U.S. officials in the national security community expressed shock and concern at the former president’s cavalier treatment of classified material. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic, said they were astonished at the “recklessness” of the move.

It’s an “affront” to “those people who’ve spent their lives protecting and enforcing a rules-based order only to have someone come along and use his special access to unlawfully collect and retain highly classified documents,” the person said.

It can take up to a decade to declassify certain information, said one former defense official who still holds a security clearance, so the fact that Trump took hundreds of pages of classified material is “one of the worst things I’ve ever heard.”

“There’s no gray area here. I’m just appalled,” the person said.

Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican currently running for re-election in a competitive race in the Santa Clarita area, drew outrage after comparing the Biden administration and the Democratic Congressional majority to the Nazi regime.

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