So does the Biden administration, it appears. That’s why they’re acknowledging these acts of (at the very least) clerical misconduct in failing to handle classified documents correctly, and are complying with proper protocols for the mishandled documents and cooperating with investigation into the incidents.
The point is that this response is very different from Trump’s response when notified that he was in possession of mishandled classified documents. I have no desire to “protect yer guy”, not Biden nor any other member of his administration, from any duly determined consequences that are coming to him/them as a result of these breaches of document confidentiality.
But I’m also not going to fall for the right-wing mythmaking that the Trump and Biden classified-document scandals are essentially equivalent. Or that rejecting claims of their equivalence automatically makes a Democrat a hypocrite who’s downplaying the Biden scandal to “protect yer guy”.
Well, if it’s any consolation, they appear to have just lightly scratched you. Inflamed bothsidesism is not an uncommon temporary reaction to GOP-scratch fever, and I’m sure you’ll be right as rain again in no time.
I think the further any investigation into Biden goes on this issue, the more obvious it is going to become that the current classified document system in the US is a lot leakier than anyone thought it was. So the question for various Senators, Congresspeople and bureaucrats (former and current) is how many rocks do we want to turn over here? Because it seems as though the case could be made to search every house of every person who has ever had access to anything. If you have to clean out an office real quick you aren’t going to sort through ever single paper to see if there’s one in there that shouldn’t be. You’re going to stuff it all into Banker’s Boxes and hope for the best. So who should be looked into next?
It seems to me that the real fruit of this investigation is the extent to which classified materials are handled casually, with no apparent system in place to track who has what and how/when documents should be returned. That’s inexcusable. The failure originates with the classifying agencies.
In Biden’s case, the documents weren’t even missed until his own team pointed out that they had them and wanted to return them.
I do also think it’s important to note that the most recent finds in Biden’s case are as much as 10 years old. They are from his time as VP and as a Senator. Much more stale than the information Trump took, simply by operation of time passing.
I will continue to point out the difference between willful conduct v. inadvertence.
Some of the documents date back to his time in the Senate. If true, that means he’s been mishandling classified documents for decades. It’s hard to claim inadvertence at this point.
Yes, let’s do that then. Have a standing policy that all Presidents and VP’s clean out their papers at the end of their term. Then expand it to members of the Intelligence Committee, and so on.
it is my understanding that the documents in biden’s office/house, were in sealed boxes. the ones from the office were in a box of items related to beau biden, and they were in a sealed envelope marked personal. the box had been undisturbed since its packing.
the ones in the garage were found in sealed boxes that had been undisturbed since its packing.
the ones found in the last 2 searches do not have any particulars in the reporting.
the items found at mar a largo were scattered throughout the building, the boxes had been opened and some of contents were loose in a desk.
My guess is that they don’t want to be saying the same things that Trump said in January 2022 when he turned over the first batch of documents from Mar-A-Lago. The messaging was essentially that this is a normal, routine thing and it’s nothing to make a big deal about.
Interestingly enough, the mainstream coverage was very mild and gave credence to that explanation. Even the most partisan outlets didn’t make anywhere near as much of a fuss as conservative media is making now about Biden.
The thing is, having some documents probably isn’t all that big a deal. “Classified” covers a pretty large range of documents, from papers that have identifying information for individuals (like Social Security numbers) up to “Stuff about the aliens hidden at Area 51”. When you consider how many documents the President or Vice President looks at over the course of a term, and multiply that by the number of documents a staffer might have on hand just in case the President might need it, it’s not surprising that a few got misfiled and forgotten. And such documents will often follow the President around. Even if he’s “on vacation”, he’s still on call at a moment’s notice, and so there will almost always be a few classified documents near them, no matter where they are.
My problem with Trump vs. Biden, and now Pence, and I’ll predict anyone new we hear about in the next little while, is how he reacted to people finding out that these documents were laying about. Denying they existed, refusing to turn them over, claiming they were “secretly” declassified, projecting “everyone does it!”, claiming they belong to him, saying everyone is out to get him, all that crap. That’s what the problem is. His reaction suggests that at least some of the documents he had were not kept by accident. His reaction suggests a guilty mind, and that needs to be investigated.
When you find out that you accidentally have classified documents in your possession, you contact the relevant authorities, turn over the documents, and do whatever they ask you to do to investigate this incident. Period. Anything less than that is unacceptable.
Just like you, I routinely go through any documents from jobs that I had 12 years ago. I don’t know why Biden doesn’t.
No, wait, I meant to say that I never look through files and docs from previous gigs. I think I’ll care about them, and then I get a new job and no longer care. I also have credit care bills and tax returns from a decade or more ago that I also don’t go through.
The point is not that it’s OK to have classified documents. The point is that, if those classified docs were mixed up in his other stuff, packed away in boxes, and put in his office or garage, that doesn’t change the inadvertent nature of things.
