Dan Abrams Throws Down With House Republican Over Trump’s Documents Case: ‘That’s Not True!’

Several House Republicans have accused the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden of being “weaponized” against other Republicans, namely former President Donald Trump — despite that same DOJ prosecuting several prominent Democrats. Dan Abrams took one of those House Republicans to task on NewsNation on Monday.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) was in the hot seat as Abrams (also the founder of Mediaite) questioned him about why, despite all evidence to the contrary, he believes Biden’s DOJ is being used to target Republicans. Abrams cited all the Democrats being either investigated or prosecuted, including the president’s son, Hunter Biden. But when the subject of Special Counsel Jack Smith and the FBI’s raid on Mar-A-Lago came up, the conversation got heated:

Abrams: What’s the other option with regard to the documents case, right? They made sure Trump wasn’t home, right? When they did it, they go there when he’s not there. They have now tried again and again and again to get the documents back. They now know that there’s been a lie when it came in response to an FBI subpoena. If they’d ended up being wrong, I would agree with you. I’d say, you know what? They got it wrong. Shame on them. They were right! There were a ton of documents still there, and they couldn’t get them back. What else are they supposed to do?

McClintock: First of all, that was known from the outset. You know, as president, Donald Trump has absolute authority to handle classified material–

Abrams: While he’s president.

McClintock: Well, and under the president… And by the way, as vice president, Joe Biden did not have that authority. That authority is unique to the president and no other public official.

Abrams: That’s not true. The vice president does have the authority to declassify documents as well.

McClintock: No, that’s wrong. He can only declassified documents that he himself has ordered classified. The president is the only one who has the authority to handle classified material in any way.

Abrams: But he’s not president anymore, so what is–

McClintock: And under the Presidential Records Act, Donald Trump has absolute discretion in determining what documents to take with him.

Abrams: That’s not what the Presidential Records Act says!

McClintock: It most certainly does!

Abrams: The Presidential Records Act doesn’t say that the president can take home whatever documents he wants.

McClintock: Dan! Dan! Look at the Clinton case!

Abrams: Yeah, I did!

McClintock: That was decided in the Clinton case. And by the way, as vice president–

Abrams: That was about Bill Clinton writing his own notes for a book and whether he’d be to take those home.

McClintock: That was about Bill Clinton deciding which were were classified, and the, the court said that under the Presidential Records Act, it is the president who has sole discretion to make those decisions for themselves.

After Abrams became audibly exasperated, McClintock continued, still trying to draw an equivalence between Biden’s classified documents case and Trump’s:

McClintock: And by the way, as vice president, again, as vice president, Joe Biden did not have that authority. And yet, soon after declaring his candidacy, Donald Trump is prosecuted for having classified documents at Mar-A-Lago–

Abrams: No, he’s prosecuted for not turning them over.

McClintock: And Joe Biden gets a pass for having and sharing classified documents in his office. And it’s not a question of turning them over. Every person has the right to assert what they believe are their their constitutional rights, and Donald Trump did.

Abrams: But he didn’t assert that right. He lied. He didn’t assert any rights.

McClintock: What did he lie about?

Abrams: He lied about whether he had more documents at his house.

McClintock: Well, Joe Biden did the same thing.

Abrams: No, he didn’t!

McClintock: Yes, he did. One is, prosecuted, the other isn’t.

Then McClintock threw in this old chestnut: “And should we also mention the DOJ’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton in far more damning circumstances?”

Watch the video above via NewsNation.