The Washington Post has put together a flashback reel of just a very few of the many times Donald Trump attacked his 2016 Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – almost always falsely – for her handling of classified documents.
Trump is under fire this week after the National Archives revealed it was forced to transport 15 cartons of documents Trump absconded with to Mar-a-Lago, documents and items that are the property of the U.S. government. The National Archives has asked DOJ to open an investigation into Trump’s handling of classified information and documents, and has said some of the documents he took to Mar–Lago were classified and even “top secret.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, which some maintain Trump won largely thanks to the Comey announcement the FBI was reopening the investigation into her emails, Trump made countless false accusations, as the video below shows, even that Russia had hacked into her server, which it had not.
“This was not just extreme carelessness with classified material,” Trump says in the first clip, calling it “totally disqualifying” to become president, something Democrats will no doubt use if he runs again.
“This is calculated, deliberate, premeditated misconduct, followed by a cover-up that included false statements and lies to Congress, the media, and the American people,” Trump charged.
“In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” which turned out to be, many would claim, extraordinarily false.
“We also need the best protection of classified information. That is the worst situation. Hillary’s private email scandal, which put our classified information in the reach of our enemies, disqualifies her from the presidency. Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country. Hillary thought nothing of putting classified information on her illegal server, which our enemies now have hacked,” Trump falsely claimed.
Even in 2020, Trump said: “Forget about what was on the emails. It’s irrelevant. Although many of them were classified, highly classified. You go to jail for that.”
Watch: