• In an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton said that Attorney General William Barr’s beliefs risked putting America on the “road to tyranny.”
  • In testimony before a Senate committee earlier Wednesday, Barr argued that presidents had the right to fire prosecutors investigating them if the presidents didn’t think accusations were true.
  • “The president could terminate that proceeding, and it would not be a corrupt intent, because he was being falsely accused,” Barr remarked.
  • During the testimony, Barr defended his handling of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Th former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton issued a stark warning on Wednesday, saying that Attorney General William Barr’s beliefs risked setting America on the “road to tyranny.”

Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday night, Clinton responded to Barr’s testimony earlier in the day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he argued that if presidents believed accusations against them to be false, they were within their rights to fire a prosecutor investigating them.

Barr told lawmakers Wednesday that “in the situation of the president,” if a proceeding were “not well founded” or “based on false allegations,” the president “does not have to sit there, constitutionally, and allow it to run its course.”

“The president could terminate that proceeding, and it would not be a corrupt intent, because he was being falsely accused,” Barr said.

Maddow said Barr was arguing "the president can't be investigated if the president doesn't want to be investigated."

Clinton said such views placed America's democratic system under threat. "That is the road to tyranny," the former secretary of state told Maddow.

"That is what authoritarians believe and those who service them argue," she said. "The positions being taken and advocated by Barr were unlike anything that I've ever heard of, that were ever accepted with any level of seriousness before."

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Barr has come under attack from Democrats following his testimony on Wednesday, in which he defended his handling of the special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report amid accusations that he misrepresented its findings.

He defended his decision not to bring obstruction of justice charges against the president, despite the report exposing Trump having attempted to have Mueller fired.