The discovery of classified documents at President Joe Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, and office in Washington, D.C., continues to reverberate on Wednesday.
Newly empowered Republicans are pushing forward with their own congressional probe of Biden’s retention of documents. The White House is blasting them for “faking outrage,” while declining to answer many questions, even after more documents were discovered and Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate.
Here’s what’s happening:
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Kevin McCarthy: double standard on Biden and Trump
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Republican investigators are looking into both Biden’s and Trump’s handling of classified documents with a goal of ensuring fair treatment and handling of both cases.
He excoriated Democrats for criticizing former President Donald Trump for retaining classified documents at his Florida home, when it turns out Biden also had some.
“We’ve had all the Democrats attacking — they even have a special counsel, prosecutor, to go after President Trump about this,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday. “Before the election they found out that President Biden had these documents… At no time did he get raided by the FBI.”
In November, Garland appointed former federal prosecutor Jack Smith special counsel to oversee the Trump document investigation. Federal agents located the documents while executing a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August.
The first Biden documents were discovered at a Washington office by the president’s personal lawyers before the election in November – and more than two weeks before Garland announced the appointment of Smith. But it wasn’t until the discovery became public and more Biden documents were found that Garland appointed a different special counsel, Robert Hur, to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents.
— Donovan Slack
White House blasts Republicans for “faking outrage” on classified documents
The White House accused congressional Republicans of “political theater” and “rampant hypocrisy” for investigating how classified documents ended up in President Joe Biden’s home and former personal office.
“They’re faking outrage even though they defended the former president’s actions,” White House counsel spokesperson Ian Sams said Tuesday, referring to Donald Trump storing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Sams also slammed GOP lawmakers for claiming to care about disclosure and transparency “at the same time, for example, that they will not ask their speaker to release the secret deals that he made in order to get support from the far right, extreme MAGA members of his caucus for speaker.”
— Michael Collins
How the GOP got here:The rise of ultra conservatives from Barry Goldwater to Donald Trump
Karine Jean-Pierre declines to answer questions
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly declined to answer questions about the Biden document discoveries Tuesday, saying she wanted to allow the Department of Justice to continue its probe without interference.
She referred inquiries to Ian Sams, the White House counsel spokesperson, and to the Justice Department and special prosecutor.
“I’m just not going to go down any rabbit hole here,” she said. “I’m going to be very consistent. I’m going to be very prudent. And, again, I’ve been asked, just asked that question. I’ve answered it. It’s been noted, the question, and we’re just going to move on.”
— Donovan Slack