CNN Reporter Stunned By ‘Jokey Tone’ Of Bombshell Trump Tape
CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray was stunned by the “jokey tone” of ex-President Donald Trump on the newly-public bombshell tape on which he discusses secret military plans.
Almost a month ago, CNN broke the news that Trump was caught on tape discussing a classified document that he had taken with him when he left the White House. Then they dropped a transcript of the tape.
Then, on Monday night, CNN posted the actual audio “exclusively obtained by CNN of a July 2021 conversation during which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held on to a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.”
On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Murray told co-anchors Phil Mattingly and Poppy Harlow that the tape is “a boon” to prosecutors and remarked on the laughing “callousness” of the participants in the meeting:
PHIL MATTINGLY: The audio you just listen to is crucial evidence in federal prosecutors case against Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified information after he left the White House. Federal prosecutors have charged the former president with putting national security secrets at risk overnight. Trump responded, writing on truth social quote, The deranged special prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ and FBI, illegally leaked and quote, spun unquote, a tape and transcript of me, which is actually an exoneration rather than what they would have you to believe. CNN political correspondent Sara Murray is live in Washington, D.C.. Sara, when you listen to this, when you talk to lawyers and sources, how damning do they feel like this audio is?
SARA MURRAY: You know, I think one of the things that’s striking is that we heard from folks when we were reporting this story out, before we had ever heard the audiotape, that it will be clear to you when you finally do hear the audio why this is such a boon for prosecutors, why this is so damning for Donald Trump.
But I think when you listen to that audio, I mean, you hear him saying things like, I’ll show you an example. These are the papers. And then there’s this sort of rustling sound, again, where he appears to be referring to this document about a potential attack on Iran. And he’s in this, you know, meeting, we know, with autobiographers who are working on a Mark Meadows autobiography with two staffers, none of whom have clearance. And he also acknowledges that this is not a declassified document and that he no longer has the power because he is no longer the president of the United States to declassify it.
And he’s sort of callous in how he’s discussing this. You know, everyone’s laughing. He’s talking about bring me some Cokes in. At one point, a staffer says, you know, now you have a problem when he’s talking about how this is not a declassified document. And so there’s this very sort of jokey tone around passing around or shuffling potentially some of the nation’s top secrets.
Watch above via CNN This Morning.
