In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, former President Donald Trump was cornered about his handling of highly classified national defense information, for which he has been indicted on 37 federal charges.
Trump's reaction was to attack former Attorney General William Barr, who has become a sharp critic of his former boss' actions and has even predicted that more indictments are coming.
"Fox viewers were able to watch your speech here at Bedminster," said Baier. "And your explanation of the Presidential Records Act and your defense, how you and others believe that that applies here. Obviously, you know, other legal experts, your attorney general, Bill Barr. They do not think that that applies to handling classified national security and defense materials. But that legal battle aside, I just want to ask you a couple of specifics. Why did you have these very sensitive national security defense documents like the war plans for a strike on Iran?"
"So like every other president, I take things out," said Trump. "And in my case, I took it out pretty much in a hurry. But people packed it up and we left. And I had clothing in there. I had all sorts of personal items and much, much stuff. And by the way, when Bill Barr, who's, you know, a coward, Bill Barr was a coward. Bill Barr didn't do what he was supposed to do. I fired him and he has great hatred. And that's OK, because some people do. And some people love me very much."
Baier pointed out that Barr actually resigned, to which Trump responded, "I asked him, give me a letter immediately. Because he didn't have the courage to go after so many different things." He also reiterated his previous claim that "As far as the levels and all, everything was declassified because I had the right to declassify ... I have every right to have those boxes." Notably, this is at odds with Trump's own admission on tape speaking to Bedminster guests that he didn't declassify all the documents in his possession.
This is not the first time Trump has used the "coward" moniker for Barr, who left the administration amid disagreements of how Trump was trying to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election results. Earlier this month, Trump also attacked Barr as a "coward" during an interview with his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone.
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Bret Baier presses Trump on documents casewww.youtube.com
