Jun 20, 2023

Trump’s First Interview Since His Federal Indictment

In a conversation with Fox News’s Bret Baier, former President Donald Trump dismissed the federal indictment over his handling of classified documents. Here are some key points from the interview.
Trump’s First Interview Since His Federal Indictment

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The documents: The federal indictment alleges that Trump had a document detailing General Mark Milley’s war strategies in Iran. When asked about this sensitive document, Trump said, “There was no document, that was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about Iran and other things. And it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. I didn’t have a document per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories, and articles.”

His main defense: “Everything was declassified. A president has the right to declassify.” Trump also said the “boxes were interspersed with all sorts of things: golf shirts, pants, shoes, all sorts of things.” The legal proceedings will seek to counter this with a supposed recording of Trump claiming he had the power to declassify those documents, though he refrained from doing so.

On Fox: Baier's claim about Fox having strong viewership among independent voters was immediately dismissed by Trump, who retorted, "A lot less than they used to." Trump also said, "I'm no great fan of Fox." When Baier acknowledged Trump's presence on the network, the former president said, "Well, you gotta get your word out somehow, right?”

Foreign policy critique: Trump criticized President Joe Biden's management of U.S.-Saudi Arabia relations, praising the Saudis and expressing worry about Biden's actions pushing them toward China. Biden's labeling of Saudi Arabia as a "pariah" state hurt his influence over the country, made clear when Biden failed to lower gas prices. Further, Trump claimed that all modern presidents before him had been influenced by China.

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