Fox News host Steve Doocy appears to have surprised far right Republican Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota Wednesday morning, challenging her on why Donald Trump retained numerous Top Secret documents at Mar-a-Lago, refusing to hand them over to the federal government for over a year, while claiming through his attorneys there were no more classified documents at his Florida resort and residence.
The damning photo DOJ released as part of a 36-page federal court filing late Tuesday night, which clearly shows the documents with their classification headers – something most Americans have never seen before – spread across the rug in the former president’s Mar-a-Lago office, has gone viral.
This is just one of many copies of the photo flying across social media.
“Well, ultimately, it comes down to why did he have all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago?” Doocy asked Gov. Noem, a top Trump supporter and defender, Wednesday morning on “Fox & Friends.”
“You know, I know his team has said that they declassified it but that’s news to the agencies that those documents belong to,” Doocy added, accurately telling the American people that the documents are the property of the federal government, something that may be news to Fox News viewers.
“And he had apparently three classified documents in his desk, and then the stuff as Brian [Kilmeade, his co-host] detailed on the floor, it shows five yellow folders marked ‘Top Secret,’ and another one with, that says ‘Secret SCI,’ which means sensitive, compartmentalized information,” a very animated Doocy explained.
“Those are the biggest secrets in the world. Why would he and apparently the president, former president went through them in January. Why wouldn’t he say, ‘oh, you know what? I really need to turn that back over’? Why did he have all that stuff at Mar-a-Lago?” Doocy asked.
Gov. Noem toed the Trump narrative, telegraphing in her opinion that federal agents, the FBI, the Dept. of Justice, and the federal courts cannot be trusted.
“Well, that’s why I think it’s important that this is transparent and that we do have someone who’s outside of the DOJ, looking at this and talking to people what, what is this information?”
“We don’t know what was in there,” Gov. Noem replied, taking a talking-point from the anti-vaxxer movement she supports.
“I think really President Trump declassified all this information,” she said, which even his own attorneys’ actions appear to dispute.
“Let’s find out really what the process is, what is right, what’s precedent that other other presidents have followed, and make sure that this is done,” she added, ignoring any basic or plain reading of federal laws.
Doocy did not appear to be impressed.
“Governor, I don’t think any President has ever carted off that many documents to their house after they left the presidency,” he responded.
Watch below or at this link.