“Fox & Friends” host Steve Doocy had Twitter users wondering if the network is moving away from unabashed support of former President Donald Trump after he unexpectedly asked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) a somewhat hard-hitting question about classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago.
During the interview, Doocy remarked that the FBI’s search of Trump’s Florida residence and its discovery of boxes of government documents that Trump had neglected to turn over ultimately “comes down to why did he have all that secret stuff at Mar-a-Lago?”
He added: “I know [Trump’s] team has said they declassified it, but that’s news to the agencies that those documents belong to.”
As Noem, a Trump ally, began to respond with Republican talking points about “precedent that other presidents have followed,” Doocy cut in:
“Governor, I don’t think any president has ever carted off that many documents to their house after they left the presidency.”
As you can see from the clip below, Doocy’s co-host, Brian Kilmeade, seemed to seethe at his co-worker’s remarks.
At another point, Doocy expressed shock that “the biggest secrets in the world” were just in a desk drawer.
“We have heard that Donald Trump’s lawyers went through all the stuff, but how could you go and look at that and not think, ‘You know what? That’s probably something I should turn back over,’” Doocy said.
Many Twitter users were surprised that Doocy was asking legitimate questions about the Mar-a-Lago documents.
Actor/comedian Hal Sparks chose to focus on one part of the clip: Kilmeade’s silent seething while Doocy asks why Trump had the documents at Mar-a-Lago in the first place.
Others remarked that Noem appeared to be caught off-guard by Doocy’s question.
The FBI is investigating whether Trump violated federal laws related to official and classified records, according to a redacted FBI affidavit released last week.
Justice Department prosecutors filed a 36-page brief late Tuesday detailing the sensitive documents found at Mar-a-Lago and efforts by the former president and his team to obstruct the criminal investigation.