If one or both of you think any president has the power to declassify anything they chose at anytime they chose, then you are seriously deluded. In this specific case, President Trump probably has the authority to declassify.
But do you also believe that a president can declassify any military secrets they care to declassify, or any information involving the activities of our intelligence agencies? Do you think FDR could have declassified the D-Day invasion plans before the invasion took place?
There are many classified matters now and in the past that, should a president have declassified them, he’d likely have been impeached and removed from office. A president does not have absolute power to declassify classified information.
The main point I made, to which you both overreacted, was that the Dims are trying to claim that these FISA documents and other documents are matters of grave national security concerns and should not be declassified. That’s probably 99.9% self-serving, ass covering BS and should be ignored. They are, predictably, cynically misusing what is often a legitimate concern related to declassification.
But there will still be some details of the documents that will not be declassified, just as some bureaucrats convinced Trump that all the JFK assassination documents still should not be declassified after more than fifty years.
President’s don’t have any absolute power to declassify anything they chose, and that’s as it should be. If you want to think otherwise, then so be it.
Since you seem to be so fired up with indignation over the powers of the Executive Branch of government, let me remind you that the president is the Chief Executive and therefore the deciding factor in the operations of the Executive Branch.
He is also the Command in Chief of the armed forces which gives to him the direction powers of that force. All of this means he is Chief Honcho of anything that has to do with the Executive Branch of our government. The FBI and the Justice Department fall under the jurisdiction of the Executive branch. They are therefore under the command of the president. If he wishes to question any act or custom of the various agencies under his command, he has the power to do so. It is the president’s decision, NOT the congress’s attempts to encroach upon or invalidate his powers which must prevail under the Constitution.
You have called into question the president’s power to declassify any military secrets by asking if FDR could have declassified the D Day invasion plans before June 6, 1944, the day of invasion. You seem to think this is a power play which he could not make. I will cite a situation prior to D Day of which you evidently have no knowledge. FDR CONCEALED from the State Department all knowledge of our entry into the European war on November 8, 1942 in what is known as OPERATION TORCH. FDR claimed the State Department was “like a sieve.” In other words, the state department could not be trusted with anything without leaking it to the whole world. Operation Torch was under the command of General George Patton who landed near Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of North Africa. The British forces and British=American forces landed on the Mediterranean side near Algiers. The invasion was a complete surprise to the French and German forces thanks to FDR’s unconventional action.
I happen to think you are just a bit too much on the side of the obstructionists who are attempting to delegitimize our duly elected president, Donald J. Trump. Leadership is too often neglected in order to take the smooth or uncomplicated path.
History proves that true leadership is exhibited by those who know and take the risks for the betterment of their country. Donald Trump exhibits the qualities of George Patton, our winningest General, not those of the poppycock Bernard Montgomery, and Thank God for that!
Since you seem to be so fired up with indignation over the powers of the Executive Branch of government, let me remind you that the president is the Chief Executive and therefore the deciding factor in the operations of the Executive Branch.
He is also the Command in Chief of the armed forces which gives to him the direction powers of that force. All of this means he is Chief Honcho of anything that has to do with the Executive Branch of our government. The FBI and the Justice Department fall under the jurisdiction of the Executive branch. They are therefore under the command of the president. If he wishes to question any act or custom of the various agencies under his command, he has the power to do so. It is the president’s decision, NOT the congress’s attempts to encroach upon or invalidate his powers which must prevail under the Constitution.
You have called into question the president’s power to declassify any military secrets by asking if FDR could have declassified the D Day invasion plans before June 6, 1944, the day of invasion. You seem to think this is a power play which he could not make. I will cite a situation prior to D Day of which you evidently have no knowledge. FDR CONCEALED from the State Department all knowledge of our entry into the European war on November 8, 1942 in what is known as OPERATION TORCH. FDR claimed the State Department was “like a sieve.” In other words, the state department could not be trusted with anything without leaking it to the whole world. Operation Torch was under the command of General George Patton who landed near Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of North Africa. The British forces and British=American forces landed on the Mediterranean side near Algiers. The invasion was a complete surprise to the French and German forces thanks to FDR’s unconventional action.
I happen to think you are just a bit too much on the side of the obstructionists who are attempting to delegitimize our duly elected president, Donald J. Trump. Leadership is too often neglected in order to take the smooth or uncomplicated path.
History proves that true leadership is exhibited by those who know and take the risks for the betterment of their country. Donald Trump exhibits the qualities of George Patton, our winningest General, not those of the poppycock Bernard Montgomery, and Thank God for that!
The president is the ultimate authority, but he relies on qualified experts in the affected field.
Policy is that technology is born secret, but it is not an ironclad rule.
Truman and Eisenhower sidestepped that often. Clinton side stepped it routinely for China.