On Sunday, Republican Sen. John Barrasso, of Wyoming, was forced to contradict Donald Trump’s assertion that he can declassify top secret documents just by “thinking about it” after being scolded by ABC host George Stephanopoulos for pretending not to know whether presidents could declassify documents with their minds.
Stephanopoulos pointed out that Trump’s lawyers have provided “no evidence that he declassified the documents,” before adding: “Trump said this week that as president, he could declassify documents by thinking about it,” the host added. “Do you agree with that?”
“I’ve not heard that one before,” Barrasso replied. “I don’t know anything about the rules for when a president declassifies documents and information. What I do know is what I’d like to see from a Senate standpoint is I’d like to see the Department of Justice come to us and show us in a classified setting what the information is, what they’ve done. I thought the raid at the former president’s home — I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“Senator!” Stephanopoulos exclaimed.
“It’s become political,” Barrasso continued, ignoring the ABC host. “So I want to get a briefing so that we can then be informed to see what actually happened here.”
“That was a rhetorical question,” Stephanopoulos shot back. “You know that a president can’t declassify documents by thinking about it. Why can’t you say so?”
Barrasso paused for a moment and then replied.
“I don’t think a president can declassify documents by saying so — by thinking about it,” he admitted.
Watch the video below from ABC news.
