OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An MSNBC correspondent did not toe the company line after revelations of two sets of classified documents were mishandled by President Joe Biden stemming from the time right after he was vice president to former President Obama.
“Lawyers found them, as soon as they found them, the White House is saying, they turned them over to the National Archives which then got the Justice Department involved,” Justice and Intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian said.
“Attorney General Merrick Garland at some point referred this matter to the U.S. attorney in Chicago who is one of two Trump holdovers in the administration. In other words, he was appointed by Donald Trump and they did that on purpose to create an appearance of independence here and that U.S. Attorney going to decide whether there needs to be a criminal investigation and if there is, we can presume that Merrick Garland would appoint a special counsel, but I think we’re a long way from that because from the White House account, this was inadvertent and they self-reported and they acted immediately,” he added.
“Nonetheless there are some significant concerns here, A) how did these classified documents get to a place they shouldn’t have been and B) why did the White House sit on this for so long? They knew six days before the November midterm. Joe Biden knew, his aides knew, yet they did not tell the public until this leaked to the news media,” he said.
WATCH:
On Thursday, President Biden answered a reporter’s question on Thursday on newly discovered classified documents found in his Wilmington, Delaware, garage — and his answer is a doozy.
Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy nailed the president over his careless handling of classified documents.
“Classified materials next to your Corvette?! What were you thinking?” he said.
“My Corvette’s in a locked garage so it’s not like it’s sitting on the street,” the president said.
“So the material was in a locked garage?” the reporter said.
“Yes— as well as my Corvette,” the president said.
“As I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously,” he said. “I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review. As part of that process, my lawyers reviewed other places where documents of — from my time as vice president were stored, and they finished the review last night. They discovered a small number of documents with classified markings in storage areas, in file cabinets in my home and my personal library.”
DOOCY: "Classified materials next to your Corvette?! What were you thinking?"
BIDEN: "My Corvette's in a locked garage so it's not like it's sitting on the street."
DOOCY: "So the material was in a locked garage?"
BIDEN: "Yes— as well as my Corvette."
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 12, 2023
But Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy said Congress has to investigate this information.
“They knew this has happened to President Biden before the election, but they kept it secret from the American public?” he said. “He goes on ’60 Minutes,’ criticizes President Trump, even knowing what he was done and he wasn’t president at the time?”
On Thursday the White House confirmed that the reported second set of classified documents that were found were discovered in the president’s garage, Axios reported.
“During the review, the lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden Administration records with classified markings,” the president’s special counsel Richard Sauber said.
“All but one of these documents were found in storage space in the President’s Wilmington residence garage,” he said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tore into Democrats this week following news of President Joe Biden having classified documents at a private office in Washington, D.C., that he used on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania.
During an appearance on Fox News, McCarthy spoke about the latest development and what Republicans are planning to do now that they control the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Let me ask you this question. What did you make of this story about Joe Biden and top secret classified information, especially after what he said about President Trump, especially after the raid at Mar-a-Lago, especially after Hillary Clinton? Remember, the July 2016 press conference. Jim Comey said no reasonable prosecutor would ever prosecute way more top secret classified information, never mind the deleted e-mails with BleachBit and the destroyed devices with hammers and the removal of SIM cards. What does that mean now, in terms of all those Democrats that wanted Donald Trump arrested almost immediately?” Hannity asked.
“They have to eat their words, but the hypocrisy. Think about this. They have gotten away with so much for so long. This was discovered before the last election, just like the laptop. They think they can lie to the American public. They think they can control the media, control companies to shut down if one media company writes about it. They think they’re above the law. Why weren’t they raided? Why didn’t they have the FBI coming in? Why didn’t he on “60 Minutes” say, well, I understand that because I bet I have the same problem?” McCarthy asked.
