“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin defended former Vice President Mike Pence after the former vice president revealed Tuesday that he had classified documents at his home.
Pence’s team found classified documents in his Indiana home in January and promptly contacted the National Archives and Records Administration to request assistance to transfer and collect what they described in a letter as a “small number of classified documents bearing classification markings.”
Pence’s team said they were previously “unaware of the existence of sensitive or classified documents at his personal residence.”
“The View” co-hosts leapt to Pence’s defense on Wednesday.
“So here’s the thing, you know. It seems everybody’s got them,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “Everybody’s got something classified in a garage, but these are form presidents and vice presidents, and you figure if they’re packing and trying to get out, you know, who knows what’s in the thing? But, you know, Pence’s lawyers say he was unaware that he had these documents.”
Goldberg also argued that the discoveries of classified documents at Pence’s home and at President Joe Biden’s home and Washington, D.C., think tank were not comparable to the investigation surrounding classified documents taken from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence..
“Now there are calls for another special counsel, but, like, come on now,” Goldberg said. “Does every ex-president and VP need to check around under their houses right now?”
“I feel like Pence does get a little bit of a pass because it was the insurrection and it was ‘Hang Mike Pence,'” Hostin said, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “He was in the Capitol and he was sneaking around and sneaking out and they had to get out of there quickly. That — I completely understand that, and I’m not a Pence fan.” (RELATED: CBS Reporter Trips Up Karine Jean-Pierre Over Document Scandal)
“Are you saying he took the documents that day?” co-host Joy Behar asked.
Pence’s term as vice president did not end until two weeks after the Capitol riot, and the vice president’s offices are located in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, not in the Capitol.
Hostin responded to Behar by suggesting that maybe one of Pence’s staffers placed classified documents in a box that was later taken to Pence’s home.
“I do feel like now every president and vice president is a suspect,” Hostin added. “I would hate for [former] President [Barack] Obama to have some classified documents, because they have been looking to tarnish this man’s legacy forever.”