This latest recording of former President Donald Trump is yet another example of the federal government’s lack of accountability and credibility, according to former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
During an interview on Fox News with host Sean Hannity, McEnany discussed the recently released audio obtained by CNN which contains a conversation involving President Trump discussing a Department of Defense plan concerning Iran.
Hannity questioned who may be responsible for releasing the information, suggesting it could have been someone close to the special counsel assigned to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“That’s been violated by somebody. I don’t know why I assume that a leak to a liberal outlet likely didn’t come from some conservative but maybe somebody close to that special counsel? Just a guess. I don’t know. What do you think, Kayleigh?” he asked.
McEnany responded by noting that this was yet another example of how little control or oversight there is within our government when it comes to sensitive information being exposed and used for political purposes.
She further commented on how this latest breach demonstrates that we need greater transparency and trustworthiness within our government if we are ever going to move forward as one nation again.
It is clear that this recent incident serves as an indication of not only how vulnerable our national security can be at times, but also highlights just how important it is for us all to demand more accountability from our elected officials when it comes to their handling of confidential material and communication with foreign entities or other powerful interests abroad.
The implications here are far-reaching; if these types of missteps continue without consequence or resolution, then it will only undermine public confidence in our leaders and institutions even more than they already have been lately.
“Yeah, you know, Sean, it’s absurd, but that is a key point. I sit here and I see these things, these details of the case in a court of law by a special counsel come in, and they’re aired on CNN. We get a transcript of the tape. We get an audio recording of the tape. How does that happen? How was that not violative of the process? And at the time when — I saw today an NBC poll, in the 30 percentile is the approval rating of the DoJ and FBI, we need confidence in our government, in our institutions, and this doesn’t instill much when this is getting leaked to the likes of CNN,” McEnany said.
“I’m sorry, whataboutism is called equal justice and equal application of our laws. And considering they didn’t raid any of the four locations Joe Biden had top-secret classified documents and they certainly let Hillary off the hook and our enemies had access to a lot of that information and she deleted another 33,000 subpoenaed emails and she got away with that, too, and she got away with the dirty dossier that ended up being used for FISA application, none of which were true, I’m standing by my original monologue that said we have a corrupt government and we have a weaponized DoJ and a weaponized FBI and the American people, I think, are seeing it more and more. It’s becoming more transparent every day,” Hannity continued.
The Department of Justice’s indictment of Trump makes mention of the audio tape and alleges that the person Trump is speaking with does not have the required security clearance for the papers.
Trump handily won the state in 2020, and that could work to his advantage when it comes to his federal trial for allegedly mishandling classified documents.
As Newsmax reported on Friday, the jury pool will come primarily from counties that Trump easily won in 2016 and 2020, and that could work to his advantage when the case comes to trial.
In addition, the federal judge hearing the case is Aileen Cannon, whom Trump appointed. And on Friday, she signaled that the trial would take place in Fort Pierce, the federal courthouse where she usually sits, at the northern end of the Southern District of Florida.
“I’m not convinced this case is going to go in Fort Pierce,” Dave Aronberg, an outgoing Florida state attorney in Palm Beach County, told the Times. He went on to predict that the case could be moved to West Palm Beach, where Trump lives and where the classified documents were found.
But for now, if the case remains in Fort Pierce, that will bode well for Trump when it comes time to select a jury.
Newsmax reported:
“Trump won Okeechobee County, a rural county where just more than 16,000 people voted in the 2020 election, with 71.5% of the vote, according to the county’s election tally. He took Highlands County with 66.8% in 2020. That county is a rural area where more than 52,000 people voted.”
“In Martin County, where more than 98,000 people voted, Trump won with 61.8%. In Indian River County, where more than 97,000 voted, the then-president won with 60.2% of the vote. The swing county of St. Lucie County was one in which Trump won narrowly in both 2016 and 2020. He got 50.4% of the vote in 2020 to defeat President Joe Biden,” the outlet added.
