Former President Donald Trump interrupted CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins to call her a “nasty person” to her face during a CNN Republican Presidential town hall Wednesday.
Collins, a former Daily Caller reporter, pressed Trump on the 11 boxes of over 300 classified documents stored at his private home in Mar-a-Lago and seized by the FBI in an Aug. 8 raid. The former president claimed the Presidential Records Act authorized him to take the documents from the White House into his personal possession, and argued that former President Barack Obama and other former commander-in-chief’s took the same actions.
The former president interrupted Collins, as she disputed his claims about the Presidential Records Act and his criticisms against President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, who also had classified documents in their private homes.
“I think it’s important, Mr. President, to actually set the record straight here,” Collins said. “They took documents, including Vice President Pence, when they realized they had documents, they turned them back over. The difference is that you waited to turn yours over and it was a year and a half effort that included a subpoena with those documents.”
“It included a raid on my house,” Trump interrupted. “That’s what it included. They didn’t raid Biden’s house — they didn’t raid Biden’s house. You know what happened? They put him in the house, that’s the one with the Corvette where the documents were laying all over the floor. That was fine. And you know who happens to be at Mar-a-Lago? Secret Service and they’re phenomenal. I have Secret Service, he didn’t have Secret Service … I went by the Presidential Records Act.”
“That’s not what the Presidential Records Act says — that’s not what it says, Mr. President,” Collins accurately said.
“And NARA has red flagged a thing called the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights because they consider them dangerous documents,” Trump continued.
Trump said he has the right to do what he wants with the documents under the rules of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and accused the officials at the Archives of being left-wing resulting in a raid on his home and not Biden’s. Collins pointed out that Biden did not ignore a subpoena to send the documents to NARA. (RELATED: New Documents Shed Light On Biden’s Involvement In Mar-A-Lago Raid)
“Are you ready? Can I talk? You mind? Do you mind?” Trump asked as Collins attempted to correct him.
“I would like for you to answer the question, that’s why I asked it,” Collins said.
“It’s very simple — you’re a nasty person,” the former president said. “I’ll tell you. Very simple. I was negotiating and we were talking to NARA, that’s Washington, to bring whatever they want.”
The Presidential Records Act states that presidents and NARA must manage the records of their administrations, according to the National Archives. It made all presidential documents, minus those that are classified, public.
NARA requested that Trump hand over the 15 boxes of documents stored at Mar-a-Lago. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said during an Aug. 11 address that he “personally approved” of the FBI obtaining a search warrant.
Trump claimed he declassified all of the documents that were seized and in safe storage in an Aug. 12 statement.
