News/Commentary

‘I’m president. I can do it all … come on!’ Biden mocks Trump for assertion he declassified documents in raid

August 27, 2022 | | Print Article

President Joe Biden turned on the snark when asked by a reporter if former President Donald Trump could have declassified all of the documents the FBI uncovered during its highly questionable raid of Mar-a-Lago.


(Video: AP/YouTube)

It has long been understood that the power to declassify documents rests with the president.

In a statement to Just the News’s John Solomon, the former president’s office called the notion that Trump couldn’t declassify the documents seized during the raid “absurd.”

“The very fact that these documents were present at Mar-a-Lago means they couldn’t have been classified,” the statement read. “As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence.”

“He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” Trump’s office continued. “The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

And this was the point the reporter made to Biden as he prepared to depart for yet another Delaware vacation.

“Could he have just declassified them all?” the reporter asked.

The president dialed up the scorn and sarcastically snapped back, “I’ve declassified everything in the world. I’m president. I can do it all!”

“Come on!” Biden scoffed. “Declassified everything.”

The dismissive tone was followed by yet another attempt by Biden to distance himself from the Justice Department’s actions.

“I’m not gonna comment because I don’t know the details,” he told the reporter. “I don’t even want to know. Let the Justice Department take care of it.”

And with that devil-may-care dig at Trump, the American public is, it appears, supposed to simply accept that Biden is completely removed from what many see as a weaponization of law enforcement against the man who, all indications suggest, will surely be Joe Biden’s greatest roadblock to maintaining control of the White House.

Online, many Twitter users aren’t buying Biden’s claims.

“As POTUS he can declassify whatever is in his discretion,” wrote one user. “That’s genuinely the way it works. According to investigative journalists the docs taken were related to the fraudulent spying of Trump’s campaign. If true, that’s a serious issue.”

“I’m under the impression it is solely the POTUS’s decision what to declassify,” the same user said in a separate tweet. “Every POTUS took documents, every single one. Hillary Clinton not only took docs but also destroyed them after a subpoena. Not to mention the classified docs found on Huma Abedin’s laptop. Equal?”

And that, many believe, is the million-dollar question.

Will former President Donald Trump receive the same treatment as Hillary Clinton received when she stored classified documents on an unsecured server? Or will the president’s snark serve as a reminder that, in Joe Biden’s America, there is a different justice served to those who challenge his rule?

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles