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Rounds, Thune, Johnson Agree: Trump Handled Classified Documents Improperly

On Tuesday, Politico put Russia’s Public Enemy #25 Senator Mike Rounds on the record as one of the “few and far between” Republicans cutting through the malarkey and saying that Donald Trump’s stashing classified documents at his Florida resort is naughty:

“You shouldn’t be taking those classified things that are supposed to be … in a classified location,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has previously drawn Trump’s ire for criticizing the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election. “There are specific areas where classified materials are looked at. And it’s pretty clear-cut” [Andrew Desiderio and Nicholas Wu, “GOP Offers Strained Trump Defenses in Mar-a-Lago-Probe—For Now,” Politico, 2022.09.06].

The Argus Leader gets Rounds’s South Dakota unsanctioned seatmates to back him up:

Sen. John Thune echoed what Rounds had told Politico.

“The rules for handling classified information are pretty clear,” said Thune.

Rep. Dusty Johnson stood by his Senate counterpart.

“Procedurally, Mike is exactly right,” he said in an emailed statement to the Argus Leader. “Classified documents belong in a classified setting” [Annie Todd, “Sen. Thune, Rep. Johnson Stand with Sen. Rounds on Criticism of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Documents,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader, 2022.09.08].

They aren’t shouting Lock him up! yet, but South Dakota’s Senators and Representative are at least speaking accurately about the impropriety of having classified documents sitting around in a private citizen’s home.

19 Comments

  1. Eve Fisher

    Amazing how it takes a bulldozer and a hydraulic lift to get a simple statement of truth out of GOP politicians these days.

  2. Donald Pay

    Well, praise Jesus. Now, watch them cave and take it all back in 5, 4, 3, 2….

  3. cibvet

    When trump finds this out , they will drop to their knees and scream “taken out of context”.

  4. All Mammal

    After watching PBS FRONTLINE’s latest news documentary episode called Lies, Politics and Democracy https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D2eTiE3k7ds any semblance of even cartilage found in the smack of jellyfish responsible for dropping a gross trump on America is a little too pathetic and about 7 years too late. I doubt Donny himself even knows how to cast his own vote. Gee oh pee brains are a smack that took a trump on America.
    Our governor is a hootenanny and our senator Rounds is wanted by a Putinanny. May the lord open. Good riddance to the queen. May she get some rest and her grandsons give back the priceless spoils of art jacked from the wealth of foreign empires and their history.

  5. Arlo Blundt

    Trump lawyer, Pat Cippoloni (?spelling), has testified that when he expressed his concern that the top secret documents belonged in the National Archives, Trump responded “they are not theirs, they are mine.” That simple. Typical Trump treason.

  6. O

    It is fairly benign to acknowledge that this was wrong. Now ask Trump he should be held accountable as the law dictates for that wrongdoing and let’s see what answers we get. When accountability becomes the discussion, then we will see more of what Donald predicts.

  7. P. Aitch

    FYI – Politico’s new right wing German owner Mathias Döpfner is quickly turning the once trustworthy news site into a MAGA FLAGGA. I cancelled my newsletters from Politico and made a point of telling them why.

  8. mike from iowa

    And spineless wimp magats will pass on drumpf charges since he sincerely believed those docs were his.

  9. Admitting we have a problem is the first step toward recovery—true for alcoholics and Trumpoholics alike.

  10. Republicans are evil. It’s just that simple.

  11. leslie

    Good point Larry, is it illness, ignorance or just bad character?

  12. V

    Yes, they used their balls this time.

  13. V

    All Mammal, I was glued to my seat watching said program. I was also shocked to see Cory Lewandowski.

  14. Loren

    This all sounds good, but remember after the insurrection, everyone thought that Donnie was on the skids? Republicans, even Thune, were very critical of the orange clown from FL. McCarthy went down, kissed the ring, the winds shifted, and ta-da, back on the Trump train. I think this is called “opportunism,” and our boys are full of it… opportunism, I mean. ;-)

  15. Donald Pay

    O, as usual, gets to the real issue: accountability. Is this just another in a long line of “concerns” that Thune, Rounds and Johnson acknowledge, but do nothing about? Actually, I think they are perfectly happy, like abused wives, to mouth “concerns” and do nothing to stop the abuse.

  16. mike from iowa

    Real surprised none of them uttered, “but, HRC had emails!”

  17. WillyNilly

    Frontline has a way of taking a news story apart and putting it back together so that anyone can understand it. They give a story the full treatment and not just couple of lines that are easy to ignore. I enjoy a lot of PBS but Frontline leads my list.

  18. Francis Schaffer

    I am weary.of whataboutism. What about HRC? Trump was in charge for 4 years and did nothing about HRC. So I want all the whataboutists in regards to HRC to sit down and STFU. Your guy did nothing about HRC or Hunter Biden. They should ask him and Billy boy why not.

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