Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, turned himself into mush on State of the Union trying to defend former President Donald Trump after a search warrant was executed on his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago -- while at the same time, Turner was attempting to act as if he backs law enforcement. CNN host Brianna Keilar wasn't having it.
"Do you take home documents marked special access?" Keilar asked.
Turner said, "No."
"And yet you're casting doubt," she said.
"I'd be surprised if he (Trump) has actual documents that rise to an immediate national security threat," Turner insisted.
"Well, the documents, just to be clear, several sets, and you're aware of that because you've seen the property receipt," Keilar said. "You're casting doubt, you don't have information on which to base that conclusion at this point, but you yourself would not take home documents marked special access. You would not take home this sensitive compartmented information?"
When the CNN host said, "I want to be clear; these are classified documents," Turner somehow shot back that the feds were "invasive" and that "has to be of concern to you also."
"There are a number of steps they took before," Keilar said. "We have a graphic to show people the timeline of the other steps they took leading up to it. I just want to be clear. They didn't jump from nothing to going to this search and seizure."
"Just to be clear, are you saying where they were kept was secure?" she continued.
"No," Turner said. "I have no idea. These are questions Attorney General Garland is going to have to answer. The question is not did they jump -- were they doing other things? The question is, what did they do in between? They had other options. Certainly, you have to understand that going into his house, especially the former President, President Biden's political rival, into his house for nine hours is the most intrusive and invasive...and Attorney Garland has to justify that. Congress has the power of oversight."
That's a bizarre way of saying that he doesn't have the balls to stand up to a corrupt ex-President that is under investigation for espionage. And saying he would be surprised if Trump had documents that could be a national threat isn't exactly comforting. Why did Trump even want these documents in his possession? I guess this is the hill Turner is willing to die on. So be it.
