The Biden administration is currently facing extreme backlash from the Republican party. The reason for the backlash: classified documents.
This week, more classified documents were found in Biden’s Delaware home, containing a total of six classified documents, which were immediately surrendered to the National Archives.
This all began in the previous fall when classified documents were discovered in Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank located in Washington D.C..
Although Biden claims that he was not aware of these documents and did not know how they got into his possession, critics point out that the first batch of documents was found on November 2nd, a few days before the midterm elections and during his open outrage against former president Donald Trump and his neglectful mismanagement of classified documents.
During an interview with CBS News, Biden was asked how he felt about the classified documents obtained in Trump’s residence of Mar-A-Lago, “How could that possibly happen? How could anyone be that irresponsible,” stated Biden.
“It’s hard to see it as anything but hypocrisy, obviously. It is bizarre, frankly, to have President Biden criticizing former President Trump for his mishandling of classified information without anyone on the president’s team saying, ‘Hey, let’s make sure that we don’t have a similar problem ourselves,’” said Sarah Isgur, a staff writer for The Dispatch.
Although White House lawyer Richard Sauber stated that the biden administration has worked hand in hand with all investigative bodies, many Republicans are skeptical of this being an accidental coincidence.
“For months, NARA failed to disclose to committee Republicans or the American public that President Biden — after serving as Vice President — stored highly classified documents in a closet at his personal office.”
“NARA learned about these documents days before the 2022 midterm elections and did not alert the public that President Biden was potentially violating the law,” said James Comer, a Republican house representative from Kentucky.
A recently elected leader of the House Republicans, Kevin McCarthy, also weighed in on the matter, stating that even though he does not intend to pursue criminal action against Biden, this incident demonstrates the hypocrisy of the double standard.
“These documents have been around even longer. President Trump had never been in office before and had just left. Here’s an individual (who) spent his last 40 years in office. It just shows that they were trying to be political with President Trump,” stated McCarthy.
Even with the aggressive condemnation from the Republican side, the biden administration continues to strongly stand with its statement that what has taken place was unfortunate, but in no way close to the incident at Mar-A-Lago.
“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement.
Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the National Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.” Sauber concluded.
It is not clear how involved Biden was or how severe the penalties for possession of classified documents will be after the concluded investigation, but this will complicate the case in pushing for criminal charges against Donald Trump in Mar-A-Lago.
Biden and his officials have made it clear that even though this investigation will create partisan accusations, it will not stop them from serving the American people and pursuing the policies that they have promised.
(Sources)
https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-district-of-columbia-0574fd762159e8cb5f31c85205df3dc0
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/lawyers-found-more-classified-documents-at-bidens-home-than-previously-stated
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/14/white-house-says-more-classified-documents-found-at-bidens-home.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/biden-is-fully-cooperating-with-classified-document-investigation-white-house-says.html
https://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-gives-few-details-about-additional-classified-documents-found-at-biden-s-home-/6923014.html
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/09/1147977922/classified-documents-biden-doj-archives
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/joe-biden-classified-documents-upenn/index.html
