Filling in for Chris Hayes, MSNBC host and former press secretary for President Joe Biden kicked off Monday’s episode of “All In” with a discussion of the latest legal difficulties faced by disgraced former President Donald Trump.
While Psaki admitted “we’re in unprecedented territory,” she said that the idea Trump will somehow benefit politically from being indicted over the classified documents he unlawfully took from the White House “sounds like a bit of wishful thinking.”
For those in need of a refresher, last year it came out that Trump left the White House with a large number of classified documents, many of them related to extremely sensitive matters. He then refused to return the documents despite multiple requests from the government, eventually leading to a raid of his Florida resort.
In the nearly one year since, it’s come out that Trump employees may have actively moved to conceal evidence that Trump knowingly took classified documents despite his unfounded claim that he “declassified” them. Trump’s lawyers met Monday with Justice Department officials, in an attempt to keep him from being indicted.
When the case became public, it soon also came out that President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence both had also taken a much smaller number of classified documents, however in both cases the matter was voluntarily disclosed and the officials cooperated fully with investigators. Meanwhile, as Trump has faced increasingly more serious legal problems, is supporters have been unwavering, leading to a conventional wisdom consensus that being indicted again might actually benefit Trump.
Now, back to Psaki.
As she kicked she show off, Psaki touted her experience working for two different presidents — Barack Obama and Biden — and said “despite what Donald Trump’s lawyers are telling all of you, there is neither a magic wand a president has to retroactively declassify documents, nor is there some sort of special declassification process available only to the White House.
“And the argument from Trump allies that knowingly taking classified documents about issues as sensitive as nuclear secrets, or a hypothetical war with Iran, say, and sharing them with others — which Donald Trump has reportedly done,” Psaki continued, “is the exact same thing as knowingly, that’s the key word there, retaining classified documents and then returning them — which President Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence both did — is not exactly on the level.”
“And having worked on three presidential campaigns and in politics for 20 years, the argument, the political argument from Trump allies that more indictments will help Trump sounds like a bit of wishful thinking to me, a little spin there. especially when the next indictments could be about pretty popular issues like the protection of our democracy and our national security,” Psaki added.
“Traditionally, getting indicted isn’t a good thing, it’s not a good thing. But, we’re in unprecedented territory here. And even I have to admit, spending a lot of time in the political world, of all the time I have spent on campaign buses and in the Oval Office, I have never worked for a candidate under indictment, with additional charges likely on the way,” she said. “So this situation is new to me too, we’re all in it together.”
You can watch the whole thing above now.
