Donald Trump has again defended his removal of documents from the White House after he resigned as president, suggesting the country would be “better” if he still had access to the nuclear code.
At a political rally in Dayton, Ohio, the former president, who endorsed a number of midterm candidates, continued to voice frustration about the criminal investigation into him over classified materials recovered from a resort in Maralago. rice field. .
Trump claimed other presidents took the papers with him when he left office, noting that Bill Clinton kept presidential papers in a sock drawer while in office.
In fact, Clinton kept the recordings she later used to write her autobiography in a sock drawer at the White House, but none of them were classified or classified.
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“I’m the only one who can’t accept anything,” Trump said Monday night. Because our enemies fear differently than they do now.”
Trump added that Clinton “lost the nuclear code” during her presidency. This is an old claim first made by General Hugh Shelton, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Mr. Clinton, in his 2010 memoir. Without Hesitation: An American Warrior Odyssey.
Trump has repeatedly claimed false equivalence in defending the fact that the FBI seized presidential documents from his Florida home in August. This includes other presidents such as Barack Obama, George Bush, and Clinton, who eventually house them in the library.
“The president goes away, takes things, takes documents, takes things, reads,” Trump said at a political rally in Miami, Fla., on November 6.
Presidential materials were removed from the White House at the end of the Obama, Bush, and Clinton administrations, but continued to be maintained and owned by the National Archives and Records Administration and stored at NARA facilities.
Laws introduced in the wake of Watergate require that all documents pertaining to a president be sent to the National Archives when he leaves office.
None of the materials temporarily held at NARA’s facilities were classified, top secret, or personally handled by the former president or his administration.
In a statement on Oct. 11, the National Archives denied Trump’s frequent allegations, saying, “All such temporary facilities meet strict records and security standards, and only NARA personnel can access them.” We manage and staff it,” he said.
“Any report that indicates or suggests that the president’s records were in the possession of the former president or his representatives after he left office or that the records were kept in substandard conditions is false and misleading. .”
Also during the Dayton rally, Trump appeared to give yet another hint of finally confirming his intention to run for president again in 2024 following the “critical” midterm elections. rice field.
“This is an election that will save our country, in a strong way,” Trump said.
We have reached out to Trump for further comment.
