自联邦调查局搜查前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的Mar-a-Lago庄园近一个月以来，得克萨斯州共和党众议员迈克尔·麦克考尔(Michael McCaul)引用了特朗普作为前总统获得的特权，作为将15箱机密文件带出白宫的理由。
“你知道，我职业生涯的大部分时间都生活在机密世界里，我个人不会那样做。但我不是美国总统。但他有一套适用于他的不同规则，”麦考尔告诉美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)“本周”的联合主播玛莎·拉达茨(Martha Raddatz)，后者问他是否看到特朗普拿走高度机密材料的任何理由。
“我知道这些文件在他担任总统期间被带出白宫，他是否解密这些文件还有待观察。他说他做到了。我不知道所有的事实，”麦克考尔说，他一直在推动与一些共和党议员一起发布更多关于搜索的信息。
玛莎反驳说，特朗普的司法部长比尔·巴尔(Bill Barr)认为特朗普站在文件旁边解密的想法是鲁莽的。
Raddatz还提到了乔拜登周四在费城的“国家之魂”演讲，他在演讲中对MAGA共和党人提出了强烈批评。总统讲话后，麦克考尔立即在推特上写道，“攻击半个美国只会进一步分裂我们的国家。”
Raddatz在社交媒体声明中质疑McCaul，“当你看到那些显示60%至70%的共和党人认为乔·拜登不是合法总统的民调时，当这个国家甚至不能决定民主意味着什么时，拜登应该做什么?”
麦克考尔说，虽然“民主是混乱的”，但它“比所有其他形式的政府都好”，他还认为，如果拜登的演讲旨在团结美国人民，它“只会产生相反的效果”。
“而且，你知道，说共和党是民主的威胁实际上是一记耳光...你知道我对认证的投票和我的立场。我向宪法宣誓，但话虽如此，你不是出来统一国家的，”麦克考尔说，并补充说，这“不是一个总统讲话。”
Raddatz要求麦卡勒-前联邦检察官-对特朗普周六在一次演讲中的言论做出反应，特朗普在演讲中称联邦调查局和司法部为“邪恶的怪物”。
“我认为这种看法是我认识的许多共和党人在俄罗斯调查斯蒂尔档案后看到的，”麦克考尔说。“当涉及到司法部和联邦调查局时，有一种不信任但核实的态度，坦率地说，这让我感到难过，因为作为DOJ的校友，我讨厌看到人们对我们机构的信心被削弱。”
当被Raddatz问及唐纳德·特朗普应该为该国的分裂负多大责任时，麦考尔指责两个政党最近都发表了激烈的言论。他提到了亚伯拉罕·林肯，当时他没有谴责反对党，而是本着团结的精神让他们参与对话。
麦考尔说，这是拜登应该着手完成的任务，但他在周四的演讲中没有做到。“这是中期选举前的竞选演讲，我基本上是这么看的，”他告诉Raddatz。
'I personally wouldn't do that': McCaul on Trump taking classified documents
Nearly one month since the FBI's search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, cited the privileges given to Trump as a former president as justification for taking 15 boxes of classified documents out of the White House.
"You know, I have lived in the classified world most of my professional career, I personally wouldn't do that. But I'm not the president of the United States. But he has a different set of rules that apply to him," McCaul told ABC News' "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz, who asked if he saw any reason that Trump took the highly classified materials.
"I know they were taken out of the White House while he was president and whether or not he declassified those documents remains to be seen. He says he did. I don't have all the facts there," said McCaul, who has been pushing for more information about the search to be released alongside some fellow GOP lawmakers.
Martha pushed back, saying that Trump's attorney general Bill Barr found the idea of Trump standing over documents and declassifying them to be reckless.
Raddatz also brought up Joe Biden's "soul of the nation" speech in Philadelphia on Thursday, in which he was highly critical of MAGA Republicans. Immediately after the president's remarks, McCaul took to Twitter, writing that "attacking half of America will only further divide our country."
Raddatz questioned McCaul on his social media statement, asking, "When you look at those polls showing 60 to 70% of Republicans believe Joe Biden is not the legitimate president, what is Biden supposed to do when the country cannot even decide what democracy means?"
McCaul said that while "democracy is messy," it is "better than all the other forms of government," and also argued that if Biden's intention with the speech was to unify the American people, it "had just the opposite effect."
"And, you know, saying that Republicans are a threat to democracy is really a slap in the face ... you know my vote on certification and my position on that. I took an oath to the Constitution but having said that, you don't come out to unify the nation," McCaul said, adding that it "was not a presidential address."
Raddatz asked for McCaul's -- who was a former federal prosecutor -- reaction to Trump's remarks in a speech Saturday where Trump referred to the FBI and the Department of Justice as "vicious monsters."
"I think the perception is what a lot of Republicans I know see on the heels of the Russian investigation, the Steele dossier," McCaul said. "There's a certain distrust but verify attitude -- when it comes to the Department of Justice and the FBI, and it, frankly, saddens me because as a alumni of DOJ, I hate to see people's faith in our institutions be weakened."
Asked by Raddatz about how much Donald Trump should be blamed for the division in the country, McCaul blamed both political parties for the recent heightened rhetoric. He made a reference to Abraham Lincoln who, rather than condemning the opposing party during that time, brought them into the conversation in the spirit of unity, he said.
That is the mission that Biden should embark on but failed to do in his speech Thursday, according to McCaul. "It was a campaign speech before the midterm elections, and that's basically how I see it," he told Raddatz.
