New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman noticed a huge admission during Donald Trump’s absolutely insane interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday night.
Haberman, who is well-versed in Trump speak and is very close to those in Trumpworld, has revealed some major scoops following the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and the related investigation of Trump for crimes involving the Espionage Act.
And during Trump’s sit-down with Hannity, Haberman basically live-tweeted the interview, and revealed some key problems for Trump.
The interview was nuts, as most Trump interviews are. Trump famously claimed that he could declassify documents with his mind, which, well, NOPE. While Trump had the power to declassify documents as president, it did have to go through a process that involved more than Trump’s imaginary ESP declassification system.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified,’ even by thinking about it because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it. And there doesn’t have to be a process. There can be a process but there doesn’t have to be. You’re the president. You make that decision. So when you send it, it’s declassified. I declassified everything,” Trump said.
Haberman noted that while Trump’s crazy declassification system was what most people were talking about, there was a far more important detail revealed.
She tweeted, “The focus is understandably on Trump’s claim of mental declassifications from his Hannity interview. But he appeared to indicate he intentionally sent the documents to Mar-a-Lago, which cuts against the “it was an accident” claims.”
Then she followed up saying, “From the transcript: “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it, because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever you’re sending it.””
The focus is understandably on Trump's claim of mental declassifications from his Hannity interview. But he appeared to indicate he intentionally sent the documents to Mar-a-Lago, which cuts against the "it was an accident" claims
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [1]
From the transcript: "If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it, because you’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or to wherever you’re sending it."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [2]
Trump says as president he could declassify documents just by thinking in his head that they're declassified.
That's beyond wrong, it's insane.pic.twitter.com/5tR30e7Clb [3]
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) September 22, 2022 [4]
Haberman reviewed quite a few other observations as well:
Trump says GSA was involved in packing the boxes "along with people in the White House." GSA has said it had no role in packing the boxes.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [5]
Trump says someone was taking pictures of the boxes being packed in the White House
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [6]
LOL, this is bad:
The irony of saying this on a day when James is suing over his property valuations is something. In his deposition in the @TimOBrien [7] lawsuit, Trump said he used “mental projections” for valuations on his golf courses. https://t.co/YtPKnwPEfs [8]
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [9]
And then this revelation about Raymond Dearie, the special master who Trump chose for a ridiculous reason, and now seems to be backfiring:
Confirming @jonathanvswan [10] reporting about their projection that Dearie would be likely to side with them because of a narrow and specific issue in his decades-long career https://t.co/YqdD1UFFLj [11]
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 22, 2022 [12]