AG William Barr says he's not concerned about his reputation because 'everyone dies'

In an interview with CBS News, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that he wasn't too concerned with his reputation, since "everyone dies."

What did he say?

"I am at the end of my career," Barr said after CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford asked him if he was concerned about "the reputation that you have worked your whole life on." He seemed unfazed when she mentioned the negative publicity he was receiving for being in the Trump administration.

"Everyone dies and I am not, you know, I don't believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?" he asked.

He added that although he'd "rather be back to my old life" he did not regret taking the job.

Earlier in the interview, Barr said he believed that special counsel Robert Mueller "could've reached a conclusion as to whether" President Donald Trump committed "criminal activity," even if he was unable to indict.

He said he and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were "both surprised" when they met with Mueller and found that he had not stated a conclusion about whether or not President Donald Trump had committed obstruction of justice.

He added, though, that he was not going to "argue about those reasons when he didn't make a decision." He also said that neither he nor Rosenstein pressed Mueller on this issue. He also said that he thought Mueller had provided him and Rosenstein with enough information "to make that decision" not to prosecute the president.

Barr also denied that he was going out of his way to protect Trump at the expense of doing his job. He insisted that he was "going to make the decisions based on the law and the facts," and that he thought the backlash he received "just goes with the territory of being the attorney general in a hyper-partisan period of time."