OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who served in the Trump administration, is warning that President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents is a “great threat” to the nation that “gets worse every day” for him.
During an interview on “Fox & Friends,” Ratcliffe spoke about classified documents being discovered in Biden’s Delaware home as well as his think tank. The U.S. Secret Service also revealed on Sunday that while a protection unit is assigned to Biden’s Delaware home, they do not have visitor logs.
“It gets worse every day for President Biden. The way it’s going, I would half expect [White House press secretary] Karine Jean-Pierre to change her mantra at the next White House press conference from Joe Biden takes classified documents seriously to Joe Biden takes classified documents. We’ve gone from one set of documents in one location to four different sets of documents in four different locations, and we frankly don’t know where that’s going to end, where we’re going to be at this point next week, and so that makes it really difficult for Joe Biden,” Ratcliffe said.
“It can’t be an inadvertent mistake when you do it four times. One time, maybe it’s an inadvertent mistake, but … four times?” Ratcliffe said. “Not to mention, of course … his admission that anyone that would do this would be irresponsible. … In legal terms … that’s essentially an admission of gross negligence, which is the legal standard.”
“So, all of that from a legal standpoint, my concern as the former DNI is the national security standpoint, the fact that classified documents were kept at a house where a drug addict who has colleagues from communist China and unsavory oligarchs from Ukraine would have access to that,” he continued. “What could possibly go wrong? I think, again, it gets worse every day for President Biden with regard to this issue.”
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Ratcliffe noted that there’s a double standard as it pertains to the treatment of former President Donald Trump and Biden regarding the possession of classified material.
“Looking at the disparity in the treatment between President Biden and former President Trump … it’s remarkable,” Ratcliffe said. “And … you want to talk about dirty little secrets … I think that what we saw was an unprecedented raid of the former president (Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida on Aug. 8) as a way of targeting a political opponent. I think that was intended to lead to an unprecedented prosecution that is now here to hit a roadblock, if you will, named Joe Biden.”
“I don’t think that the Biden Department of Justice ever thought they’d be sitting around saying, ‘Well, how are we possibly going to prosecute former President Trump for conduct that President Biden has so clearly committed at a level that is so more egregious and with such a greater frequency?’ And I think that’s why they are in the mess that they are,” he continued.
Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, is demanding access to Biden’s visitor logs.
“Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log,” Comer wrote to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. “As Chief of Staff, you are head of the Executive Office of the President and bear responsibility to be transparent with the American people on these important issues related to the White House’s handling of this matter.”
Comer added: “President Biden has spent a large amount of time at his Delaware residence since assuming office. Americans deserve to know who President Biden is meeting with, especially since we know that he routinely met with Hunter’s business associates during his time as vice president. The Biden Administration must provide transparency to the American people.”
South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace also demanded answers from Biden over his Delaware visits, arguing that everyone who comes “into close proximity with the President, in an official or personal capacity, is screened by the Secret Service” and that their record of coming close to the president “exists somewhere.”
