CNN host gets in heated exchange with GOP rep over Trump's indictment: 'Just doesn't make sense'
'What you’re saying just doesn’t make sense on its face,' Bash said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, joined CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday and got into a heated exchange while discussing the indictment of former President Donald Trump as Bash accused Jordan of not making any sense.
Bash asked Jordan about Trump's indictment and whether any of it was "acceptable" to him.
"The indictment does say, as I mentioned, the documents included U.S. defense, nuclear capabilities and potential U.S. vulnerabilities to a military attack," Bash said. "They were kept in unsecure areas like a bathroom, a ballroom, the bedroom and the indictment says Donald Trump lied to lawyers, his own lawyers which resulted in false statements to the FBI so that he could keep those documents. Is all of that, any of that acceptable to you?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jordan defended Trump and argued that the president has the "sole authority" to declassify documents, noting a case from 1988, Navy v. Egan, a "unanimous decision from the court," he added.
CNN's Dana Bash presses Rep. Jim Jordan on Trump's indictment. (Screenshot/CNN/StateOfTheUnion)
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The two went back and forth over the indictment and Trump's claim that he declassified the document.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"But he says, point blank, on tape as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t. He says in his own words. It’s on tape as part of this indictment that he did not declassify the material. Therefore, it is classified," Bash said.
"Dana saying he could have is not the same as saying he didn’t," Jordan pushed back.
Bash said the former president said, "Now I can't."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, South Carolina, US, on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. (Sam Wolfe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Jordan agreed, adding that it was because he's no longer the president of the United States.
"But he’s saying point-blank in this audio tape he did not declassify it. What you’re saying just doesn’t make sense on its face!" Bash continued.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What this truly is, Dana, is an affront to the rule of law," Jordan said. "It’s an affront to consistent application of the law. You have Secretary Clinton who had classified material on a server. She was not president of the United States. She was Secretary Clinton. You have that happen and nothing happens to her. When you have two people who do the same thing and one has the standard that I’ve talked about, but the only one who gets indicted is the Republican, the only one who was actually president, who did it the right way. Oh, my goodness. That is what the American people see."
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on April 27, 2023, in Manchester, New Hampshire. Trump, who is currently dealing with a growing number of legal cases against him, is the Republican frontrunner for the Republican presidential ticket. ((Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images))
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Trump was indicted on 37 federal counts, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements in Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into the classified records.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The former president said he would be pleading not guilty to the charges in court and continues to claim he did nothing wrong.
"I did absolutely nothing wrong," he told Fox News Digital, citing the Presidential Records Act, saying it "makes me totally innocent."