Major Classified Material Found in Biden's Private Office, But CNN Still Plays Damage Control
After spending months attacking former President Donald Trump for having classified documents in his possession, CNN was singing a different tune after it was revealed that Joe Biden also had classified documents in his possession.
Instead of condemning the president, as it did Trump, the liberal network launched a defense of the Democrat on social media.
CBS News and other outlets reported Monday that a cache of documents from the time when Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president was found in the Washington offices of his Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
Worse, nobody mentioned this situation until this month even though everyone inside knew about it since the week before the 2022 general election.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, said in a statement that the documents were found Nov. 2 in a “locked closet” in the office.
While Sauber said the Department of Justice and the National Archives were looking into the circumstances surrounding the documents, it seems as though they were illegally transferred to Biden’s possession.
The situation is very similar to the one over which the media went wild attacking Trump in August after the DOJ sent the FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Instead of having great inquests, FBI raids and congressional committee investigations, as in the Trump case, with Biden’s apparent violation of federal security laws, there was merely a quiet investigation under Attorney General Merrick Garland. And it was all kept under wraps for more than two months.
Sauber said the White House was cooperating with the DOJ and the National Archives.
Statement from White House Counsel’s Office on cooperation with the National Archives: pic.twitter.com/Wu55efv1DE
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) January 9, 2023
According to CNN, Garland has received a “preliminary report” on the nature and content of the documents dated between 2013 and 2016.
In a follow-up report on Tuesday, it said some of the documents found in Biden’s possession include “US intelligence memos and briefing materials that covered topics including Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.”
Experts say that as vice president, Joe Biden had limited authority to declassify documents, especially if they were documents he had previously marked as classified. But it is not clear whether a vice president has the power to declassify just any document in emulation of the president’s well-known authority to do so.
We also have strong evidence that Joe Biden himself feels that taking official records out of the hands of federal authorities is a moral outrage. That is, after all, how he reacted during last year’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
“How that could possibly happen? How one — anyone could be that irresponsible?” he railed about Trump in a “60 Minutes” interview in September after the raid to recover presidential documents made the news.
Biden on classified material at Mar-a-Lago: “How [could] anyone … be that irresponsible?” pic.twitter.com/IcEePiXJ2y
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 9, 2023
But even as Biden was attacking Trump, he also had classified records in his possession.
Naturally, liberal news outlets immediately tried to lay cover for the Democratic president.
CNN went so far as to post an infographic on social media contrasting the Biden situation with that of Trump.
For the Biden side of the argument, it played down the situation, saying he had “10 documents,” only “some” were top secret, his operatives were “cooperating” and his attorneys found the documents and alerted the National Archives.
The implication seemed to be that since Biden had only 10 little old documents illegally in his possession, that was OK.
For the Trump side of its graphic, CNN was much more accusatory: “At least 325 total documents,” “60 top secret,” “Under investigation for obstruction” and “National Archives first reached out to Trump lawyers.”
There are clear distinctions between the two classified documents cases involving President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump https://t.co/fCjS88bCr4 pic.twitter.com/xEhkJHtt9G
— CNN (@CNN) January 10, 2023
Some of this is misleading, especially that last item: It was the National Archives that released and helped pack the documents Trump had, and the FBI and the National Archives both knew he had the documents from the beginning. In fact, the FBI had visited Trump and looked at the documents at least two months before the raid.
This is a real picture of what CNN is honestly running in this article.
Complete and total cover for the Biden family pic.twitter.com/AurAnkUTH3
— skadefron (@skadefron) January 10, 2023
It was also determined that Trump did not have the documents for any nefarious purpose and most likely was intending to eventually use them to write a memoir.
In addition, there were no “nuclear weapons” secrets in the documents in Trump’s possession, despite the media’s breathless claims that some would be found there and that he was “selling secrets” to our enemies.
The whole story of Biden’s illegal possession of presidential records raises so many questions. Why was the issue treated so quietly compared with how the same officials treated Trump? Why was there no FBI raid on Biden? Why did the media and the DOJ both keep this story quiet for months? Why weren’t we told about this when it was known before the recent election? Why did the media attack Trump when he had the full power as president to declassify documents but defend Biden, whose power as vice president to declassify documents is murky?
The “clear distinction” is that POTUS has (absolute) authority to declassify and VPOTUS does not.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) January 10, 2023
The government’s and media’s hypocrisy in this story is stark.
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