Angry Biden Grasps for His Script When Reporter Asks About Classified Documents Scandal: 'There's No There There'
Jabberwocky is the preferred defense of President Joe Biden. When the questions get tough, he reverts to an adolescent display of word scramble. The odd thing is that some of Biden’s jabberwocky is scripted.
At a news conference in California on Thursday, the president was asked a question about his mishandling of classified documents.
He stumbled his way through his response, making no effort to disguise the fact that he was reading from a prepared statement. “I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets,” Biden said.
Looking up from the script, he ended with, “There’s no there there.” He had that one memorized.
NEW: “There’s no there there,” President Biden says in response to a question on the classified documents found at his home and former office, while delivering remarks in California.
“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets.” https://t.co/iGTyH4atBx pic.twitter.com/0C0AWDkbfO
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 20, 2023
The question about the classified documents “bugged” Biden. He doesn’t like to be asked about the unpleasantries of his presidency, even when he has scripted answers in hand.
“What quite frankly bugs me,” Biden said, “is that we have a serious problem here we’re talking about. We’re talking about what’s going on, and the American people don’t quite understand why you don’t ask me questions about that.”
So the mishandling of classified documents is not a serious problem?
The Justice Department and the FBI “routinely” prosecute high-level officials for the misuse of classified documents, according to VOA. As vice president, Biden had only limited power to declassify documents (see the clarification note at the bottom of the page). He said Thursday that the ones in question were “misfiled.”
For example, in 2013, retired Lt. Col. Benjamin Pierce Bishop was arrested and charged with unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. He was also accused of sharing that information with a “27-year-old Chinese woman with whom he had a relationship,” VOA reported.
Bishop pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
In another example, retired Gen. David Petraeus (remember him?), a former CIA chief, pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and given a $100,000 fine.
Former national security advisor Sandy Berger pleaded guilty to removing classified documents from the National Archives and Records Administration. He lost his security clearance for three years and was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.
And the list goes on.
The fact that some of the classified documents in question were found at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., is highly suspect, as the university has gotten millions of dollars in donations from unnamed contributors in China since the Penn Biden Center’s opening.
Other documents were found in Biden’s garage at his Delaware residence. Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked about those documents at a news conference. “Classified material next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?”
Biden’s response? “My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street.”
Peter Doocy on a new batch of classified documents found in Biden’s garage: “Classified material next to your Corvette! What were you thinking?”
Biden responds: “My Corvette is in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street” pic.twitter.com/8c8bgAEzip
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 12, 2023
The Delaware residence has a history of security issues. Now photos have come to light of Hunter Biden — who has done extensive business with China — in the Corvette at the site of the classified documents.
So yes, we do have a serious problem, Mr. President. And it may very well turn out to be you.
CLARIFICATION, Jan. 24, 2023: The original version of this story stated that during his time as vice president, President Joe Biden lacked the authority to declassify documents. In fact, an executive order issued in December 2009 by then-President Barack Obama extended the authority to classify documents to the vice president. The same order gave the vice president the authority to declassify documents if they were classified by the vice president in the first place.
Because the documents involved in the Biden case have not been publicly described, it’s not known whether Biden’s power to declassify their contents would apply.
This post has been edited to reflect that.
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