Ainsley Earhardt Defends Trump By Suggesting Other Former Presidents Took Classified Information from the White House
Ainsley Earhardt defended former President Donald Trump Tuesday morning by curiously suggesting he is being treated unfairly because other former presidents also took classified information from the White House.
Trump’s Palm Beach home Mar-a-Lago was served a search warrant roughly a week ago, resulting in the reported retrieval of numerous top secret and classified documents — the mishandling of which is a felony offense, according to a 2018 law that Trump himself signed.
Since then, Trump loyalists in the form of both Republican officials and conservative media surrogates have amplified his claim of unprecedented and unfair treatment.
This argument overlooks the rather obvious fact that no other former president has also been in possession of top secret and classified materials at their resort and refused to return them to the Justice Department, thereby requiring federal agents to retrieve them through a search warrant.
But Fox & Friends host Ainsley Earhardt seems to think that doesn’t matter. Her brief yet somewhat stunning comments came during a discussion about the affidavit supporting the search warrant. The DOJ has asked that a judge keep the contents sealed to protect the integrity of an ongoing investigation. Trump has asked for the immediate release of the completely unredacted document.
“You consistently hear from Republicans saying the Clintons took items, that Obama took items,” Earhardt whatabouted. “Even the Bush family took items.”
She then pivoted to Trump: “There’s inconsistencies here. If it is classified information and other presidents have done it before. Their houses weren’t raided, the first lady’s closets weren’t gone through. Their personal items weren’t gone through either.”
Earhardt could be getting her information here from Trump, who repeatedly claimed last week that Barack Obama left the White House with classified material. That claim was debunked by the National Archives, a fact Earhardt’s colleague Bret Baier pointed out on Fox News.
If indeed former presidents took classified and top secret documents from the White House, then yes, there would be inconsistencies at play here. But they have not, as far as we know.
Yes, there are instances of personal items leaving the White House when an administration turns over in a peaceful transfer of power (!), but no former president has, to date, been investigated for secretly holding classified and top secret documents that present a national security risk. That is only happening now, thanks to the actions of Trump and team.
So again: the events at Mar-a-Lago were unprecedented, because the actions of Trump are unprecedented. Never before have federal law enforcement agents had to obtain a search warrant to retrieve classified documents from a former president because of a national security risk.
Watch above via Fox News.
