BIDEN CLAIMS 'NO REGRETS', BUT CLASSIFIED PAPERS CASE COULD COME BACK TO BITE HIM
While there are major differences between the president and Trump’s cases, the controversy arrives at a delicate time for Biden. At the invitation of Joe Biden’s legal team, federal investigators carried out an extraordinary 13-hour search of the president’s Delaware residence, scouring every room of the house from the bedrooms to the bathrooms. It was a remarkable gesture meant to demonstrate the president’s full cooperation with the investigation. But it also led to the discovery of half a dozen items with classified markings, the latest in a series of findings that have put Biden and his presidency on the defensive as he prepares to seek a second term. The disclosures have already led the justice department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Biden’s retention of classified documents. They have also emboldened a hostile Republican House majority eager to wield its newly acquired subpoena power, and alarmed some Democrats who just weeks ago were praising Biden’s political strength following their unexpectedly strong midterm performance..
Biden should be “embarrassed by the situation”, the Illinois senator Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said during a Sunday appearance on CNN. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, also weighed in on CBS’s Face the Nation, asking: “How many documents are we talking about? Dozens? A handful or hundreds? How serious are they? Why were they taken? Did anyone have access to them? And then, is the president being cooperative?” Biden and his team have repeatedly stated that they cooperating fully with authorities, a strategy the White House said was underscored by the unprecedented offer to search a sitting president’s home. But the slow trickle of revelations, and the White House’s piecemeal public disclosures, have only further intensified the political furor surrounding the matter. Dogged by questions at every appearance, Biden has occasionally flashed impatience. “I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” he told reporters, adding: “There’s no ‘there’ there.”
The remark drew a rebuke from Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat who is not shy about criticizing the White House. In a separate interview, Manchin took issue with Biden’s statement that he has “no regrets” about the decision not to inform the public about the initial discovery of documents in November. “I think he should have a lot of regrets,” the senator said. Despite their dismay, the Democrats also defended the president’s cooperative approach and contrasted it with Donald Trump, who is also facing a special counsel for his mishandling of government documents. We will keep bringing you updates on this Biden's Classified documents reports as it unfolds.
