ABC’s Stephanopoulos Corners GOP Senator, Forces Him to Admit ‘I Don’t Think a President Can Declassify Documents … By Thinking About It’

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos cornered Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) into admitting he disagrees with Donald Trump’s claim he could declassify sensitive documents merely by thought.

Speaking to Barrasso on Sunday for ABC’s This Week, Stephanopoulos asked the senator about the former president’s attempt to defend himself for keeping top secret documents at Mar-a-Lago. After repeatedly pushing his dubious claim that the Mar-a-Lago documents were declassified, Trump took his claims to a new level last week when he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday that presidents can declassify by just “thinking about it.”

Trump’s claim has been dismissed by his fellow Republicans, and Stephanopoulos noted that the former president’s lawyers are struggling to make that claim in court.

“Even his lawyers have provided no evidence that he declassified the documents,” Stephanopoulos said. Asked if he agrees with Trump’s claims about declassifying by thought, Barrasso answered “I’ve not heard that one before” before digressing in protest of the FBI’s search for the documents at Mar-a-Lago.

“I don’t know anything about the rules for when a president declassifies documents and information,” he said. “What I do know is what I’d like to see, from a Senate standpoint, is I’d like to see the Department of Justice come to us and show us in a classified setting what the information is, what they’ve done. I thought the raid at the former president’s home — I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Stephanopoulos interjected to make it clear he was asking Barrasso a “rhetorical question.”

“You know that a president can’t declassify documents by thinking about it,” said the ABC anchor. “Why can’t you say so?

Barrasso’s answer: “I don’t think a president can declassify documents by saying so — by thinking about it.”

Watch above, via ABC.