."

In his book, Barr recounted an incident that happened in late 2020 when he was reportedly countered by submitting his resignation to the former president.

"Accepted!" Trump yelled as he banged his hand on the table after he received Barr's resignation. "Leave and don't go back to your office. You are done right now. Go Home!"

The former attorney general said Trump was impacted by his loss in 2020 and that he "lost his grip" according to the Journal. Barr also said that Trump's false claims of election fraud led to the Capitol attack, which was led by his supporters who refused to certify Joe Biden's presidential win.

"The absurd lengths to which he took his 'stolen election' claim led to the rioting on Capitol Hill," Barr wrote.

Last June, Trump in a statement called Barr a "disappointment in every sense of the word" over election fraud claims.

"Besides which, Barr, who was Attorney General, shouldn't be speaking about the President," he added. "Instead of doing his job, he did the opposite and told people within the Justice Department not to investigate the election."

Barr has previously ripped Trump's election fraud claims in a book by ABC's Jonathan Karl called Betrayal: The Final Act of The Trump Show. He reportedly told Trump that attempts to overturn election results resembled a "clown show" and that "no self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It's just a joke."

Barr told Karl that he launched his own unofficial inquiry into election fraud claims only to find no evidence backing widespread allegations of voter fraud.

"My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time," Barr said according to an extract in The Atlantic. "If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit."

Newsweek contacted Trump's office for comments and will update the story once a response is received.