Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart may have got more than he bargained for on Friday’s PBS NewsHour as he took great offense to colleague and contributor Gary Abernathy’s assessment that the Department of Justice cannot continue to indict former President Donald Trump while giving “a sweetheart deal” to Hunter Biden and expect to be taken seriously. Later, Abernathy would also correct the record after Capehart tried to argue Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server was no big deal.
Host Geoff Bennett set the scene by recalling, “So, special counsel Jack Smith leveled new charges against Donald Trump this past week, including an allegation that Trump and others sought to delete security video of rooms in which boxes of classified documents were kept.”
When asked for his thoughts Abernathy began by arguing that of all of Trump’s legal problems “the cover-up is going to be the worst.” He also claimed this is a chance to “separate Trump from his supporters,” however “To do that, Jonathan and Geoff, the DOJ also needs to realize, look, we have got two parallel things going on here, and we can't seem to have a double standard.”
Turning to Hunter Biden, Abernathy declared:
Here, you had a week where the president's son was in court trying to, you know, do a sweetheart deal, plead to two misdemeanors and, he thought, be exempted or be immunized from any other crimes that he may have committed, whereas, on the other hand the president's probably main opponent for November is — it's all, you know, full barrels, let's keep indicting more and more people around him to get someone to flip and see if, you know, if they’ll say, Trump told me to do this.
Bennett then turned to Capehart to ask his thoughts, but before he could finish Capehart was already fired up, “There's no parallel. I'm not even going to let you finish the question, Geoff.”
Capehart elaborated, “There is no parallel between the legal troubles involving the president's son and the mountain of legal problems facing the former president of the United States.”
Even if there is no comparison between Hunter’s tax problems and Trump’s document problems, somebody else who had document problems was Hillary Clinton and a few minutes later, Bennett asked Abernathy, “what are we to make of Donald Trump's hardwired fixation with Hillary Clinton's e-mail server during the campaign, an e-mail-investigation that ended without charges, the ‘lock her up’ chants?... And now fast-forward to the current moment. Donald Trump is accused of trying to wipe a server that had video footage of the mishandling of document — of classified documents.”
Abernathy responded by asking a rhetorical question, “So are you saying that perhaps we will get the same result with the Trump case as we got with the Hillary case, which was no charges?”
Amid the laughter that followed, there was a serious point, “And that's the problem that a lot of the country has with what they see. That's why they bring up Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, very similar situation, as you point out, no charges.”
Again, Capehart was not happy with the comparison, “Donald Trump is being treated differently because he had classified documents that were about nuclear secrets, preparedness of America's allies… The e-mails that they found on Secretary Clinton's server, a lot of them had to do with cooking recipes and appointments. None had to do with nuclear secrets and secrets about our allies. And you just can't — there's no parallel. There is no symmetry. There is no similarity at all.”
Abernathy then jumped back into the conversation to point out, “Well, actually, Director Comey pointed out that a lot of her things that they found on her server were classified and probably were accessed by foreign agents. I mean, this is something they said probably happened. So we don't know if they were nuclear secrets. Of course, we don't know about all the ones that were deleted before anyone ever got to see them.”
Capehart shot back, “If they were nuclear secrets, Gary, we would have known. Trump's DOJ? Come on.”
Apparently Capehart thinks nuclear secrets are the only kind of secrets there are.
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Here is a transcript for the July 28 show:
PBS NewsHour
7/28/2023
7:36 PM ET
GEOFF BENNETT: So, special counsel Jack Smith leveled new charges against Donald Trump this past week, including an allegation that Trump and others sought to delete security video of rooms in which boxes of classified documents were kept.
Gary, how do these additional charges change or expand our understanding of this case?
GARY ABERNATHY: Well, you know, what's interesting is, when I talked to a lot of Trump supporters today, or several of them about this, they were very disappointed to hear this. I mean, of all the things in this documents case, the cover-up is going to be the worst. I mean, this is — I have questioned whether a lot of these things are going to be or should be pursued, but if they get one of his people to turn on him and say, yeah, he told me to cover up this or see if we could delete this footage, that's going to be very bad for him.
Now, his opponents, looking at this politically, need to actually quit resorting to defending him if they want to make any headway against him and start saying, look, this is a cover-up. As your earlier guest said today on the show, this is evidence of doing something wrong.
Now, having said that, it's an opportunity to separate Trump from his supporters. But, to do that, Jonathan and Geoff, the DOJ also needs to realize, look, we have got two parallel things going on here, and we can't seem to have a double standard.
Here, you had a week where the president's son was in court trying to, you know, do a sweetheart deal, plead to two misdemeanors and, he thought, be exempted or be immunized from any other crimes that he may have committed, whereas, on the other hand the president's probably main opponent for November is — it's all, you know, full barrels, let's keep indicting more and more people around him to get someone to flip and see if, you know, if they’ll say, Trump told me to do this.
You’ve got to not have an excuse for Trump supporters to say, hey, we have got a double standard going on here.
BENNETT: Jonathan, how do you see it? And what do you make of that parallel between—
JONATHAN CAPEHART: There's no parallel.
GEOFF BENNETT: Okay.
CAPEHART: I'm not even going to let you finish the question, Geoff.
BENNETT: Okay
CAPEHART: There is no parallel between the legal troubles involving the president's son and the mountain of legal problems facing the former president of the United States.
The cover-up that is alleged in the superseding indictment is damning, but so is the original indictment. We're talking about a former president of the United States who kept classified documents, despite the fact he no longer had legal access to them once he was no longer president of the United States.
And in the initial indictment, we saw how the boxes were being moved around. What the superseding indictment shows is that "the boss " wanted the tapes destroyed, was moving boxes themselves-- himself, was even going through the boxes and picking things out and shoving other boxes elsewhere, and then lying to his lawyers.
You know, if Trump supporters are disappointed by the cover-up, that's on them. What the American people are learning is that the former president of the United States looks even worse now after this superseding indictment than he did with the original indictment, as we're waiting for a possible indictment in the other Jack Smith investigation.
...
BENNETT: But, Gary, what are we to make of Donald Trump's hardwired fixation with Hillary Clinton's e-mail server during the campaign, an e-mail-investigation that ended without charges, the "lock her up" chants?
It was a call-and-response to — at all of those rallies. I was there covering it.
And now fast-forward to the current moment. Donald Trump is accused of trying to wipe a server that had video footage of the mishandling of document — of classified documents.
ABERNATHY: So are you saying that perhaps we will get the same result with the Trump case as we got with the Hillary case, which was no charges?
And that's the problem that a lot of the country has with what they see. That's why they bring up Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, very similar situation, as you point out, no charges. “No reasonable prosecutor would bring charges” was the famous quote from FBI Director James Comey. A lot of people just have never bought that. And so they're going to question, Okay, why is Trump being treated differently?
CAPEHART: Donald Trump is being treated differently because he had classified documents that were about nuclear secrets, preparedness of America's allies.
And to your original question, Geoff, if we have learned anything from the four years of Donald Trump's presidency and his campaign leading up to it and the campaign to try to get reelected, he's the master of projection. Anything that he accuses someone else of doing, whether it's Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, you name them, he has either done it himself for real or would really like to do it.
And what we're discovering now is that he has done all of the things he has accused Hillary Clinton of doing, actually done. The e-mails that they found on Secretary Clinton's server, a lot of them had to do with cooking recipes and appointments. None had to do with nuclear secrets and secrets about our allies.
And you just can't — there's no parallel. There is no symmetry. There is no similarity at all.
ABERNATHY: Well, actually, Director Comey pointed out that a lot of her things that they found on her server were classified and probably were accessed by foreign agents.
I mean, this is something they said probably happened. So we don't know if they were nuclear secrets. Of course, we don't know about all the ones that were deleted before anyone ever got to see them.
CAPEHART: If they were nuclear secrets, Gary, we would have known. Trump's DOJ? Come on.
